Little Gull Island Light is a lighthouse on Little Gull Island, off Fisher's Island, New York in Long Island Sound.HistoryThe first lighthouse was a 51ft high tower established in 1806, which was replaced by the current 81ft conical tower and a second order Fresnel lens in 1869. The lighthouse was automated in 1978 and is still operational. The foundation is a granite pier and the construction material is granite.In 1813, the light was extinguished by a group of Royal Marines in a raid led by Commodore Thomas Hardy during the War of 1812.On May 12, 1881, the Galatea, bound from Providence, Rhode Island to New York, ran aground in the calm due to the dense fog. Two days later, the ship was able to get off the island without damage. The Lighthouse Board opened an investigation because it was suspected that the fog signal was not operational during that time. The naval officer in charge of the investigation, French Ensor Chadwick, spent time questioning witnesses and others who might have heard the signal, and tested the signal at various locations around Little Gull Island. He concluded that the fog signal was operational during the time as the signal was heard at Mystic, Connecticut and a tug boat that was farther away than the Galatea, and that the aberrations and eccentricities around Little Gull were even more significant than around Beavertail Lighthouse where sound tests were run later in 1881.
