Everything you want to know about Beavertail light
A great addition for your island book shelf

A new book detailing the history of Beavertail Lighthouse has just been published.

The book is called "Beavertail Light Station on Conanicut Island" and is authored by Jamestowner Varoujan Karentz. The book has been released by a subsidiary of Amazon.com, "BookSurge" publications of Charleston, S.C.

"Beavertail Light Station" gathers much of what has not been previously been written about the lighthouse and provides the reader a different view of Jamestown's top visitor destination.

Navigation hazards, shipwrecks, piloting, light improvements and fog signal experiments made Rhode Island's Beavertail Light Station one of the most noted landmarks in New England guiding seamen who voyaged into Newport and Narragansett Bay.

"Beavertail Light Station" covers over 250 years of history about America's third oldest lighthouse. The first navigational aid at Beavertail was established in 1705, well before the Revolutionary War. The book documents the people who kept the light, the development of the lighthouse through the years, and the mariners who have used this navigation aid at the entrance of Narragansett Bay.

Beavertail light was recognized for its technological innovation and lived through the federal bureaucratic conflict of four different managing organizations beginning in 1749.

Karentz follows the early slave trade and Colonists who insisted the lighthouse be built. He describes the work ethics and reporting requirements of the generations of "keepers" who tended the light. Karentz describes how Beavertail utilized modern methods of lighting over time. Electricity improved operations by replacing the whale oil and fossil fuel burners used by the U.S. Lighthouse Board during the 1800s. His efforts lead the reader to the current Beavertail operations, when the "keeper" was no longer needed by the U.S Coast Guard because the light station was automated.

In his book, Karentz highlights the historical aspects of Beavertail with details of the difficulties the navigator experienced when making landfall coming into Rhode Island Sound. Establishment of the light assured that ships were on proper courses for safe voyages into Narragansett Bay.

Karentz said that "while much has been written about Beavertail in the past, not much has been said about how the light was used by navigators and little has been documented under one cover about changes to the light over the past 75 years." Included in the book are chapters about Narragansett Bay lightships and the establishment of Beavertail State Park and how the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association, which operates the museum at the light station, was founded and its probable future.

A native Rhode Islander and retired corporate executive, Karentz has long been captivated by the history of Conanicut Island. He moved to Jamestown in 1986. A cruising sailor for the past 20 years, a navigator in the U.S. Navy and a historian of immigrant settlement in Rhode Island, he has authored a number of historical essays.

Karentz has been involved with a variety of leadership roles on historical preservation and serves on the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association board of directors.

Proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association.