WRECKS AND MINOT LIGHT. 463 



There it stood like a liuge spider with its eight legs 

 and an extra iron spike in the middle. Upon the top of 

 this frame a lighter iron frame was built up to a point 

 sixty feet above the ledge, where the lantern room was 

 placed. Every leg and corner was braced by diagonal 

 rods to resist any force of wind or waves to sway the 

 frame. The little room for the keeper and his supplies 

 was built beneath the lantern room, and all seemed to be 

 snug and firm. It was finished in the fall of 1849, and 

 Isaac A. Dunham took charge of it, lighting the lamp for 

 the first time on December 13, 1849. 



The structure had not been completed before another 

 terrible wreck occurred a few hundred yards away. It 

 was the greatest disaster, measured by loss of life, that is 

 set to the discredit of our shore. 



On Sunday morning at seven o'clock, October 7, 1849, 

 under a heav^y northeast storm, the British brig St. John, 

 loaded with immigrants brought from Galway, Ireland, 

 was driven upon Grampus Ledge near Minot, and ninety- 

 nine lives were lost. Another brig, the Kathleen, had 

 managed to creep into the mouth of our harbor and to 

 anchor ; but the St. John was farther out where the gale 

 struck furiously and made her drag anchors. 



The masts were cut away, but still she dragged on. 

 After the first heavy thump on the Grampus Rock the old 

 hulk rapidly tumbled to bits. Previous to the breaking 

 up, the jolly-boat was hanging by the tackles alongside 

 when the stern ringbolt broke and she fell into the waves. 

 Captain Oliver, the second mate, and two boys jumped 

 into her to clear her, when about twenty-five passengers 

 poured into her and swamped her so that all perished but 

 the captain. The first mate hauled in the captain, who 

 caught the end of a rope. 



Then the longboat was loosed and the captain with the 

 first mate and eight of the crew and two passengers 

 scrambled into her, reaching shore at the Glades. Many 



