Dennis Patrick Carroll was born in October 1929, a son of Dennis A. and Maybelle Carroll, who made their home on Ray St. in Sackets Harbor, Jefferson Co., New York. He was a Coast Guardsman and the last Keeper of Rock Island Lighthouse.

Early Life

        Pat developed a love of maritime life at an early age. Carl Jackson, a Coast Guardsman who owned a fuel station in Sackets near the American Legion, used to let Pat come down to the docks to explore the ships. By about age 8 or 9, Pat was an avid model shipbuilding, with some of his first models being displayed at the Legion hall.

        Inspired by Jackson, Pat enlisted in the Coast Guard around 1947 or 1948, and was sent to Cape May for training. After training he was assigned to the cutter Maple—this was a new Maple, the original is in Detroit Mariners Museum. In 1950, Pat was restationed at Sackets to care for his mother who had cancer.

        Prior to working at Rock Island, Pat was assigned to law enforcement, providing port security for dynamite that was being used in the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway. When dynamite needed to be taken across property or across the international border, Pat was in charge of making sure the owners or customs signed a release to allow the transport.

Appointment to Rock Island

        In the summer of 1955, the Coast Guard assigned Pat to replace John W. Van Ingen as keeper of Rock Island Lighthouse. This order was in keeping with the Coast Guard's effort to cut costs by systematically replacing the keepers who held lifetime appointments to their stations as civil servants under the old U.S. Lighthouse Service with U.S. Coast Guardsmen who would be subject to Coast Guard guidelines and protocols. This scheme was the source of much friction between the old keeper establishment and the new.

        Accordingly, the Coast Guard wanted proof of the transfer of responsibility for Rock Island, and tasked Pat with securing a photograph of himself handing Van Ingen his orders for retirement. Pat recalls that the Coast Guard didn't want to pay for the film, so he bought the film, and Van ingen's wife took the picture using Pat's camera.

Life at Rock Island

        Transportation to and from the island was via a 20ft or 25ft launch with a 4-cylinder engine provided by the Coast Guard.

        Pat was the only worker at Rock Island; no assistant was provided. Occasionally, Pat persuaded his friend Charlie Chandler, a 2nd Class Boatswain stationed at Cape Vincent, to help him with odd jobs.

        Pat did not live at the station, but rather at an apartment rented in Alexandria Bay, through a program the Coast Guard called "subsistence and quarters,"—part of their efforts to cut costs by eliminating operating and maintenance expenses for some structures at light stations. Pat recalls that Van Ingen had also worked under a subsistence and quarters arrangement, rather than living in the keeper's quarters at Rock Island. In fact, Pat recalls that by the time of his appointment the house at Rock Island was "condemned," and that Van Ingen told him the house was condemned during during his tenure too.

        Further recollections of Pat Carroll come from life-long Thousand Islands resident and self-appointed Rock Island Lighthouse caretaker, Manny Jerome. Manny recalls that due to the condition of the keeper's quarters, when Pat would stay at Rock Island he would take shelter in the carpenter's shop, which he furnished with a stove and a bed. Pat was not married and had no children during the time that he was at Rock Island. Manny came to know Pat's family when he was a boy, since Pat's mother was a babysitter for the Jeromes at their home in Sackets Habor. From the age of 12 to about 18 or so, Manny visited Rock Island regularly where he helped Pat, who was responsible for river navigation from Alexandria to Cape Vincent, care for the station. Fuel used to be brought to the island by boat, and needed to be hauled up by hand in five gallon cans to the generator house, which Manny and his brother helped Pat do on several occasions.

        The lighthouse at Rock Island did not need much maintenance. The cycling of the light in the tower was automated by clocks, which were powered by two glass storage batteries. One battery ran at a time to power the light, while the other battery was charged by the two gas generators located on the island. This power system was unique to Rock Island, since all other lighthouses in the area were by then powered by electricity from Niagara Mohawk.

        The lantern at Rock Island had a fixed light provided by a plain screw-in bulb, with a green lens. In his time there, Pat does not recall the bulb needing to be changed.

        Rock Island's usefulness as a buoy depot had declined by Pat's time. Typically, at the start of the winter season, the cutter Maple would gather up the buoys from the St. Lawrence and bring them to the station. The skippers on the cutter would roll them off the ship onto a small marine railcar which allowed them to glide on tracks embedded in the dock and into the large buoy shed. There the skippers would scrape and paint the buoys during the winter months to prepare them for the next season. By Pat's appointment, the skippers stationed at Ogdensburg and elsewhere had found it more desireable to service the buoys closer to where they were deployed, making Cape Vincent and Ogdensburg the main servicing stations instead of Rock Island.

Closing of Rock Island Lighthouse

        In the summer of 1955 Pat received noticed that Rock Island Lighthouse was to be closed. The reason was simple: to save money.

        Pat was ordered to gather up all government property and bring it to the Coast Guard station at Cape Vincent. There wasn't much on the island to collect: Van Ingen hadn't left any logbooks, and only a small manual was left behind, along witha pair of binoculars, some hip boots, and six paintbrushes. Pat turned in the property and his own logbooks, along with the bulbs. All these things were taken to Cape Vincent on the ship Ojibwa. The gas generators and their accompanying 500-gallon tank were left behind.

        Pat's last log entry was 31 December 1955. In January 1956, Pat was transferred to Buffalo. Rock Island turned out to be the only lighthouse he was ever appointed to.

Extract from the last known logbook entry for Rock Island Station.

        The prior keeper's son, John C. Van Ingen, who was eight years old when his own family was transferred to Rock Island, remembers:

        "I believe that an electrical cable was run out to the station in 1957. Pat did not re-enlist and went to work for some company in Alexandria Bay doing work on the Seaway which was just getting started then."

Life Since Rock Island

        Pat retired from the Coast Guard after 20 years and moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, to escape life in the "Lower 48."

        In 1967, Pat was deployed to serve in Vietnam. While he was away, Fairbanks endured a massive, 6-week flood, and in it all of Pat's possessions were destroyed, including thousands of pictures of his time in the Thousand Islands. Fortunately, Pat's former wife, who lived in Florida by then, had one box of Pat's belongings containing material from his time at Rock Island stored in her attic, and this material has survived today.

        Today, Pat still lives in the Fairbanks area where he is well-known for his model shipbuilding skills. One of Pat's best-known models is a 64" long replica of one of the famous wooden paddlewheel boats that used to ply the waters off Anchorage. The federal government paid for the materials to build the model and Pat gave it to the city of Fairbanks for $3,000, where today it is on display at the Fairbanks International Airport.