Dumpling Rock, MA 
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Along the western side of Buzzards Bay, just offshore from Round Hill in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, a small barren ledge known as Dumpling Rock long posed a hazard to vessels bound for New Bedford Harbor and nearby Padanaram Harbor. To warn mariners of this hazard, the United States established Dumpling Rock Lighthouse in 1828. For more than a century, the station served as a modest but important aid to navigation, its story reflecting both the hardships of lighthouse life and the constant struggle to maintain structures exposed to the open sea.
The need for a light on Dumpling Rock arose during a period of rapid maritime growth along the southern Massachusetts coast. The town of Dartmouth and neighboring New Bedford had become major centers of shipbuilding, coastal trade, and the whaling industry. To improve navigation in the area, Congress passed an act in May 1828 authorizing the construction of a lighthouse on Dumpling Rock at a cost of $4,000.
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That same year, the Massachusetts legislature passed an act formally ceding jurisdiction of the site to the federal government for the purpose of erecting a lighthouse. Approved on June 12, 1828, the act granted the United States authority over the rock while retaining concurrent jurisdiction for the Commonwealth so that civil and criminal processes could still be executed there if necessary.
Construction proceeded quickly. The original station consisted of a two-story stone dwelling built directly on the exposed rock. An octagonal iron lantern was mounted on the ridge of the roof, creating a combined dwelling and lighthouse typical of many early American light stations. The light was first exhibited on October 19, 1828. It displayed a fixed white light produced by ten lamps set in fourteen-inch reflectors, positioned about forty-three feet above mean high water and visible for approximately ten miles.
The first keeper was Levi Smith, who was appointed in 1828 with an annual salary of $350. Smith would remain at the station for nearly three decades, serving until 1856 and becoming closely associated with the early history of the lighthouse.
Dumpling Rock was a difficult location for a lighthouse keeper. The rock lay only a few hundred yards from shore but was completely exposed to the sea, leaving little space for buildings or outdoor activity. Storm waves frequently swept across the ledge, threatening both the structures and the lives of those living there.
To protect the dwelling, the government soon constructed a rubble-stone wall approximately six feet high around the building to break the force of the sea. Before the wall was erected, the keeper and his family were sometimes in danger of being flooded out during severe storms.
In 1838, Lieutenant Edward W. Carpender of the U.S. Navy inspected the lighthouse while conducting a survey of aids to navigation. He described the light as useful for guiding vessels into Dartmouth Harbor and for warning them away from the surrounding shoals, but he criticized the lighting apparatus as unnecessarily large. The lantern contained ten lamps with fourteen-inch reflectors, equivalent to the outer light at nearby Cuttyhunk Island, though Dumpling Rock served a much smaller area. Carpender recommended reducing the number of lamps to six and rearranging them to better serve navigation.
Carpender also found the station poorly maintained at the time of his visit. The reflectors had not been recently polished, the lantern glass was covered with smoke, and the keeper happened to be absent on the mainland when the inspector arrived. Despite these criticisms, Carpender acknowledged the difficult circumstances under which the keeper worked, noting that Dumpling Rock offered fewer comforts and advantages than almost any other lighthouse in the district.
A detailed engineering inspection in 1842 revealed additional problems. The stone dwelling had been laid up in poor mortar, leading to cracks in the walls. The lantern leaked badly and shook during storms, while the rainwater cistern often became contaminated with seawater when waves broke over the roof. Keeper Levi Smith himself described the lantern as “a very bad one,” complaining that condensation and frost frequently obscured the light during winter.
In August 1839, Stephen Pleasonton, the man in charge of the country’s lighthouses, wrote: “Finding on my late visit to the Dumpling Rock Lighthouse that the Keeper was deprived of every comfort as well as of society, by reason of the Rock being perfectly sterile and surrounded by water, I recommended…an additional allowance to him of fifty dollars a year.” Keeper Levi Smith’s annual salary was thus increased to $400.
Although Dumpling Rock Lighthouse remained a modest station, gradual improvements were made throughout the nineteenth century. Maintenance reports from the 1850s indicate that the lantern had become rusty and the roof and masonry required frequent repair. Nevertheless, the lighting apparatus was kept clean and in working order.
In 1857, the lighthouse received one of the most important technological upgrades in its history when a fourth-order Fresnel lens replaced the original system of lamps and reflectors. The Fresnel lens, a major innovation in lighthouse technology, greatly improved the efficiency and brightness of the light.
Further improvements followed. In 1863, a new lantern was installed, and repairs continued throughout the 1860s, including rebuilding boat slips, painting the structures, repointing masonry walls, and constructing a boathouse. A fog bell and striking machinery were eventually added to help warn vessels during the frequent fogs of Buzzards Bay. The position of assistant keeper was added to the station in 1867.
By the 1880s, however, the original stone dwelling had deteriorated badly. After six decades of exposure to wind and waves, the Lighthouse Board reported in 1888 that the structure was in such poor condition that further repairs would be uneconomical. Instead, the government decided to replace it entirely.
In 1889, the old stone dwelling was demolished and replaced with a new wood-frame building constructed on the same foundation. Measuring about thirty-four by twenty-six feet, the new house had an adjoining square wooden tower carrying a modern fourth-order lantern. The new lantern room stood slightly north-northeast of the old tower but maintained the same fixed white characteristic.
To protect the new station from heavy seas, a substantial bulkhead ninety feet long was constructed from heavy pine timbers bolted directly to the rock and reinforced with stones salvaged from the demolished masonry dwelling.
Additional improvements followed in the 1890s. In December 1893, the light was modified from a fixed white light to a fixed white light with a red sector covering Mishaum Ledge, a dangerous shoal in the vicinity.
Because dense fog frequently blanketed the bay, a more powerful fog signal was soon deemed necessary. On October 12, 1897, a Daboll trumpet powered by an oil-burning steam engine was installed. This powerful foghorn dramatically increased the station’s ability to warn mariners during poor visibility. Over the following years, the machinery was upgraded with improved engines, compressors, and air tanks.
Despite modernization, life on Dumpling Rock remained isolated and demanding. The small rock offered little shelter from storms, and access to the mainland depended entirely on boats using the station’s narrow slipways. The keepers were responsible not only for maintaining the light but also for operating the fog signal machinery, caring for the buildings, and assisting vessels in distress.
The station’s keepers were occasionally called upon to assist vessels in distress. In November 1919, Keeper John E. Rogers and Assistant Keeper Charles A. Ellis towed a disabled motorboat with six men aboard to the New Bedford Yacht Club. Two years later, Rogers helped pull another stranded boat off the rocks and anchor it safely. Similar acts of assistance were common among lighthouse keepers along the New England coast.
The most dramatic event in the station’s history occurred on September 21, 1938, when the catastrophic New England Hurricane of 1938 struck the southern New England coast. The storm produced enormous waves that swept directly across Dumpling Rock, devastating the station.
At the time, the rock’s residents were Keeper Octave Ponsart and Assistant Keeper Henry J. Fontneau, along with their families. As the hurricane intensified, the sea flooded the first floor of the dwelling while waves smashed windows and tore apart portions of the structure.
During the height of the storm, a massive section of the rock itself was ripped loose by the waves and hurled into the first floor of the house, smashing through the walls. Ironically, the boulder helped stabilize the structure by allowing water to pass through rather than completely overturning the building.
The two families spent the night trapped upstairs while waves broke over the lighthouse. By morning, the station was in ruins. Buildings were heavily damaged, the seawall was destroyed, and most personal possessions had been swept away. Yet remarkably, all six people survived.
For months afterward, the keepers continued operating the light under extremely difficult conditions, making makeshift repairs with salvaged materials while awaiting assistance. Congress reimbursed several New England keepers for losses sustained during the hurricane. Keeper Ponsart received $387.95, while Keeper Fontneau was awarded $438.64.
In the aftermath of the hurricane, the U.S. Coast Guard evaluated the future of the station. Because Dumpling Rock served what officials described as a secondary channel and because new technology made automated aids possible, the decision was made not to rebuild the lighthouse in its traditional form.
Instead, plans were developed to replace the station with a smaller automated structure equipped with a remotely controlled fog bell. The keepers remained temporarily while the new system was installed. Keeper Fontneau resigned in August 1940, but Keeper Ponsart remained at Dumpling Rock until the automation was finalized in 1942. Ponsart then served for a year at Butler Flats Lighthouse, the station that was responsible for remotely controlling the fog signal at Dumpling Rock, before moving on to the lighthouses at Cuttyhunk and West Chop.
The bell installed at Dumpling Rock as part of the automation was not the same bell that had previously served the station. That bell was lost during the 1938 hurricane. In 1945, Reverend J. Holland Beal had the original fog bell from Dumpling Rock raised from the waters near the rock and then installed it at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in Taunton.
Dumpling Rock Lighthouse remained on the island for several years, after the skeletal tower and automated bell were put in place, but the disused structure soon showed serious neglect. The maritime community complained about the inadequacy of the fog bell, and by 1950 an electric siren had been installed on the rock. Although the historic buildings are long gone, a skeletal tower still displays a flashing green light marking the dangerous ledges off Round Hill and guiding vessels entering Buzzards Bay.
