A friend of mine from Nevada sent me a pdf file of the "Gazatteer of the United States of America" It was printed in 1851 and lists a number sites, landmarks, etc. at that time. One list was "Light-houses".

I was looking through the New Jersey listing and there was Neversink, not Navesink. Was the name changed or was this a typo?

The link is here:
Gazetteer of the United States of America - 1851
Pages 680-688
Its on page 684 listed under Highlands of Neversink

I have heard that name for the light. I think it might be an example of 18th-19th century spelling. I don't know if this happened because of that being the way that the word was actually pronounced, or that the person who was writing it was not from the area or wasn't a spelling bee champ.

If you look through these types of old documents, you find a multitude of these words. One of my favourites is "lanthorn", which was on a Sandy Hook-related document - I think one dealing with its 1850s renovation (with the dawn of the Fresnel lens, many of the US lights were renovated in the mid-1800s to improve their optical quality with the removal of birdcage lanterns and their replacement with larger, "modern" ones).

Very interesting find...

Here are a couple of things I found on ebay no less...


A postcard from 1905


An engraving from 1872

Keep in mind there is a Neversink river near neversink, NY.

You learn something almost everyday at the Collector Forums!

Very interesting

I would guess that it was a mispelling. Why would they ever need to change the original spelling?

Perhaps there was something lost in a translation along the way. Perhaps someone used the term "never sink" to describe the ruggedness of Navesink Light, as in "This light will never sink into the ocean."

Your guess is as good as mine.

Bob

To get more info, I went to the Navesink expert, NJLHS president and Navesink LH president (I think), Tom Laverty. Here's what his email says:

Hope this helps!