Abstract:
The little-known lightships, the lighthouses, and the lives of their keepers are the subjects of Tom Taylor’s book. For some thirteen decades beginning in the 1820s and ending with automation there were keepers out there on the isolated vessels and ocean-surrounded structures, facing Indian attack, hurricanes, and even living with a ghost, dutifully tending lights to keep others from danger. Tom Taylor lived on the Keys, frequently boating out to the lighthouses. He met keepers’ descendants and even one of the last keepers, collecting for posterity the lore of the reef lights.