Rhode Island’s Perilous Coast Southeast Light, Block Island (Part 1)

Reprinted from “The Lighthouse Log” Fall 2017.

This article was contributed by Jim Jenney, BLMA Maritime Historian

One of the most dangerous points on the Rhode Island coast is the southeastern corner of Block Island. Although inhabitants lobbied for years to have a lighthouse built at that location, it was not constructed until 1874 and did not go into service until February 1, 1875. Over the years at least a dozen vessels have been lost at or very close to this point including four sailing vessels before the lighthouse was built and eight powered vessels afterwards. This is the first part of a three-part article about those wrecks.

One of the earliest prominent shippers from Providence was Nicholas Brown. In 1798, he and his partner, Thomas P. Ives had a stout ship called the ANN & HOPE built for the transatlantic trade. At the time she was considered one of the most elegant and speedy vessels belonging to that port. Over the next seven years, the 550 ton ship made several voyages to far eastern ports and returned with cargoes that proved her to be a successful venture. Her sixth voyage was not to be a success. In November of 1804 she set sail for the East Indies via Lisbon, Portugal. On May 2, 1805 the ship departed from Batavia with a cargo of sugar, pepper and coffee. A few days later she encountered a gale and was compelled to put into the Ile de France to repair a leak. Several weeks later the ANN & HOPE continued her voyage after having $20,000 worth of repairs performed. She was embargoed for another month when she reached the Cape of Good Hope resulting in the decision to sail straight for Providence from there. On January 10, 1806, in a severe snowstorm, the ship approached the Long Island coast and her master turned eastward toward the entrance to Narragansett Bay. In the storm a miscalculation was made and the 119-foot long ship ran ashore on the rocks under Monhegan Bluffs, just to the west of where Southeast Light would later be built. Most of her cargo, with an estimated value of $300,000, was lost along with the lives of three crewmen on the desolate shore.

Eighteen months after the loss of the ANN & HOPE, the 80-ton, three-masted ship BRUTUS met a similar fate in the same area. This accident occurred on June 27, 1807 when the two-year old ship was enroute from Liverpool, England for Newport under the command of Enoch Tobey. Although the nature of her cargo was not stated, newspaper accounts reported that the principal part of it was lost along with the vessel. There was no report of loss of life in this incident which was probably a welcome relief as she called Newport her home port.

Two decades would pass before another vessel would be totally lost in this area. On April 16, 1827, the schooner STRONG, with a cargo of plaster, fish and other items, ran ashore in heavy fog just off Mohegan Bluffs (note that the correct name of the bluff is Mohegan and not Monhegan as was reported in the account of the loss of the ANN & HOPE). The schooner was sailing from Newburyport, MA for New York City when she found herself fogbound as have so many others in this area over the years. It was reported that her bottom was stove in soon after she struck but the fish, along with her sails and rigging were saved before the vessel went to pieces.

On July 11, 1864, almost forty years after the previous total loss on the southeast part of Block Island, the Canadian schooner MAVILLETTE had the misfortune to run ashore in fog a bit to the eastward of the Mohegan Bluffs. She had sailed from Canso, Nova Scotia, with 225 tons of coal destined for buyers in New York City. The schooner was brand new at the time, having been launched in that year, and her loss was surely felt by her owners in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. About 70 tons of her cargo was saved before the vessel went to pieces leaving her bones among others who had come to their end under similar weather conditions.

After the construction of the lighthouse at the top of the bluff, there are no recorded wrecks resulting in total loss in this area for almost four decades and no other sailing vessels whose days ended here. In the next segment of this story you will see that the southeast point was not only a threat to sailing vessels…but to steamers as well.