Linda’s Monday Morning Monthly Moaning’s:
The many lighthouse keepers would learn to live with danger every day.
The building of Spectacle Reef light was considered on of the greatest engineering feats of its time in 1874. It would take 200 men, fair years to complete this light. The tower was 80 feet tall and had a visibility of 11 miles out into the lake.
Tragedy struck the Spectacle Reef Lighthouse in April 1883 when the head keeper William A Marshall departed in a boat for the lighthouse to open it for the season. In the Straits of Mackinac the lighthouses would close when the shipping stopped because of the ‘Winds of November’ season. With William, was his son James Marshall, who was the second acting assistant keeper; Williams brother Walter Marshall, the newly appointed third assistant keeper, and Edward Chambers, the first assistant keeper. Along for the ride were friends of James Marshall, 16-year-old Joseph Cardran and his brother, 13-year-old Alfred Cardran.
It was not known if there were two boats or just one for thi group of men. At some point the boat capsized when a gust of wind struck as the men were adjusting the sails, throwing throwing all of them into the icy water.
The Cardran brothers, being young and excellent swimmers assisted William and Walter, who could not swim, to safety with much difficulty. Joseph Cardran dove into the water once again and rescued Edward Chambers, but James Marshall would never be found and believed to be drowned.
Unfortunately, they had to petition Congress for reimbursement for all their person effects that had been lost. When Joseph Cardran turned 18, he joined the US Lighthouse Service as a third assistant keeper but resigned after seven months. Five months later in 1889, Alfred Cardran also joined the Service as a third assistant keeper at Spectacle Reef, but he also eventually resigned. The isolation of some of the reef lights would be more than some could possibly handle. During my research I would find many unhappy stories of the dedicated light keepers and how hard they worked, even during the most trying and isolated times.
A publication date for ‘Lighthouse and Lifesaving on the Great Lakes is Monday June 13, 2022.
On that ‘wee note’ till next month, May 2, 2022
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Linda Osborne Cynowa 