One of my favorite places in Rhode Island is Beavertail, so I was happy to get word of a new book about Beavertail Light -- "Beavertail Light Station" written by Jamestown, RI author Varoujan Karentz.

		"Beavertail Light Station" gathers much of what has not been previously been written about the lighthouse and provides the reader a different view of Jamestown's top visitor destination. Navigation hazards, shipwrecks, piloting, light improvements and fog signal experiments made Rhode Island's Beavertail Light Station one of the most noted landmarks in New England guiding seaman who voyaged into Newport and Narragansett Bay. "Beavertail Light Station" covers over 250 years of history about America's 3rd oldest lighthouse, beginning before the Revolutionary War, about the people who kept the light, its development, and those that used this navigation aid at the entrance of Narragansett Bay. Beavertail was known for its technological innovation and lived through the federal bureaucratic conflict of four different managing organizations beginning in 1749.

The new book follows the early slave trade and Colonists who insisted the lighthouse be built and describes the work ethics and reporting requirements of the generations of "Keepers" who tended the light. Described are modern methods, of electricity improving operations, replacing whale oil and fossil fuel burners used by the US Lighthouse Board during the 1800's and of operations when taken over by the U.S Coast Guard who automated the light station.

Karentz highlights the historical aspects of Beavertail with details of the difficulties the navigator experienced when making landfall coming into Rhode Island Sound and how the establishment of the light assured his ship was on a proper course and a safe voyage into Narragansett Bay. He say's "while much has been written about Beavertail in the past, not much has been said about how the light was used by navigators and little has been documented under one cover about changes to the light over the past 75 years." Included are chapters about Narragansett Bay lightships and the establishment of Beavertail State Park and how the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association who operates the museum at the light station was founded and its probable future.

A native Rhode Islander, Jamestown resident and retired corporate executive, Varoujan Karentz has been captivated by the history of Conanicut Island since moving there in 1986. A cruising sailor for the past 20 years, a navigator in the US Navy and a historian of immigrant settlement in Rhode Island, he has authored a number of historical essays. He has been involved with a variety of leadership roles on historical preservation throughout the "Ocean State" and is presently a member of the Board of Directors of the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association. - -

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