Light Hearted

This episode features the audio from our live stream on October 7. The guest is Ben Ridings, the curator for Cape May MAC in New Jersey. The organization manages the Cape May Lighthouse and two other historic properties. The 1859 Cape May Lighthouse is at the southernmost point in the state of New Jersey, on the north side of the entrance to Delaware Bay. Today the lighthouse is a major tourist at...

This is an edited version of an interview first heard in May 2020. The guest is Richard Skidmore, who was the modern day keeper of Gay Head Lighthouse on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts for 31 years. The light station at Gay Head was the first on Martha’s Vineyard, beginning service in 1799. The light station at Gay Head was the first on Martha’s Vineyard, beginning service in 1799. The 1856 br...

This is the audio from a live stream on September 16, 2026. The guest is Lenore Skomal, author of an acclaimed book about the celebrated lighthouse heroine Ida Lewis. Lenore Skomal Ida Lewis began tending Lime Rock Light in Newport, Rhode Island, at the age of fifteen after her father, the keeper of the light, was disabled by a stroke. Ida was officially appointed to the job in 1879, and she remai...

This is the audio from the Light Hearted Live episode of September 9. The guest is the acclaimed maritime historian and author Eric Jay Dolin. Eric grew up near the beaches of New York and Connecticut, and from an early age he was fascinated by the ocean. He earned a masters degree in environmental management from Yale, then a Ph. D. in environmental policy and planning from MIT. Eric has written...

Ed Metcalf is from Winthrop, Massachusetts, on the north side of Boston Harbor. He served as a police officer in Winthrop, and he then worked for the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. He became the game warden on Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 1974, and he still lives there today. Born in 1933, his memories reach back to the late 1930s. Some of his visits to the harbor islands were guided by the p...

This is an edited version of an interview with Jem Finer that was first heard in June 2020. In an area of London known as the Docklands is a part of the waterfront known as the Trinity Buoy Wharf. On the wharf is London’s only lighthouse. The lighthouse at the Trinity Buoy Wharf was never used for navigation. Completed in 1866, it was used by Trinity House for the training of prospective lighthous...

Lake Sunapee covers more than 4,000 acres in west-central New Hampshire, adjacent to Mount Sunapee State Park. The lake contains 11 islands and three lighthouses, which were built in the late 1800s during the steamboat era on the lake. A number of large resort hotels and private estates lined the lake’s shores in that era. Today, the three lighthouses are maintained by the Lake Sunapee Prote...

This episode features edited audio from our “Light Hearted Live” episode of August 19. Our guest, Anastasia Makarova, is from Russia and now lives in Slovenia. She is a lighthouse tour guide, club founder, writer, lecturer, and magazine editor – among other things! She’s also a singer, songwriter, and guitarist who has recorded four albums. One of Anastasia’s current projects is...

This is an edited version of an interview that was first heard in May 2021. The guest is Kirby Eldridge, a former Coast Guard lighthouse keeper. Kirby was one of the two last keepers of Boon Island Light Station, which is about seven miles off the coast of southern Maine. Kirby and the other keeper at the time, Leo Berry, had to evacuate Boon Island during the devastating Blizzard of 1978, and the...

Boston Light Station in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, holds an honored place among America’s lighthouses. It was established in 1716 as the first light station on the continent. It’s also one of a small number of lighthouses to achieve designation as a National Historic Landmark. This past week, it was announced that the light station will be available to a suitable new steward under t...

Jazmina Barrera, a native of Mexico City, is an award-winning author. Her book On Lighthouses is equal parts personal memoir, literary history, and observations on lighthouses. The book was published in Spanish in 2017 and translated into English in 2020. “Barrera’s obsession is contagious. Her graceful sentences ensnare tidbits of history and tantalizing glimpses of her own life, accompanie...

Walter Sedovic has dedicated his career to sustainable preservation. With more than two dozen lighthouse projects in his portfolio, Walter is one of the foremost authorities on the analysis, preservation, and stewardship of our nation’s heritage lighthouses, their technology, and the significant environmental concerns related to their locations.  This is the audio from a livestream on J...

Millard Urquhart. a native of Jonesport, Maine, was born in 1899. After a couple of years working as a Coast Guard surfman at a local lifeboat station, Urquhart became the second assistant keeper at Ram Island Ledge Light in Cape Elizabeth in 1926. In the following year he moved to Seguin Island as a second assistant. He moved quickly up the ranks, becoming a first assistant in 1930 and then princ...

This is an edited interview first heard in May 2021, and the subject is Montauk Lighthouse on Long Island, New York. Located at the eastern tip of Long Island, Montauk is the oldest (1797) lighthouse in New York and the fourth oldest active lighthouse in the country. When the light station was automated and de-staffed in 1987, a museum opened in the keeper’s house, operated by the Montauk Historic...

Campobello Island is in southwestern New Brunswick, Canada, near the border with Maine. With trade, fishing, and shipbuilding flourishing on Campobello in the 1820s, it was decided that a lighthouse was needed. The lighthouse and the other station buildings were constructed in 1829 on a tiny island just offshore, accessible by land only at low tide. The 51-foot tower is one of the oldest surviving...

Knotbrook Taylor is an award-winning poet who is originally from England and is now living in Scotland. The Museum of Scottish Lighthouses commissioned him to write a book of Scottish lighthouse poems in 2010, and he was the poet in residence for a time at the museum.  His experimental photography has also received wide acclaim. In this live stream episode Knotbrook reads a number&#...

Two of the ten books Jim Claflin has written. Jim Claflin, who is based in Massachusetts, is a recognized authority on antiques of the U.S. Lighthouse Service, Life-Saving Service, Revenue Cutter Service and early Coast Guard. Jim has specialized in antiques of this kind since the early 1990s. He is the owner of Kenrick A Claflin & Son Nautical Antiques, which has been in business since 1956....

Richard Cummins This is part two of a two part interview with Richard Cummins, a native of Ireland who worked as a lighthouse keeper in that country for a decade. This is an edited version of a conversation first heard on the podcast in 2020. Richard spent time as a keeper at the very famous Fastnet Rock Lighthouse; at Hook Head, one of the oldest operating lighthouses in the world; and some other...

This is the audio from a live streaming episode on June 3, 2026. Seguin Light Station, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont Seguin Island Light Station is about two and a half miles off of the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine. The establishment of a light station on Seguin was approved by president George Washington in 1793, and the buildings were completed in 1796. The 53-foot stone tower that s...

Join host Jeremy D’Entremont and guest co-host Joy Tubby as they chat with Gerald Butler, a longtime Irish lighthouse keeper and author. This is the audio from a live stream on May 28. Click here to see the video of the live stream.

This is an edited version of a conversation that was first heard in December 2020. The guest is Richard Cummins, who was a keeper at Irish lighthouses for about a decade, ending in 1989. He spent time at the famous Fastnet Lighthouse; at Hook Head, one of the oldest operating lighthouses in the world, and others – more than 20 in all. This is part one of two parts. Part 2 will be in a future episo...

St. Johns River Lighthouse (Mayport Lighthouse Association) The St. Johns River Lighthouse is a decommissioned lighthouse located on the grounds of Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida. First lighted in 1859, it was decommissioned in 1929 and replaced with a lightship. The lightship in turn was replaced by the 1954 Art Deco style St. Johns Lighthouse, which is also on Naval Station Maypo...

Jonathon Gaare (Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society) Jonathon Gaare, executive director of the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society in New York, last joined us in December 2024. In this episode, Jonathon updates us on preservation projects at the lighthouse, the exciting events lined up for Fire Island Light Station’s 200th anniversary this year, and some exciting historical f...

Bill Merlin had a 34-year career in the Coast Guard. After graduating from the Coast Guard Academy in 1956, he served on Coast Guard cutters in the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Caribbean. He eventually served as the Twelfth District Chief of Operations and Chief of Staff in San Francisco. That’s where he met Wayne Wheeler, founder of the U.S. Lighthouse Society. Bill was instumental in the early...

This is the audio from a live stream on April 23, 2026. The video version can be seen on YouTube. Therese Woelfel’s grandfather, Charles A. Linsmeier, was a Lighthouse Service keeper at several stations on the Great Lakes from 1920 to 1953. Therese’s book “Our Guiding Light” tells the story of Linsmeier’s daughter Vivian, who was Therese’s mother. It also tells the story of...