Nauset Beach Lighthouse

Nauset Beach Light, Cape Cod, MA

Originally built in 1877, the Nauset light started life as one of the pair of lighthouses in Chatham, Cape Cod.

The lighthouse was moved to Eastham in 1923 to replace the "Three Sisters of Nauset". These are preserved on a nearby clearing, and there are pictures in this slideshow.

The Nauset Light Preservation Society, that leased the light from the Coast Guard, arranged to move the lighthouse 336 feet west as erosion of the cliff where it stood had put the lighthouse at risk of collapsing. This was effected in November of 1996, with the keepers cottage following it in 1998.

It was at this time that the Coast Guard gave the lighthouse to the National Park Service. The Nauset Light Preservation Society maintains it.

The "Compagnie Francaise du Telegraphe de Paris a New York" started to lay a transatlantic cable from France via the island of St. Pierre to Nauset in Cape Cod in 1879. The 3,069 nautical mile cable was built by Siemens Brothers in England and was laid in four months by the CS Faraday. Originally, there was a large manned cable station.

The company centralized operations in a new house in Orleans, just down the coast, in 1891, so a cable was laid from Nauset Beach to Orleans. In 1893 the large house was sold and replaced by the small building seen in the picture.

Note that the Faraday is sometimes erroneously described as an American ship. In fact she was built in 1874 by C. Mitchell & Company Ltd., Newcastle on Tyne, UK for Siemens Brothers.

Originally built in 1877, the Nauset light started life as one of the pair of lighthouses in Chatham, Cape Cod.

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