Digest>Archives> May/Jun 2014

The Last Survivor

By Timothy Harrison

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Current image of Maine’s Blue Hill Bay ...
Photo by: Ron Foster

As with any elder citizen, 91-year-old Bernard Chandler has seen a lot and lived through a lot. But as the last surviving child of the eleven children of lighthouse keeper Roscoe Chandler and his wife Mary, Bernard Chandler has memories of a way of life that only a handful of people living today have ever experienced.

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Bernard Chandler, 91-years old, with his daughter ...
Photo by: Kathleen Finnegan

Bernard Chandler was the 7th child of Roscoe and Mary (Manion) Chandler. At the time he was born, his father was the lighthouse keeper at Maine’s Franklin Island Lighthouse, a position that he had accepted in 1919. Established in 1805, the Franklin Island Lighthouse in Muscongus Bay was a remote station off the coast of Friendship, Maine, and it was no place for a baby to be born. So keeper Chandler purchased a steamship ticket and sent his wife to Massachusetts where Bernard was born in South Boston.

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Franklin Island Lighthouse where Roscoe Chandler ...

In 1924 Roscoe Chandler was able to secure a transfer to become keeper of the Blue Hill Bay Lighthouse on Green Island near Brooklin, Maine, which was a much more hospitable station for a lighthouse family. But the real treat came in 1931 when Chandler received the appointment as the keeper of Burnt Coat Harbor Lighthouse on Swans Island where other families lived, giving the Chandlers the opportunity to freely mingle with people on a day-today basis.

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Mary and Joseph Chandler, two of the eleven ...

Family life came to an end for the Chandlers on Swans Island when World War II broke out and Coastguardsmen were assigned to Burnt Coat Harbor Lighthouse, something that Bernard Chandler said upset his father until his dying day. He recalled that his father told how the young Coast Guardsmen had no respect for anybody or the lighthouse they were assigned to, and they had little if any respect for the way of life of the former keepers of the U.S. Lighthouse Service. Equipment was not properly maintained and some of the men stole some of the old artifacts that Roscoe Chandler had so carefully tried to preserve.

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The Chandler family and friends at Blue Hill Bay ...

With lighthouse life behind him, and his mother and the other younger Chandler children now living on the mainland and while his father lived at the lighthouse, Bernard Chandler went to the join the Army to fight for his country. The Army turned him down; they said he wasn’t fit. He thought it was perhaps because as a small child he was somewhat sickly and cried a lot because of constant pain. Because of this, his parents had always been partial to him, and his mother always spoiled him, which, with a twinkle in his eye, he readily admitted to taking advantage of as he got older.

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A young Bernard Chandler at Blue Hill Bay ...

Not discouraged, Bernard Chandler went to the Navy, which signed him up at once. He was immediately given the rank of Seaman 2nd Class, which he thought was because of his experience of growing up on the water and being an excellent boater. But, for reasons unknown to him, instead the Navy made him a cook. He served most of his time in the South Pacific. He was on a ship that was 500-miles off the coast of Japan that was part of the massive invasion force that was set to invade when word came of the dropping of Atomic bombs. Most of the fleet then turned around and headed for home.

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Lighthouse keeper Roscoe Chandler and his wife ...

He eventually got married, had five children (one set of twins), and he suffered some major setbacks that bothered him for years. But he always moved forward. He built a motel and cottages on U.S. Rt. 1 north of Belfast, Maine. The Bay Motel was a successful operation, but few guests who ever stayed there knew that Bernard was the son of a lighthouse keeper. Bernard said he couldn’t recall why, but he never had any lighthouse photos or paintings on display in any part of the motel or cabins.

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This vintage color post card of Blue Hill Bay ...

But he said his childhood years of being the son of a lighthouse keeper are the memories that are still clearly vivid to this day, and among his best ones that he wants to be saved for future generations. They were hard times, but they were also good times.

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This aerial view of Blue Hill Bay Lighthouse ...
Photo by: Ron Foster

Bernard told of how his father had purchased a farm for $400.00 in Monroe, Maine where the family lived part time while the children attended school. It took his dad 20 years to pay off the mortgage. When school was out, the older children would take the family cow and walk the twenty miles to Brooklin to go to the Blue Hill Bay Lighthouse. They had no money, so they would stop at different homes and exchange the cow’s milk for a meal and a place to sleep for the night.

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This vintage image of Burnt Coat Harbor ...

Once the children would arrive in Brooklin, without a telephone, there was no way to contact their father about their arrival. But Roscoe Chandler had devised a plan where a lady on shore would hang a black suit outside her house in the morning on the days that Roscoe Chandler was needed to come ashore. So each morning, keeper Chandler would look through his telescope to see if the suit was on display. But, even if he saw the suit and the weather was inclement, he would often have to wait for better weather or calm seas to make the journey

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Roscoe and Mary Chandler with Bruce and Judy, the ...

Eventually the cow was brought out to nearby Flye Island where his father or one of the kids would row over to milk it. Eventually, a second cow was added. Interestingly, when a rare thunderstorm would hit the area, the cows, on their own accord, would decide to leave the island. It was the children’s job to get in the dory and coax the cows out of the bay and back onto the island – quite a task.

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This rare historic image of a side view of the ...

Tragedy struck the family on Blue Island Bay Lighthouse when one of the children, Mary, got appendicitis. By the time the family was able to get her off the island and to the hospital, it was too late. The little girl died. This was one of the risks that the family had by living on an island lighthouse; medical attention was always far away.

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In 1935 when electricity arrived at Burnt Coat ...

In spite of their already large family, two other children, Josephine and Billy, were adopted into the family. Money was always tight. Although his father’s lightkeeping job was prestigious and paid well, it was not enough to support the large family. Bernard recalled that his mother canned just about everything. For a while, the family had 200 chickens at Burnt Coat Harbor, which created an overabundance of eggs, so his mother canned them. However, when they found out that the eggs in the crocks had not been properly canned, the eggs had to be thrown out. That resulted in a lot of fun for the children when they had a big egg fight amongst them.

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Some members of the Chandler family in 1944 on a ...

Naturally, fishing became a way life to put extra food on the table for the large family. It also provided extra income. One time on a family fishing expedition, the children helped in the catching of 300 pounds of fish. Naturally, lobster also helped feed the family, and whenever ducks would make an appearance, the gun would come out and the family would have a real treat on the dinner table. The family also kept a few sheep on the island, and some, unbeknownst to most of the children, also ended up on the dinner table. When Bernard’s sister Catherine eventually found out about it, she would never eat lamb again. Because of their large family, and the guests who would often show up in the summer months, Bernard said it was not uncommon for his mother to make 100 loaves of bread a week and lots of homemade doughnuts. They also ate lots of potato pancakes that were fried in butter.

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Burnt Coat Harbor Lighthouse as it appeared in ...

Although the lighthouse tender brought a supply of coal each year, it was never enough to last an entire winter. Knowing that the coal would generally run out by the first of February, Bernard’s father always planned ahead of time. With the help of the kids, they would dig up old tree stumps and haul and drag them to the lighthouse. Bernard recalled that they burned really well.

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This vintage view of Burnt Coat Harbor Lighthouse ...

Every family member helped and was trained in the many aspects of maintaining the light station. When it was time to paint the tower, all the kids pitched in and helped. And everyone knew how to polish the brass. The glass chimneys for the lamps always had to be washed. Bernard said they were so fragile that sometimes they just seemed to break, even with the gentlest of cleaning. The government wouldn’t replace the broken glass, so his dad had to purchase his own replacements. Everything always had to be kept in perfect order – after all, they never knew when the dreaded visit by the lighthouse inspector would happen.

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Roscoe Chandler at the family farm in Monroe, ...

When his father wanted to build a cement walkway at the lighthouse to make life a little easier, the government declined to pay for the cement. So Bernard’s father purchased the bags of cement mix himself. At 72 cents a bag, not only was it a big expense, but it was a lot of work lugging the cement out to the island. But everyone helped and pitched in.

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When the lighthouse tender delivered coal to the ...

There were many times when the older children were required to stay up all night and watch to make sure the light in the tower would not go out. But, just to be sure, Bernard said his dad got up every couple of hours to check on the kids, who were known to occasionally doze off.

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This was a proud moment for the Chandler family ...

One time during prohibition, some rum runners landed on the island, apparently hiding from the law who must have been in close pursuit. Bernard said his father spotted them and ordered them off the island. One of the men told his father that if he got caught because he couldn’t hide out on the island, he would return someday and kill him. Interestingly, the men later became best of friends.

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The Chandler automobile. (Lighthouse Digest ...

When a teacher arrived on the island to teach the kids, because Bernard was 13 years old, the teacher put him into a 6th grade level. But Bernard had never gone to school and he couldn’t even spell his own name, let alone write it. So his father purchased some flash cards and worked with him every day. The teacher then put him at a 4th grade level and, with the help of his father, he soon found that he was a fast learner.

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Burnt Coat Harbor Lighthouse showing what the ...
Photo by: Ron Foster

Just like his sister years before him, Bernard Chandler had an appendicitis attack. But his parents were now more aware of the symptoms. His father carried him across the island to the boat and got him to shore where their car was parked on the mainland and drove him to the hospital. Bernard said his dad always had a Ford, but ever since the Chandler automobiles came out in 1920, his father always wanted a Chandler, but it was never to be. Perhaps it was just as well, because by 1930 the Chandler Motor Co went out of business.

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Burnt Coat Harbor Lighthouse as it appears from ...
Photo by: Francine Dollinger

Like any youngster, Bernard wanted his own money, but there was no such thing as an allowance in those days. So Bernard did a lot of clamming to earn money. But his father made him put most of what he earned into the bank.

Another source of income was the picking of raspberries, which became a family affair. With the dory and its one lung engine, they traveled to Tinker Island, towing a small empty boat behind them. It was a four-hour trip in the open sea. Once at the island, they would pick raspberries and load them into bushel baskets that would then be loaded into the small boat that they had towed. They camped out on the island and cooked beef stew over an open fire and ate the stew with biscuits that they had brought along. Bernard recalled that, in his mind, to this day he can still taste his mother’s hearty and delicious stew. His mother would make jam from some of the raspberries, but most of them were sold to supplement the family’s income.

On one of those trips, the boat had not been properly tethered and it floated off. Knowing that the family could possibly be stranded for days, quick action was required. The kids gathered up driftwood and Bernard’s mother ripped long strips from her dress. They then tied the driftwood together and Bernard’s father, partially lying on the driftwood, paddled out with his hands and retrieved the boat.

There were other times, when the weather turned bad as the family was making a trip to the mainland, that the children would all be tied together. So, if the boat overturned, one child could not be washed away. The plan seemed a little far-fetched, but it worked.

By the time Bernard was 12 or 13 years old he had his own twelve foot boat that he would row far out to fish with. One time he caught 100 pounds of halibut by himself. As he struggled to row the boat back, a storm came up and his life was in danger. His grandfather spotted him and rowed out in another boat and pulled Bernard into his boat. As the waves crashed over the boats, his grandfather pushed him to the deck of the boat and laid on top of him to protect him. The storm almost tore the boat apart, but they survived and the event was kept a secret from his father.

One time when he was 15 years old, he rowed all the way out to Mt. Desert Rock Lighthouse by himself where he said he caught six cod fish in about six minutes. He couldn’t believe it. That was six meals for the family. But he never told his father how far he had gone out to catch them. If he had, that could have been the end of his fishing trips, which might have resulted in more time in the blueberry fields.

Family life was always good at the lighthouse. His brother Everett made him a crystal radio using oatmeal boxes. Many a night was spent listening to that radio, which was a rare treat for a kid living on an island. It opened up a whole new world for him. The family also had lots of card games to play and “new-to-them” books arrived on the island from time to time. When the board game Monopoly came out, they were among the first to get one, and they often played long hours into the night.

They celebrated holidays just like people on the mainland. They usually had duck or chicken for holiday meals, and the Chandlers always had a great looking Christmas tree. His favorite Christmas time memories are of Capt. Bill Wincapaw, who was the Flying Santa to the lighthouses. The upcoming visit of the Flying Santa each year brought excitement into the keeper’s house. Bernard recalled watching Capt. Wincapaw put on an aerobatic display for the family as he would fly over the lighthouse before his final pass to drop the packages of Christmas presents. He recalled there was nothing like it - it was truly the most exciting time of the year. There was always something for everyone in the packages the Flying Santa dropped. One year they got candy bars, a real treat for kids on an island. One year Bernard got a model boat, something that he treasured for years.

When Capt. Wincapaw, the Flying Santa, suffered a heart attack at age 62 and crashed his plane into Rockland Harbor, it was reported that over 100 lighthouse keepers and former lighthouse keepers attended his funeral. Bernard’s father, lighthouse keeper Roscoe Chandler, was among them.

Bernard Chandler said he loved every single day that he spent as the son of a lighthouse keeper, something he wishes others could experience, but he knows that his way of life at an island lighthouse can never again be repeated or even replicated, which is unfortunate. He said, “I wouldn’t want to live any other way than the way I lived.”

This story appeared in the May/Jun 2014 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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