The West Chop Lighthouse

was the Island's last manned

light. The lighthouse was

built in 1817, and in 1838

the wooden building was

replaced by the present

brick structure. It was

moved back from the

edge of the 60-foot-high

bluff in 1848 and againin 1891.

In recent times, the small caretaker's cottage at its foot has been occupied by Coast Guard personnel. Vineyard Haven's harbor has been recognized as a port of protection since 1645, and for 300 years it was one of the most important ports on the Atlantic coast. Originally called "Holmes Hole," it acquired the name Vineyard Haven in 1871.

 

The East Chop Lighthouse

in Oak Bluffs stands on the

site of one of the first

telegraph signals, set up in

1828. Signals from Nantucket

were received here and

relayed on to Woods Hole,

Bonnedale, South Plymouth,

Duxbury, Marshfield, and

Dorchester Heights. A series of raised and lowered arms and flags conveyed news about cargos of ships arriving at Nantucket. The first ship to be announced in this way was The Mercury, bringing in treasures from Sumatra. Jonathan Grout, Jr. set up the system but operated it only six years. In the mid-1800s, Captain Silas Daggett built a privately owned lighthouse on East Chop. It was funded by local merchants who sailed in the area and by some of the ships passing through. Many, however, refused to pay a fee after they arrived safely in port and this, too, lasted only six years.

 

In 1875, the U.S. government bought the lighthouse and its land for $6,000 and the present cast-iron structure was built on the cliff 79 feet above the sea. Until 1988, when it was painted white, the East Chop Light was fondly called the Chocolate Lighthouse, for its brown-red color.

 

These lighthouses were beacons in history as well as in navigation, for Vineyard Sound and Nantucket Sound once saw more ships sail through them than any other place in the world except the English Channel. The opening of the Cape Cod Canal in 1914, as well as local weather conditions, changed this.

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The original Edgartown

Lighthouse was built in 1828,

on a small man-made island

in the Edgartown harbor. An

Act of Congress allocated

money to build it 1/4 mile

from shore. Later, $5,500

was appropriated to complete

the project and Seth Vincent

was paid $80 for a right of way to the tower. For the first year, the only way to get to the light was by boat, but another $2,500 was allocated to build a foot bridge.

 

The first structure was replaced in 1938 by one that was rafted to the Vineyard from Ipswich. Although the new light was placed on the original site, sand had filled in the area between the island and the mainland, and the current Edgartown Lighthouse stands on shore.

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The Island sits in treacherous seas, with one tide coming in from Boston, affecting the south side of the Vineyard, and another from Rhode Island, affecting the north shore. There are reefs, rocks, and shoals, and the infamous Devil's Bridge off Aquinnah, which wrecked the steamship The City of Columbus on January 18, 1884, with the loss of 120 crew and passengers in the icy waters.