Lighthouse of the Week, January 16-22, 2022: White Island, New Hampshire, USA

 

Like me, if you are volcanologically-minded, when you first here the words "White Island", you may naturally think of the moderately active, and occasionally a little more (as a recent tragedy attests), volcanic island off the coast of New Zealand. 

But this White Island is not that White Island.  This White Island is off the coast of New Hampshire, where there's a group of islands named Isles of Shoals.  So when you see White Island on the map, you'll also see many of those other isles, as seen here.  Zoom in closer to see the Isles themselves.

So, because these are indeed hazardous to navigation, there has been a lighthouse at this location for quite a long time.  I have two links from which I will derive information about it:

White Island Lighthouse (Isles of Shoals Lighthouse) from New England Lighthouses: A Virtual Guide.

Basic info from there:

Station established: 1821
Present lighthouse built: 1859
Automated: 1986

Construction material: Brick with cast iron lantern Other buildings still standing: keeper's house, covered walkway, two outbuildings

Height of tower: 58 feet
Height of focal plane: 82 feet

Optic: Second-order Fresnel (1855); DCB-224 (1986); VRB-25 (circa 2000); VLB-44 (2008)

That truly is the basics. 

Here's some illustrative detail from Lighthouse Friends:

Isles of Shoals (White Island) Lighthouse

"Exposed to the full fury of the Atlantic, the original stone lighthouse began deteriorating quickly, and it was covered in wood and shingled in an attempt to protect the stone exterior. This measure bought some time, but a replacement brick tower was built in 1859. A second-order Fresnel lens, which produced a flashing red and white light visible for fifteen miles, was housed atop the new tower. An assistant keeper was assigned to the station at this time."

So, now that we've seen the info, we can see the pictures (and a short video).  One of the pictures is a painting by Alfred Thompson Bricher, and one is a historic black-and-white photo.