Mussel Bed Shoal Rhode Island
2006-2007 Collectors Society Gift
Harbour Lights #555
Retired

The Mussel Bed Shoals Lighthouse, a pretty and diminutive little lighthouse, once stood in the shoals of the entrance to Mount Hope Bay. It was a red, one room house with a light on the gable and a fog bell on the roof. One can only picture how this little lighthouse must have been buffeted by wind, waves, and ice. It is no wonder that it did not stand for long.

The first station at this location was established in 1873 and consisted of a tower attached to the keeper’s house. The height of the focal plane was 35 feet and it was illuminated by a fixed red sixth order Fresnel lens. Prior to the establishment of this structure, the Old Colony Steamboat Company maintained a lightship in the Hog Island area to help guide its ships. The Lighthouse Board had hoped to build a lighthouse on Hog Island to replace the lightship but, without the necessary funding, it built the lighthouse on an existing stone tower in Mussel Bed Shoals. It stood 19 feet from the ground.

By 1879 the lighthouse had sustained so much damage that it had to be rebuilt. It was removed, and a granite pier was built upon which the little red lighthouse was placed. The rebuilt structure was no improvement since it was just a small 12 x 12, one room building. The fixed red sixth order Fresnel lens continued to guide ships in the night, but the lighthouse endured so much abuse from the natural elements, particularly ice, that eventually it had to be replaced. By early 1920, Keeper Otis Barstow complained that part of the foundation had been carried away by heavy ice. The dwelling was rebuilt into a four room structure but continued to be plagued with problems and was torn down in 1939. A steel skeleton tower took its place; the current tower stands 15 ft. tall, and its 250 mm lens flashes red every 6 seconds.