Tarpaulin Cove Lighthouse
Open House 2009
Sunday, August 9th from noon to 4:00 PM
Contact CHS to request transportation or to offer to transport those without boats.
Under a twenty-five year license issued by the U.S. Coast Guard in 2001, the Cuttyhunk Historical Society is the caretaker for the Tarpaulin Cove Lighthouse site and structure. The lighthouse, which is a registered national historical site, is considered an excellent example from the great age of lighthouse design and construction in the late 19th century.
In the 19th century, Vineyard Sound is believed to have been the second busiest shipping passage in the world after the English Channel. It was also one of the most dangerous. Hundreds of vessels were drawn sideways onto the shoals as they sailed up and down the Sound. The complexity of the currents and the intensity of the commercial traffic led the young George Eldridge, Jr. to create charts in the 1870s showing the direction and speed of the tidal currents in Vineyard Sound. These charts he sold to captains entering the waters; from them grew The Eldridge Tide and Pilot Book that is published annually to this day. The lighthouses at Cuttyhunk, Tarpaulin Cove, Nobska Point, Gay Head, and West Chop were erected and manned around the clock to protect this shipping. Automated by the Coast Guard in 1941, the Tarpaulin Cove Light Station continues to serve as an active aid to navigation.
Close-up of the Tarpaulin Cove Lighthouse with Open House visitors (Chris Granger, 8/12/07)
Click on photo above for map showing location of lighthouse.
View of Martha's Vineyard from the Tarpaulin Cove Light (Chris Granger, 8/12/07)
Click here to read the CHS Monograph on the Tarpaulin Cove Lighthouse
(Revised Spring, 2003; intro by long-time Naushon summer resident Paul Elias).
For more on the island of Naushon, including Tarpaulin Cove, and Tarpaulin's connection to Navy hero John Paul Jones and to pirates Captain Thomas Pound and William "Captain" Kidd,
click below for the chapter from Cuttyhunk and the Elizabeth Islands entitled
"A Brief History of Naushon" by Alice Forbes Howland
.
For information on the entire book, please click below:
"Cuttyhunk and the Elizabeth Islands (Bosworth)"
To help the Society restore the lighthouse, please direct tax-deductible contributions to The Cuttyhunk Historical Society, 23 Tower Hill Road, Cuttyhunk, MA 02713, specifying "Lighthouse Fund".