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Geographic coordinates: 41° 36' 21" N 71° 18' 13" W
Nearest town: Portsmouth. Located on the east side of 3,600-acre Prudence Island, in the East Passage of Narragansett Bay.
Established: 1852. Present lighthouse built: 1824. Automated: 1972.
Height of tower: 25 feet. Height of focal plane: 28 feet.
Previous optic: Fifth-order Fresnel lens. Present optic: 250 mm
Characteristic: Green flash every 6 seconds.
Prudence Island is approximately 7 miles long and 11/2 miles across at its widest point, with a summer population of about 2,000. In 1850, local residents petitioned Congress for a lighthouse at Sandy Point, the island’s easternmost extremity, to help mariners passing through Narragansett Bay’s East Passage. Instead of building a new lighthouse, the authorities decided to move the disused 1824 stone lighthouse on Goat Island in Newport Harbor to Prudence Island.
Martin Thompson, originally from Norway, became keeper in 1905 and remained until 1933. In February 1913, Thompson sighted what he believed to be a seal offshore, and his two daughters rowed out to investigate. The girls became frightened when they realized the animal was much larger than the harbor seals usually seen around the island. It also had tusks two feet long. The girls rowed for all they were worth and made it back safely to the island. Walruses were very rare in New England waters by this time.
When the calamitous hurricane of September 21, 1938, struck, keeper George T. Gustavus was at home with his wife, Mabel, and the youngest of their ten children, Eddie. Two of their daughters were at school. As the waves and wind steadily rose, a neighboring couple took refuge at the keeper’s house. Former keeper Martin Thompson, who lived nearby, came to the light station and told everyone that it was the safest place to be. Gustavus later said that all in the house were “caught like rats in a trap.”
The six people in the keeper’s house took refuge on the second floor, but the dwelling was soon broken apart by the force of the raging seas. Gustavus woke up at a cottage about a half-mile away. He learned that the five others in the house had all perished. The keeper survived because a wave washed him back to shore, and an island teenager pulled him to safety.
When the Coast Guard cutter Tahoe arrived at Prudence Island after the storm, an officer called to someone on shore, “Where are the dead?” The person replied, “All washed to sea.” Five people died at Prudence Island in the disaster that killed over 700 across New England.
The light remained active after the hurricane, but the keeper’s house was never rebuilt. Several islanders served as “lamplighters” until the light was automated in 1972. In 2001, the Coast Guard granted a license to the nonprofit Prudence Conservancy to take over the care of the tower. Volunteers have shored up the foundation and repainted the tower. For more information on the Prudence Conservancy, visit www.prudenceconservancy.org or write the organization at P.O. Box 115, Prudence Island, RI 02872.
Fascinating Fact 
The lighthouse here originally stood in Newport Harbor; it’s the oldest lighthouse tower in Rhode Island (1824).
Prudence Island can be reached by ferry from the Church Street Wharf in Bristol. The lighthouse is a mildly strenuous walk of about a mile from the ferry landing. The tower is not open to the public. Prudence Island has little to offer tourists, and visitors should be sure to bring their own water and food. (There’s just one small store open in summer and one bed and breakfast inn.) You can get the latest ferry schedule by calling 401-253-9808. To reach the Church Street Wharf in Bristol from I-95 in Providence, take I-195 East to 114 South and follow to Bristol. Turn right onto Church Street and continue to the wharf. The old birdcage-style lantern is the one of very few still in use in the United States, and the lighthouse tower is the oldest in the state.
