The steamers plying between Boston and the northern ports make use of the Broad Sound channels, and a light and fog-signal at this point are particularly desirable, because of the narrow and devious passages."
Deer Island Lighthouse was a "sparkplug" type light, similar to Butler Flats in New Bedford, Plum Beach in Rhode Island and many others along the coast. It was built for about $50,000 in 1890.
According to the original construction contract, Deer Island Lighthouse consisted of a "circular foundation-pier, supporting a three-story dwelling, a veranda with boat-davits, a circular parapet, and an octagonal lantern." The foundation consisted of a cast-iron cylinder sunk four feet into the bottom of the harbor. The lower portion of the cylinder was filled with concrete and contained the water cisterns. The upper part of the foundation was lined with brick and served as a cellar. An iron spiral stairway led from the cellar to each floor of the structure.
Deer Island Light was painted a kind of chocolate brown. Its fixed white light changed to a two-second red flash every 30 seconds.
In the 1890s the assistant keeper was Frank Sibley, who went on to be a war correspondent for the Boston Globe. Sibley struck up a romance with Florence Lydon, daughter of the keeper of Long Island Head Light, directly across the harbor, and the two were married in 1893.
The most tragic incident in Deer Island Light's history took place in 1916. Keeper Joseph McCabe left the lighthouse to meet his fiancee on Deer Island, where they filled out wedding invitations together. When he was ready to return to the lighthouse, McCabe found that ice around the island had trapped his boat, so he decided to walk across the sandbar.
Nearing the island, McCabe jumped forward to step on a large rock. He lost his footing and disappeared into the ocean. Witnesses rushed to the scene in a dory, but they arrived to find McCabe had drowned in the icy waves.
Merrill King was keeper on December 27, 1930, when a ferocious winter gale struck. Keeper King filled every crack in the walls with cotton to keep the lighthouse from flooding. He later reported that the lighthouse shook during the storm as wave after wave smashed against it.
Judson Small, one of three lighthouse keeping brothers, was an assistant keeper at Deer Island Light in the 1920s. His brother, Tom, who was keeper at the Narrows ("Bug") Light when it burned down in 1929, became keeper at Deer Island in 1931.
Fred Bohm became keeper after leaving the Spectacle Island Range Lights across the harbor. During the first year and a half of World War II, Keeper Bohm not only had to tend the light, but he also was required to patrol the area watching for German submarines.
Deer Island light remained in service until it was removed in 1982 and replaced by a fiberglass light tower.
