WRECKS AND MIXOT LIGHT. 



461 



Spanish dollars were recovered, two of which are in the 

 Brennock family. 



Besides Captain Tower and Captain Lothrop, another 

 underwriters' agent was Captain Loring Bates, of whose 

 work during the Civil War something will be said in its 

 appropriate place. Furthermore, there were of course 

 private wrecking companies, who learned the art of rescu- 

 ing valuables from the sea here among our own rocks, and 

 who went elsewhere upon native or foreign coasts for the 

 same work.* 



But prevention is better than cure, and a lighthouse is 

 of more use than wrecking companies. The dangerous 

 reefs spreading in both directions from Minot Ledge 

 were long regarded as in great need of a warning light- 

 house ; but the trouble was to get a broad enough founda- 

 tion upon any one of these sharp ledges. Finally, Captain 

 W. H. Swift, of the United States Engineering Corps, 

 proposed to the government at Washington the building 

 of an iron lighthouse upon stilts over Minot Ledge, like 

 the beacon he had placed at the entrance of Black Rock 

 Harbor, Connecticut. In order to persuade the govern- 

 ment to undertake this expensive job, he got Captain 

 Daniel T. Lothrop, of Cohasset, to make out a list of 

 losses for the preceding thirty years in the neighborhood 

 of the ledge. 



THE LIST SUBMITTED BY CAPT.\IN LOTHROP, APRIL 15, 1847, IS 



AS FOLLOWS, BEGINNING WHERE WE LEFT OFF, 



JOEL WILLCUTT'S DIARY. 



TOTAL LOSSES. 



Ship Moses Meyers 

 Bark Sarah & Susan 

 Brig Federal George 

 Schr. Armistice . . 



,, Pelican . . . 



,, Laurel . . . 

 Brig Juno . . . 

 Spanish ):etch (with wine) 



g40,ooo 

 60,000 

 15,000 

 10,000 

 3,000 

 2,000 

 20,000 

 lo.oco 



Brig Banner . . 



,, Champion 



„ Boston . . 



,, Warsaw . 

 Schr. Cardenas . 



,, Aurora . . 

 Ship N. O. Packet 

 Schr. Mechanic 



$20,000 

 5,000 

 5,000 

 4,000 

 3,000 

 5,000 

 30,000 

 3,000 



* A model sliowing the arrangement of chains under a sunken hull, patented by- 

 Captain Joseph Smith, is in our town library. 



