¶1Eleanor Marsh became keeper of the Gull Point light in Maine in 1911, after her father's eyesight began to fail. The tower stood ninety feet above the rocks, and its lamp burned kerosene, which had to be carried up one hundred and twelve steps in brass cans.

¶2In summer she lit the lamp at sunset. In winter, however, she climbed the tower forty minutes earlier, because fog usually rolled in across the bay in the late afternoon while the fishing boats were still making for the harbor.

¶3Every four hours through the night she trimmed the wick; a charred wick, her father had warned her, would make the flame smoke and blacken the glass. At dawn she put out the lamp, polished the lens and recorded the weather in the logbook.

¶4Her entry for January 9, 1912, is the shortest she ever wrote: “Fog all day. Lamp lit 3:50. Two boats in safe. Tired.”