Lighthouse Toll Receipt

Archive

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Saco Museum

Name/Title

Lighthouse Toll Receipt

Entry/Object ID

2023.5.1

Scope and Content

Receipt for payment from Solomon Hopkins, Master of the Ship Hermoine bound from Biddeford to Cowy. Hopkins paid one pound 19/2, the duty payable to the Corporation of Trinity House for the light houses on the Needles Point & Hurst Beach on the Isle of Wight. The receipt includes a map of the channels around the Isle of Wight, an illustration of the Hurst Light, and depictions of the views of Needles Rocks and the Vanes of the Mill over Warden Cliff, designed to aid in navigation. The Hermoine was one of the ships owned by Colonel Thomas Cutts.

Dimensions

Height

7-7/8 in

Width

10-1/8 in

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Cultural/Historical Context

Label

In February 1803, Solomon Hopkins, master of the ship Hermoine, approached the Isle of Wight, off the southern coast of England. He was bound from Biddeford to Cowy, a port on the north side of the island. In order to reach that port he had to sail through the treacherous waters around the Needles on the island's westernmost point. Only a narrow channel was navigable between the Shingles bank of the southern coast of England and the Needles rocks, a narrow chalky peninsula that rises from jagged rocks to 120-meter high cliffs. The map on this document shows the location of Needle Rocks, the Shingles, the location of the Needles lighthouse, as well as indicating the route a vessel should take to pass safely through the area. This receipt also notes that Hopkins paid one pound, nineteen shillings, and two pence to the Corporation of Trinity House, the organization responsible for constructing and maintaining the local lighthouses.