Rhode Island Lighthouses

  Lime Rock Light  
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The stories of Ida's five rescues with photographs and maps.

The following pages are from Ida Lewis the heroine of Lime Rock by George Douglas Brewerton. They tell the stories of Ida's first five rescues. The book was published in 1869. These stories are probably the most accurate versions of what happened during the rescues. They were told to Brewerton by Ida. I did find one inaccuracy in the book. The distance from Lime Rock Lighthouse to Jones Wharf. The book stated it was 600 yards. It was 600 feet. There may be places named in the book, who names have changed or local nicknames were used instead of the real name.

In the story about Ida's third rescue, it mentions the old mill wharf. There were no wharf with that name in Newport at that time. There were two wharfs that could be the wharf named in the story, Percy Mill Wharf and Factory Wharf. I believe it was Factory Wharf for several reasons. One is that in Rhode Island factories were known as mills. Two it was much closer to Lime Rock than Percy Mill Wharf. The third reason is, why give it a nickname if it had a proper name.