Sheffield Island Lighthouse

Archaeologist Karen Orawsky heard sourceless mystical music, cries for help, and a phantom foghorn approaching Sheffield Island in 1991, where there is no foghorn. The 1868 Norwalk lighthouse sits near where 139 people died in the 1840 Lexington steamship fire, its keeper Noah Mosher dropped dead mid-conversation in 1872, and investigators have identified a young ghost named Abby they believe is responsible for the recurring cries.

In 1991, archaeologist Karen Orawsky was heading to Sheffield Island by boat when she heard music coming from the shore. Hypnotic, mystical, sourceless. Then cries for help, distant but clear. Then a foghorn.

There is no foghorn on Sheffield Island.

The lighthouse sits on a small island off Norwalk, Connecticut, in Long Island Sound. Ten rooms, Victorian architecture, built in 1868 to replace an earlier light that had served since 1826. For most of its operational life, it was a quiet posting. Keepers maintained the fourth-order Fresnel lens (installed in 1857 to replace the original ten-lamp system), watched ships pass, and lived with their families in relative isolation.

Keeper Noah Mosher broke that pattern on a July day in 1872. He was standing in the dining room, spyglass in hand, watching vessels in the Sound and chatting with visitors. Mid-sentence, he fell backward and died. The cause was never determined.

But the island's most violent history happened on the water around it.

On January 13, 1840, the steamship Lexington was running at full speed through Long Island Sound with 143 passengers and crew aboard. Cotton bales stacked near the smokestack caught fire around 7 p.m. The crew couldn't shut down the boilers. The ship kept racing forward, fully engulfed. When lifeboats launched, they capsized immediately in the churning water.

Only four people survived. Chester Hilliard, 24, clung to a cotton bale. Captain Stephen Manchester, pilot, and Charles Smith, fireman, were pulled from the water by the sloop Merchant the next morning. Second mate David Crowley drifted for 43 hours on debris before washing ashore 50 miles away. The other 139 people froze or drowned in the January water.

The Lexington disaster was the worst maritime accident in Long Island Sound history. Sheffield Island Lighthouse would have been one of the last lights many of those passengers saw.

Orawsky's experience wasn't isolated. Paranormal investigators who've visited the island have identified a presence they call Abby, a young girl whose cause of death is unknown but who some believe is responsible for the cries for help that echo across the water. The mystical music has been attributed to Captain Robert Sheffield, who purchased the islands in the early 1800s and was known for playing a strange instrument called the "long spell," an oversized violin played with porcupine quills.

Conde Nast Traveler listed Sheffield Island Lighthouse among Connecticut's "spookiest and most paranormal activity sites" in 2023, alongside the Mark Twain House in Hartford. The Norwalk Seaport Association runs seasonal ferry trips and occasional ghost tours.

The music, the cries, the phantom foghorn. The keeper who dropped dead mid-conversation. The 139 passengers who burned and froze within sight of the light. Sheffield Island is small, but it carries more than its share.