Sometimes in Ogunquit, on a very clear day, you may catch the faintest glimpse of a distant lighthouse on the Southeast horizon. Just a tough to discern dot, almost like a mirage, hidden at a vanishing point where sea and sky converge. This is Boon Island Light.
Boon Island Light has the distinction of being the tallest lighthouse in both Maine and New England at 133 feet – and it is set upon (as you may have guessed) Boon Island, a barren outcropping of granite six miles off of Maine’s southern coast. And it has a history that you absolutely won’t believe!
Boon Island: “The forlornest place that can be imagined…“
This storm-swept and desolate Boon Island has been called “the forlornest place that can be imagined.” Back through the centuries, this wasteland island – just a few miles from civilization, but seemingly a million miles away – has been the site of dramatic (and sometimes ghastly) stories due to the numerous vessels that have been wrecked along its jagged shoreline.
The most notorious incident in Boon Island’s history was the wreck of the British vessel, Nottingham Galley, on December 11th, 1710.
All fourteen crewmen aboard the Nottingham Galley survived the initial wreck. However two died from their injuries – the cook, who died a few days after the initial wreck, and a carpenter, who died two weeks after. Then another two drowned attempting to reach the mainland on an improvised raft.
The remaining ten crewmen struggled to stay alive, through the harsh Maine winter conditions, with no food and no fire for twenty-four days, until finally rescued.
But before they were rescued, the survivors resorted to cannibalism, eating the carpenter after his death, which gave the incident (and Boon Island) a macabre notoriety that it retains even today.
Atmospheric Reading: Books About Boon Island
If you’re looking for something slightly haunting to add to your Maine-flavored reading list, there have been two excellent books written about Boon Island.
Boon Island by Kenneth Roberts (1956)
“Boon Island today is a humpbacked boulder-strewn ledge, hardly perceptible to those who live along the seacoast of southern Maine if it weren’t for the tall lighthouse that rises from it. The tall dark tower the bright beam shining from it at night are visible from Cape Porpoise to Portsmouth, a warning to coastwise ships to keep off. But in the winter of 1710, when the ship of “Nottingham” wallowed down the Maine coast in a nor’easter – there was no lighthouse on Boon Island. The ship struck the rocky island in the snow and freezing cold, and the resulting story stands alone as an unrivaled drama of the sea and of man’s refusal to succumb to disaster, even when deprived of food, of fire, of tools.“
Buy Boon Island by Kenneth Roberts on Amazon | Click Here To Purchase
Boon Island: A True Story of Mutiny, Shipwreck, and Cannibalism by Stephen Erickson + Andrew Vietze (2012)
“The wreck of the Nottingham Galley on Boon Island and the resultant rumors of insurance fraud, mutiny, treason, and cannibalism was one of the most sensational stories of the early eighteenth century. Shortly after departing England with Captain John Deane at the helm, his brother Jasper and another investor aboard, and an inexperienced crew, the ship encountered French privateers on her way to Ireland, where she then lingered for weeks picking up cargo. They eventually headed into the North Atlantic and then found themselves shipwrecked on the notorious Boon Island, just off the New England coast. Captain Deane offered one version of the events that led them to the barren rock off the coast of Maine; his crew proposed another. In the hands of skilled storytellers Andrew Vietze and Stephen Erickson, this becomes a historical adventure that reveals mysteries that endure to this day.“
Buy Boon Island: A True Story of Mutiny, Shipwreck, and Cannibalism by Stephen Erickson + Andrew Vietze on Amazon | Click Here To Purchase
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Charlene Taubert is an Ogunquit, Maine resident and licensed Realtor® with Aland Realty Group who is known for providing energetic, enthusiastic, and concierge-class service to her clients seeking to buy (or sell) real estate in Ogunquit, Maine (or the surrounding towns).
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