![]() ![]() The amount of maritime traffic passing Long Island as it entered Boston Harbor from Broad Sound spurred a committee of the Boston Marine Society to petition Congressman Jonathan Mason for a lighthouse on the island. The island’s northeastern point, known as Long Island Head, has been home to multiple fortifications and lighthouses. ![]() The island consists of three drumlins (rounded hills of unstratified glacial drift), and ships would often stop there to take on ballast before heading out to sea. ![]() Long Island is so named because, well, it is precisely that - long - the longest (1.75 miles) and largest (214 acres) of the thirty-four islands in Boston Harbor. The terrifying Lady in Scarlet was also seen and heard in 1891 by a soldier at Fort Strong, which was built on the island shortly after the Civil War. With blood pouring from her head wound, she floated over a hill and disappeared. In 1804, fishermen shipwrecked on Long Island encountered the ghost of Mary Burton, wrapped in a red cloak, and heard the wraith’s moaning. Second Long Island Head Lighthouse built in 1844 Honoring her request, William tenderly wrapped Mary in a scarlet blanket and took her body to Long Island, where he buried his beloved after a short service. Cannonballs fired by Americans fatally injured Mary Burton, who was sailing aboard a ship with her husband William, and she begged to not be buried at sea. As the American Revolution was drawing to an end, the American fleet blockaded a few British vessels in Boston Harbor, and intense artillery battles ensued. Chris DeBurgh may sing about his sexy Lady in Red, but Long Island in Boston’s inner harbor is home to the far scarier Lady in Scarlet. ![]()
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