Fred may or may not reside eternally on the property of the Owls Head Light Station. It could be one ghost. It could be multiple. Many a lighthouse keeper has claimed to have experienced irrational occurrences during his time as guardian over Penobscot Bay. Other stories, as well, surface from the sea.

Gorham Rowell, the lighthouse keeper at Owls Head from 1974 to 1976, lived with a ghost, who played pranks upstairs in the keeper’s house.

“You hear stories about ghosts and strange occurrences,” said Rowell, during the 200th anniversary of Maine’s 13th lighthouse, September 10, 2025. “Well, they’re here. They’re probably watching right now.”

Rowell spoke of hearing choirs sing on New Year’s Eve, out in the yard. He went out in the yard, and did not hear a-one of them. When Rowell returned inside, they started again.

A story passes through the ages of a man who got caught in a winter storm in the harbor. He was iced over and was brought to the lighthouse where he passed away in an upstairs bedroom. His newlywed wife died before reaching shore. Some lighthouse keepers referred to the man's eternal presence as "Fred."

Andy Germann lived at the lighthouse from 1983 – 1987 along with his wife and two daughters... and Fred, who visited the family often in the upstairs of the keeper’s house.

“He was extremely active when we were here,” he said.

He wasn’t active for everyone, according to Germann, though Fred was also very active for the keeper that Germann relieved. For sake of time limits during the ceremony, Germann did not expound, saying that he could easily revert into long stories surrounding these unexplainable phenomenons.

For another keeper, ghostly antics occurred outside, and that keeper referred to the phenomenon as Isaac.

“No matter where I walked on this property at night, I was never alone,” said the keeper. “I just named him Isaac, but he was right here all the time.”

An Isaac did indeed play a part in the lighthouse’s history, though it may not be the same reference.

In 1825, John Quincy Adams appointed Isaac Sterns as the first keeper of Owls Head Light; the 15-foot tower that cost $2,707 to construct on 17.5 acres, and which stood sentry over fishing vessels, commercial vessels, and... something more?

CWO4 Paul Dilger, U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.), tells the story of two elderly women who visited the lighthouse during his tenure. In his dialogue with them, one of them talked quite a bit, the other did not talk much at all. Conversation turned to World War II and how Penobscot Bay was a gathering point for the convoys before they headed to Europe.

Dilger mentioned that he’d heard rumors of one or two German U-Boats in Penobscot Bay, or at least sunk nearby.

“The other lady finally spoke up,” said Dilger. “And in a heavy accent: ‘My baby brother was on a German U-Boat that sunk off the coast of Maine in World War II’”

Automation has replaced the human touch. Automobiles and access roads now allow a way out where once the three-mile hike to Rockland was unattainable during winter months. Yet, Fred and Isaac are sticking around. Or are they?