Foggy September at Browns Head Light in 1946
Given the fact that the last part of September 2020 encountered ample fog along the Maine coast, we thought it was worth looking back seventy-four years to another foggy September.
Keeper Merrill E. Poor, who served at Browns Head Light Station from 1945 to 1957, talked about coping with long periods of fog during September 1946 in a letter that he penned to the Maine Coast Fisherman. The letter appeared in the journal’s October 1946 issue.
Keeper Poor’s excerpted letter appears below…
(Maine Lights Today photo)
“I have been on this station going onto two years and I think that the month of September was my toughest month so far as fog is concerned. I had over a hundred and sixty hours of fog at once and to top that off the bell broke down at two o’clock one morning, so we were without a bell for some time, but as most of the fishermen know these waters we didn’t have any shipwrecks.
“After the fog left us we had a big southeaster, and during that storm I picked up a row boat painted white outside and orange inside. Any fisherman that owns this boat can get in touch with me and I’ll tell them the condition that I have found her in and they can have it.
(Later) “We have found that getting our supplies in for winter has been out biggest problem, as there are quite a few people on this island and the store keeper can’t seem to get much of anything, especially meat and I would say that is out of the question, not only for the people on this island, but everywhere else also.”
