A Triumph of Design and Construction
Race Rock Light was first lit on New Year's Day, 1879, and has successfully warned mariners of imminent danger ever since. That the sturdy stone structure has withstood the forces of nature for 145 years (as of 2023) while fulfilling its purpose is a tribute to the standards and skill of the two larger-than-life individuals who built it: civil engineer Francis Hopkinson Smith and marine diver Thomas Albertson Scott.
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F. Hopkinson Smith, 1838-1915, had worked on harbor projects in New York City and Connecticut, and not long after Race Rock Light was built he oversaw the construction of Richard Morris Hunt’s pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, completed in 1884. He was later known nationally as the author of popular novels (two of them best-sellers) and an artist whose paintings and sketches garnered several awards.
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T. A. Scott was born in 1830 -- just two years before Robert Mills drew the plans for New London's Custom House -- and became a skilled and fearless diver who had worked on the footings of the Brooklyn Bridge towers not long before Smith hired him as foreman of the Race Rock Light construction team.
When the lighthouse was finished in 1878, Scott turned his full attention to the New London marine salvage and construction company that made him famous. The biographical sketch below is from the McGuire Library's copy of Picturesque New London and Environs (New London, 1901).
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Capt. Scott listed the kinds of salvage and construction work performed by his company in an advertisement that ran for several years on the back cover of the New England Almanac and Farmers' Friend.
Editor's Note: In 1922 the firm, by then in the hands of T.A. Scott Jr., merged with the Merritt-Chapman marine salvage business to form Merritt-Chapman & Scott, a nationally prominent salvage and construction company.
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Smith greatly admired the master diver without whose daring and skill Race Rock Light would not have become a desperately needed aid to navigation in 1878. In the pages of Captain Thomas A. Scott, Master Diver** he describes the challenge of building a foundation in the powerful currents of The Race:
"The problem was the building of a lighthouse exposed to the full rake of the Atlantic, situated eight miles from a harbor, two miles from any shore, my first work of any magnitude, in a "race" that ran six miles an hour. The success of work of this kind does not always depend on the skill of the engineer, but upon the nerve, pluck and loyalty of the men who handle the material." (pp. 10-11)
"The succeeding years of work were like those always attending work of this class; there were storms...with high surf, so that the Rock could not be reached, and there were setbacks...such as loss of shanties, platforms, and every movable fixture. But the Captain's work was over, and one of the lasting monuments of his skill and loyalty complete in all its details." (pp. 22-23)
**Boston, American Unitarian Association, 1908
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An early photograph of Race Rock Light Station, as it was officially known, taken about 30 years after it was finished, shows its three components: the rocks of the artificial island around the base, the masonry base and landing, and the Gothic Revival keepers house and light tower.
From Lightships and Lighthouses, by Frederick A. Talbot. London, William Heineman, 1913
It took six years to create the foundation, but only nine months to build the lighthouse itself. Progress was delayed at the outset because Smith and Scott had been given incorrect information about the depth and contours of the sea bottom. Once under way again, tons of riprap were relocated to the ledge, arranged in a large circle within which successive circular layers of concrete were laid, one by one, until they reached the surface, providing a solid, level bed for the masonry pedestal.
The lighthouse on its cut stone pedestal was finished in December, 1878, and the lantern lit for the first time on January 1, 1879. Construction methods for lighthouses were changing, using more brick and iron, and Race Rock was probably the last stone lighthouse built in the United States.
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Below: An undated aerial photograph suggests that work is under way to build up the riprap surrounding the base. A derrick can be seen at left, and the quantity of riprap is considerably less than in most other photographs. Perhaps the tide was unusually high that day.
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A more recent photograph shows the amount and extent of protective riprap as well as details of the lighthouse, platform and landing.
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Seen from another angle, the horns of the fog siren, possibly the one installed in 1917, are mounted near the foot of the tower in this 1965 Coast Guard photograph. Other pieces of equipment crowd the narrow platform.
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Below: While there have been no shipwrecks or loss of life near Race Rock Light since it went into operation on January 1, 1879, the grounding of the S.S. Willboro in March, 1936, a mere stone's throw from the lighthouse, must have given pause to the keepers. The Willboro was on its way to New London's State Pier with a cargo of lumber. Tugs are struggling to pull her off while her engines run in full reverse.
An online exhibit of shipwrecks and groundings at Fishers Island may be viewed on the website of the Henry L. Ferguson Museum.
