Not to be confused with the navigational aid of the same name at the east entrance to Casco Bay

Casco Bay

Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth...

 in Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

.

The Fuller Rock Light was a lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

 in Providence, Rhode Island

Providence, Rhode Island

Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

. Destroyed in an explosion, it was replaced by a skeleton tower on the same foundation.

History

Fuller Rock sits adjacent to the channel in the Providence River

Providence River

thumb|The city of Providence as seen from the Providence River at its confluence with the Narragansett BayThe Providence River is a tidal river in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It flows approximately 8 miles...

, and as shipping traffic grew in the 1800s attention was drawn to improving navigational aid

Navigational aid

A navigational aid is any sort of marker which aids the traveler in navigation; the term is most commonly used to refer to nautical or aviation travel...

s for the port. An 1870 congressional appropriation provided for three lights in the area: one for Fuller Rock, another further upstream at Sassafras Point, and a third downstream at Pomham Rocks

Pomham Rocks Light

Pomham Rocks Light is a historic lighthouse in the Providence River about 200 yards off the shoreline of the Riverside neighborhood of the city of East Providence, Rhode Island...

. The last reused the design of the Colchester Reef Light

Colchester Reef Light

The Colchester Reef Light in Vermont was a lighthouse off Colchester Point in Lake Champlain. It was moved to the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont in 1956....

 in Vermont, but the other two were built to a much simpler plan for a short wooden tower resting on a granite pier

Pier (architecture)

In architecture, a pier is an upright support for a superstructure, such as an arch or bridge. Sections of wall between openings function as piers. The simplest cross section of the pier is square, or rectangular, although other shapes are also common, such as the richly articulated piers of Donato...

. These lights lacked dwellings; the keeper

Lighthouse keeper

A lighthouse keeper is the person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Keepers were needed to trim the wicks, replenish fuel, wind clockworks and perform maintenance tasks such as cleaning...

 lived on shore and had to approach the lights by boat in order to tend them. Funds were provided for a keeper's dwelling but property nearby could not be secured.

Maintenance of the structure was a problem from early on, and 1879 the Lighthouse Board

United States Lighthouse Board

The United States Lighthouse Board was the agency of the US Federal Government that was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of all lighthouses in the United States...

 reported that the tower showed "considerable evidence of decay." A request to appropriate funds to replace it with an iron tower, however, was not heeded. In 1889 some repairs to the foundation were made including repointing

Repointing

Repointing is the process of renewing the pointing in masonry construction. Over time, weathering and decay cause voids in the joints between masonry units , allowing the undesirable entrance of water. Water entering through these voids can cause significant damage through frost weathering and...

 of the pier and dumping of additional riprap

Riprap

Riprap — also known as rip rap, rubble, shot rock or rock armour or "Rip-rap" — is rock or other material used to armor shorelines, streambeds, bridge abutments, pilings and other shoreline structures against scour, water or ice erosion.It is made from a variety of rock types, commonly granite or...

 at its base.

Staffing this light was difficult and at least three keepers served no more than a year, so it was an early candidate for automation. In 1918 it was converted to an automated acetylene

Acetylene

Acetylene is the chemical compound with the formula C2H2. It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in pure form and thus is usually handled as a solution.As an alkyne, acetylene is unsaturated because...

 beacon, with responsibility for its maintenance passing to the Pomham Rocks keeper. This beacon would prove its undoing. On February 4, 1923, the tender

Lighthouse tender

A lighthouse tender is a ship specifically designed to maintain, support, or tend to lighthouses, or lightvessels, providing supplies, fuel, mail and transportation....

Pansy brought a crew to replace the acetylene tanks. In the course of the work the old tanks exploded, injuring five of the men, though with no fatalities. The tower, however, was completely destroyed. A skeleton tower was erected on the old pier; this was replaced in 1997 with a shorter tower on the same foundation.