St. Clement's Island, Maryland

St. Clement's Island has a long and varied history. The island was the first settlement for the British colonists coming to Maryland in 1634. Leonard Calvert came with a group of Catholics and Protestants from England. The group included Father Andrew White, S.J., who said the first Mass in the English colonies on March 25, 1634 on the island. Before the leaders found a good spot on the mainland for their settlement, the colonists stayed on the island.

St. Clement's Island seen from the shore

The island was included in St. Clement's Manor, a tract of land granted to Thomas Gerard in 1639. Later, it was owned by the Blackistone family and eventually became known as Blackistone Island. They owned it for two hundred years, so the change was natural.

In the mid-1800s, the U.S. Government built a lighthouse on the island that served to guide ships entering the Potomac River from the Chesapeake Bay. The U.S. Navy bought the island in 1919 and automated the lighthouse in 1932. It eventually fell into ruin and burned down in 1956. A historic recreation of the house was built in 2008.

Tourists can visit the island either through the St. Clement's Island Museum, which runs a motor boat between the shore and the island, or by taking their own boat or swimming (though swimming is not recommended due to the number of boats in the area). We took the museum's ferry.

Happy ferry riders

View of the shore from the ferry

The north end of the island

The ferry left us on a long pier. A lot of people come to fish off the island, so we shared the boat with many people who didn't go farther than the pier.

Walking the pier

View to Maryland from the island

We saw one trail that looked intriguing and seemed to be the only way south to the area with the lighthouse and the memorial for the first Mass.

Some vehicle must use this trail, right?

The trail turned out to be swampy and spooky. Some of the puddles were too large to avoid so we had to walk through them.

Spooky trees

We were surprised to see some informational signs that provided no insight whatsoever into the history of the island.

Your ad here?

A spacious field at the southern end of the island has a large tree planted by the Optimists Club of St. Marys County, the first of 500 trees added to honor Father Andrew White's description of the island having "great virgin forests."

Optimists' tree

The field also has a stage on which our children provided some entertainment.

Might as well take advantage of it

Three different performances at once!

The other end of the field has the memorial cross and the lighthouse.

Lots of space

Memorial to the first Mass

The other side of the memorial

The lighthouse is open on weekends, so we were able to visit the interior. I was amazed to see it was both the house for the keeper and the light. It must have been very convenient not to have to go to another building to keep the light running.

Recreated lighthouse

Two of three children?

Hiding behind the lady lightkeeper

The plans of the lighthouse

The view from the cupola was nice, even if the trek up was treacherous (though not too strenuous). 

View of the cross

View to Maryland

View to Virginia

Enjoying the view

Going down is always more nerve wracking 

Spiral staircase

For foggy days, the island had a small bell tower which the lightkeepers could ring. The original bell house was built in 1888 and had an automated system to ring the bell every sixteen seconds. The new tower was completed in 2010. The bell is still ringable by visitors.

Bell tower

Ring away!

A landing point for kayaks

Playing on the beach

As we headed back, we discovered a tree-line boulevard, courtesy of the Optimists' Club. It was dry to the foot and pleasant for the eye (but maybe not for the butterfly).

An easier path

A poor butterfly

Back at the pier, we did not have a long wait for our ride.

The ferry returns

Back on the mainland, we did a quick tour through the museum.

St. Clement's Island Museum

Lighthouse info

My son took a picture with Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I. Maryland was ostensibly named after her, though with Catholic founders, it's hard not to imagine an intention to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Posing with royalty

A small set of figures depicts Governor Leonard Calvert declaring the Act of Religious Tolerance that allowed religious freedom to all Christians who believed at least in the Trinity. The Maryland General Assembly codified the act in 1649 with An Act Concerning Religion. Once King Charles I was overthrown during the English Civil War, the Protestant government modified the act to exclude Roman Catholics! The situation shifted through the years. 

Laying down the law

The museum has a fun model of the lighthouse that opens up.

Blackistone Lighthouse

Action figures not included

Movie Review: The Lighthouse (2019)

The Lighthouse (2019) co-written and directed by Robert Eggers

An old salt of a seaman (Willem Dafoe) and a young wanderer (Robert Pattinson) are left for a month to tend a lighthouse on a remote island. The old salt vacillates between a domineering Ahab and a sympathetic father figure. The young wanderer is a bit frustrated and withdrawn. Both have their secrets and the audience initially sympathizes with the young man, especially when weird things start happening. Seagulls provide the young man with problems; the old salt warns him not to harm a seabird or else disaster may strike. In a moment of anger, the young man kills a gull. A storm blows in just before they are to be picked up and returned to civilization. By this point, the young man's sanity is slipping and he has a hard time telling what's real and what's wrong. He is clearly going mad; it's unclear whether the old salt is also going mad or has been mad the whole time or is something else entirely.

The film is shot in black and white with a 1:1.19 aspect ratio, making the image almost square. The lighting is very evocative, pulling out details in their faces and eyes and making light sources flare eerily. The look is visual impressive and distinct. The score is fairly low-key except for certain moments; other sounds, like an omnipresent fog horn, give the movie a lot of atmosphere. The dialogue is also unique, with language mimicking Herman Melville and other 1800s New England patter. Dafoe is especially good at delivering long speeches in the old language and he looks the part of a salty old seaman.

The descent into madness starts gradually and picks up as the movie progresses. Both characters start losing track of reality, making it difficult (though not always impossible) for viewers to know what is real and what is imagined/dreamed/hallucinated. It's as if the filmmakers want the viewers to share the characters' experience of going mad. For me, it went on too long--I lost my sympathy for both characters and was hoping for the movie to end ten minutes before it did. As a depiction of going mad, it does the job a little too well.

Eggers is the same writer/director of The Witch, which has a similar attention to period detail and dialogue, along with a distinct visual style. In The Lighthouse, everything is turned up to eleven. If you liked The Witch, this is even more so. If you thought The Witch was overdoing it, this is even more overdone.

Not recommended--I did rewatch The Witch once, but I am not going to rewatch this.