Any New Englander knows the wrath of a Nor’easter. In living memory we can point to the dreadful winter of 2008 when the Granite State was ravaged by a brutal ice storm, resulting in over $30 million in damages. Who could forget the thick coating of ice that toppled trees, crushed roofs and made roads impassable? In 1950 the “Storm of the Century” raged through the eastern United States over Thanksgiving, resulting in heavy flooding. The aftermath of this severe bout of weather was $70 million in damages and over 300 deaths. However, I wish to take us back further, to the year 1840, another fierce winter season in New England’s history. It was in this historic year that Thomas Laighton (1805-1866) took up his post as lighthouse keeper at White Island, the most southward of the Isles of Shoals.