Safe Boating

Bay’s many points of interest rich with history

By Roz Butziger
Posted 11/25/15

Take some time to get familiar with the bay this winter and you will have stories to tell your friends and family as you take them boating next summer. Let’s look at some places you may cruise by …

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Safe Boating

Bay’s many points of interest rich with history

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Take some time to get familiar with the bay this winter and you will have stories to tell your friends and family as you take them boating next summer. Let’s look at some places you may cruise by and explore a little history.

If you head south down the West Passage you will pass Poplar Point Lighthouse marking the entrance to Wickford Harbor. In Revolutionary War times this was the location of a large cannon placed there to protect Wickford, then called Updike’s New Town. The lighthouse was built in 1831 as an integral lighthouse, with the keeper’s house attached. Since it was not insulated, this made for a cold dwelling. The keeper’s annual salary was $350. In 1882 the lighthouse was abandoned, and since then has had many improvements and additions, and is now for sale for $6.5 million.

Continuing south, you come upon Fox Island. Warwick’s founding fathers, Samuel Gorton and Randall Holden, bought the island from the Native Americans living in the area in 1659.  Two hundred years later it was occupied by Capt. Hammond, an itinerant preacher who rowed in to the mainland to conduct services. In one of his visits he met Rhoda Baker and soon asked her to marry him. When she refused, he changed the name of his boat to “Rhoda Wouldn’t”.  The present house was being constructed in 1938 when the hurricane struck, marooning two builders there. As the tidal wave struck, water rose to 4 feet over the island and they climbed up to the top story of the house, dragging a dinghy behind them. The water soon receded and they were saved. In the 1980’s Fox Island was owned by a dentist whose patients would travel out to picnic and swim whenever they had an appointment for dental work. It is now owned by a company that gets power from a wind generator.

Next on the trip south is the little lighthouse right before the Jamestown Bridge. This is the lighthouse you have seen on many Rhode Island license plates. In 1892 the schooner Pequot was wrecked on Plum Beach Shoal in the fog, one of many casualties. A few years later Plum Beach Light was erected. About 40 years later Keeper Ganze and his assistant Babcock were trapped in the structure as the seas became treacherous on September 21, 1938, the day of the hurricane. The water rose higher and higher as they climbed up the tower and finally at the top they lashed themselves to the machinery. The next day they were rescued. The Jamestown Bridge was built in 1940 and in 1941 the lighthouse was abandoned. It fell into disrepair until in recent years the Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse refurbished it.

Try locating these landmarks on your chart and plan a sightseeing trip.

Trivia Question: How big is Narragansett Bay? For the answer and more information, go to www.northstarflotilla.com.

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