DawnaMoorePhotography
Hendricks Head Lighthouse, Southport Island, Maine
"It was purportedly during the service of Jaruel and Catherine Marr that the now controversial story of the “Baby That Washed Ashore” occurred. The story goes that during a blinding snowstorm around 1870, a schooner ran aground on a rocky ledge just seaward of the lighthouse. Unable to launch their dory due to the turbulent waters crashing on the shore, the keeper and his wife watched helplessly as the panicked crew clamored up the rigging of the doomed vessel, which was soon broken to pieces by the towering waves.
In the off chance that someone had survived the wreck, the keeper built a bonfire on the shore and diligently scanned the waters for signs of life. An hour or so after darkness fell, the keeper noticed a bundle being buffeted towards the lighthouse. Wading into the icy waters, the keeper retrieved what turned out to be a pair of feather mattresses protectively lashed around a box. Using his sheath knife, he quickly cut the ropes and discovered a terrified, screaming baby girl inside the box along with a note committing the infant into God’s hands.
In 1997, Barbara Rumsey of the Boothbay Region Historical Society wrote a two-part article for the Boothbay Register in an attempt to debunk this popular story that was printed by Edward Rowe Snow’s in his 1945 work, Famous Lighthouses of New England. Though Rumsey’s logic is quite convincing, descendents of Jaruel and Catherine Marr claim that the story is true and that the name of the baby girl, later adopted by a doctor and his wife who were summer residents of the area, was Seaborn." (lighthousefriends.com)
© Dawna Moore ~ www.dawnamoorephotography.com ~
Follow more of my adventures on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Hendricks Head Lighthouse, Southport Island, Maine
"It was purportedly during the service of Jaruel and Catherine Marr that the now controversial story of the “Baby That Washed Ashore” occurred. The story goes that during a blinding snowstorm around 1870, a schooner ran aground on a rocky ledge just seaward of the lighthouse. Unable to launch their dory due to the turbulent waters crashing on the shore, the keeper and his wife watched helplessly as the panicked crew clamored up the rigging of the doomed vessel, which was soon broken to pieces by the towering waves.
In the off chance that someone had survived the wreck, the keeper built a bonfire on the shore and diligently scanned the waters for signs of life. An hour or so after darkness fell, the keeper noticed a bundle being buffeted towards the lighthouse. Wading into the icy waters, the keeper retrieved what turned out to be a pair of feather mattresses protectively lashed around a box. Using his sheath knife, he quickly cut the ropes and discovered a terrified, screaming baby girl inside the box along with a note committing the infant into God’s hands.
In 1997, Barbara Rumsey of the Boothbay Region Historical Society wrote a two-part article for the Boothbay Register in an attempt to debunk this popular story that was printed by Edward Rowe Snow’s in his 1945 work, Famous Lighthouses of New England. Though Rumsey’s logic is quite convincing, descendents of Jaruel and Catherine Marr claim that the story is true and that the name of the baby girl, later adopted by a doctor and his wife who were summer residents of the area, was Seaborn." (lighthousefriends.com)
© Dawna Moore ~ www.dawnamoorephotography.com ~
Follow more of my adventures on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.