![]() ![]() Now a house had been built on the island for his family.īut just a few months after moving in, Hosea Lewis suffered a debilitating stroke. Her father, Hosea Lewis, had been rowing out to tend to the light each evening for the previous four years. Ida was 15 when, in 1857, her family moved onto the tiny island of Lime Rock, only about 220 yards off the mainland in the inner harbor and now home to the Ida Lewis Yacht Club. She is credited with rescuing at least 18 and perhaps as many as 25 people from Newport Harbor during the half-century she lived at the lighthouse. I think after a while all that solitude got boring.”Īt the height of her fame, Ida Lewis probably craved more solitude. ![]() Tending to the light “was a very difficult job, and many of were in the middle of nowhere. “You hear all the stories about how romantic a life it was, but it wasn’t very true,” says Kelleher. Of course there is some nostalgic myth mingled in the common story of lighthouse keeping, Kelleher says. ![]() Others seem enthralled by the almost monastic lifestyle that their keepers once led to warn passing ships of dangerous shoals. Many visitors are drawn to the lighthouses that have been restored the last few decades, from rusting scrap to historic landmarks. “We have people who come from across the country, who plan their vacations to tour the lighthouses,” says Kelleher. Her story enriches the local seafaring lore that draws thousands of visitors each year to Rhode Island’s 21 lighthouses.ĭavid Kelleher sees that fascination play out every year as he narrates tours of many of those lighthouses - and other locations where once they stood - for Save the Bay. Whatever version is true, there’s no disputing the attention that Ida Lewis drew as the lighthouse keeper of Lime Rock. And to see her I’d get wet up to my armpits if necessary.”Īnother version says Lewis, whose story of saving two drunken soldiers from drowning at nearby Fort Adams had swept the country, jumped into her trusty skiff and rowed over to the mainland to meet Grant. Unfazed, the president said “I have come to see Ida Lewis. Grant and Vice President Schuyler Colfax both ventured out to the small lighthouse on Lime Rock to meet a national celebrity in the making - the "bravest woman in America,” as newspaper headlines heralded.Īs Grant disembarked from a small boat, he stepped into the water. One version of the story has it that President Ulysses S. A photographer was in the right place at the right time, hovering in a helicopter above the historic La Jument lighthouse off the coast of France.History remains vague on some details of that day in 1869 when the president of the United States visited the lady living on a rock in Newport Harbor. In 2015, De Wire blogged of Malgorn that "he is undoubtedly retired by now and enjoying well-deserved quieter days." 21, 1989.Īccording to Elinor De Wire, the author of " The Lightkeepers' Menagerie," Malgorn "had nearly 40 years in the French lighthouse service." First prize went to this picture from photographer Stephane Duroy.Ī number of other similar photographs of waves hitting the lighthouse are available on Getty Images, but perhaps none has the powerful feeling that Guichard captured on Dec. Guichard went on to win 2nd prize in the "Nature" category for the 1991 World Press Photo contest. Celtic Countries published that "lighthouses in Brittany have been automated in the past decades and La Jument itself has no longer a keeper since 1991." The photographer presented the former lighthouse keeper with a signed and framed print of the now-famous picture.Īccording to the two men and other accounts of the story, the last year La Jument had a lighthouse keeper was 1991. Malgorn responded that "no, it was a one-off." "Normally, you wouldn't go out," Guichard said. Guichard asked if he had opened the door because he heard the helicopter. "I didn't know a huge wave was coming," Malgorn answered. ![]() In a video interview reuniting Guichard and Malgorn, Malgorn was asked what he remembered from the moment seen in the photograph: The lighthouse keeper standing in the doorway was Theodore Malgorn. The picture was named, "Phares dans la Tempete, La Jument," which means "Lighthouse in a Storm, at La Jument." It's located off the Brittany coast in France and was built between 19. Four photographs from the same incredible moment are available for purchase on his website. It was captured by photographer Jean Guichard from a helicopter on Dec. A larger version was available on Reddit. Certainly an alarming situation for the man in the doorway. ![]()
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