Screwpiles: The Forgotten Lighthouses

Light tender Lilac . Courtesy of The Mariners’ Museum

to do your chores to keep from getting bored. There were times when only two of the crew was left on station, and on rare occasions, only one. Bill spent most of his comp time in Crisfield and much of the time he would cut his time off and return to the light. If you remember, Bill was from San Antonio, Tex., and was a long way from home. “If you’ve ever read about lighthouses that were supposedly haunted, you may have heard about Ulman Owens. Mr. Owens, as he was called by us and other keepers over the years, was keeper of Holland Bar Light Station. He was also assigned to Hooper Strait Light Station as an assistant keeper around 1924. Not much is known where he came from or if he was a Crisfielder, Tangier Islander or Smith Islander. The story has it that Owens was murdered there in 1931. Cripes! That’s the year I was born. “It didn’t help much to hear the structure’s moaning and groaning, eager to avoid capsizing during a typical winter storm. It seems the noise intensified when we talked about Mr. Owens while we huddled around the Florence oil heater in the dead of winter. It didn’t help, either, when the bay would freeze over and the ice made gnashing, grinding sounds as it passed under the main deck and amplified as the

ice pushed against the steel piles. Mr. Owens’ name came up many times and made for good conversation. We talked about when and how he died and how they found his nude body in his bedroom. A bloodied knife was found but there were no stab wounds, only a few bruises on the body. During Prohibition lots of keepers would ignore the goings on of the rum runners. Owens may have come on to something and was terminated by the yeggs who were making deliveries. Most locals still believe that’s what happened. “It was a crisp, clear winter night and the wind felt as if it was blowing a gale. The four of us were marooned on the light due to an unusual accumulation of ice on the bay. We were forbidden to lower the Henrietta or attempt to go ashore when the bay was iced over. It would have been a threat to both the boat and the crew. The boat was not heated and there was always a chance of stalling or being stuck fast in the ice. The crew, without the engine running could have frozen to death. At that time of the year the bay was nearly void of oystermen and crabbers. The Henrietta had no radio or other method of communication. We were, like I stated, marooned.

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