Digest>Archives> June 2004

George A. Troy 1888-1976

Proud To Be A Lighthouse Keeper

By Jeremy D'Entremont

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George Troy when he was Assistant Keeper (circa ...

“He loved it when his fellow teachers would introduce him as an ex-lighthouse keeper,” says Marti, “And he would tell the students he was really only 49, that he just looked as if he were in his 70s because the keeper’s life was so difficult!”

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Troy developed and printed his own photos. ...


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Troy developed and printed his own photos. ...

The pages of lighthouse books and magazines are filled with stories of lightkeepers who served for unusually long spans of time and those who took part in daring rescues and other dramatic events. But the contributions of the large percentage of American keepers who did the job for relatively few years and never made the headlines were no less important to the safe navigation of the nation’s waterways. One of these unsung heroes was George A. Troy, who served a little less than three years at two offshore lights in the Northeast. His lightkeeping career may have been brief, but as his daughter Martha “Marti” Troy Rosalin says, “Dad never gave up his love for the sea.”

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Left: Keeper George A Troy at Plum Beach Light, ...

George A. Troy, Sr. was born in upstate New York in 1888 and grew up in New York City. Times were tough when he decided to take the exam to qualify for a lightkeeping job in November 1909. He needed a score of 70 to qualify, and his daughter proudly points out, “According to the records of the Department of Commerce and Labor, Lighthouse Establishment, he scored 81.6 on that test.”

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Center: Plum Beach Light, RI, today.
Photo by: Jeremy D'Entremont

Latimer Reef Lighthouse

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Lower Center: Photo by George Troy of Plum Beach ...

The following March, Troy was assigned as an assistant keeper at Latimer Reef Lighthouse, a “sparkplug” style offshore station near Fisher’s Island, New York, at a pay rate of $40 per month. Married men usually were assigned to onshore lights, but Troy was single at the time. “There was a scarcity of applicants for the job since the men had to work hard, live away from home, and do their own housekeeping and cooking,”Troy said in a 1976 interview conducted by his son-in-law, Art Rosalin.

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Right: Latimer Reef Light, NY, today.
Photo by: Jeremy D'Entremont

Troy described Latimer Reef Light in the 1976 interview. The foundation went down at least 20 feet, he recalled, and there was a cistern in the cellar that collected rainwater that the keepers hand-pumped for cooking, drinking and bathing. In the summer, they bathed in the ocean, but in the winter they heated “a tea cup of water to take a bath in.”

The first level of the lighthouse contained living quarters and a kitchen. On the second level was the head keeper’s sleeping quarters, and the assistant was quartered on the third level. The fourth level was reserved for tools and fuel. The lighthouse had no electricity, and the lens revolved by means of a clockwork mechanism actuated by weights. Every day this mechanism had to be reset and adjusted, and the lens and lantern glass had to be cleaned.

The keepers were provided with a rugged 16-foot boat with a “leg o’ mutton sail” and two sets of oars. This was their only means of travel to the mainland. Troy told Art Rosalin that in his lighthouse keeping years, he capsized the boat only once. Unfortunately, it was on a return trip from the mainland, and he lost all his provisions for the week.

Troy said in 1976 that the men at Latimer Reef had twelve hours on duty followed by twelve hours off, which allowed for “too much fishing.” They even took up spear fishing from the rocks near the lighthouse. “It was against the law, but who was going to report it?”said Troy.

Plum Beach Light

George Troy obviously performed well as an assistant keeper, because on March 20, 1911, he was named the head keeper at Rhode Island’s Plum Beach Light, another “sparkplug” style lighthouse on a caisson in the west passage of the Narragansett Bay. Along with added responsibilities came an additional $10 per month in his pay plus a small food allowance.

George Troy resigned from the Lighthouse Service in January 1913. He spent the next few years near the Connecticut coast working a variety of jobs, and in 1918 he married Anna Cammeratt and moved to New Jersey. The couple had five children, including one who died of scarlet fever. In 1928, Troy bought a locksmith business in Plainfield, New Jersey, and in the ensuing years, he built it into one of the five top locksmith and security companies in the state.

Marti Rosalin, Troy’s only daughter, recalls family trips to the shore when she was young. “As children we were all happily loaded in the old Packard for a Sunday at the beach. Mom packed sandwiches, her preserved grape juice, and we were off!”George and Anna Troy couldn’t swim, but they loved to play in the waves.

“One of my fondest memories would be to ask Dad the time,” says Marti. “He would squint up at the sun and tell us. My brother, Howard, and I would race back to the car and look at the clock on the dashboard. Dad was always right. He told us it was something he learned to do in his lighthouse days.”

A House With A Fireplace

When he was 69 years old, Troy bought a house on a lagoon on the New Jersey shore telling his wife, “When we got married I promised you a house with a fireplace, so here it is!”

He enjoyed speedboats in his younger days, and at 70 Troy purchased his last speedboat - a mahogany-hulled Chris Craft he dubbed “Gramp” in honor of his ten grandchildren. “Dad was happiest when ever he could get that boat charging across Barnegat Bay,” says Marti.

Troy belonged to many organizations, but the one he enjoyed most was the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

He taught classes in small boat handling and inspected boats.

Marti, now 72, recalls being frightened as a girl when a storm would cause the winds to moan through the big trees around the family’s house. “Dad always comforted me by telling me it was all right, that the sound was just the mermaids singing. I always believed him, even though we were at least 35 miles from the ocean,” she says. When George A. Troy died at age 88, after more than 60 years of marriage, he was buried in his beloved Coast Guard uniform at his request.

This story appeared in the June 2004 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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