Description

The shorthand, as the story goes, dates back to the early 1900s from Minot’s Ledge lighthouse off the coast of Cohasset, Massachusetts. The story begins in 1895, when the lighthouse changed its flash pattern after a recommendation that all lighthouses have numerical flash sequences. The order, one quick flash, four flashes, then three flashes, was apparently chosen at random.

In 1915, a new assistant lighthouse keeper, Winfield Scott Thompson, came to the Minot’s Ledge lighthouse. His family lived on a neighboring island and could see the flash of the lighthouse at night. According to legend, Mary Thompson, Winfield’s wife, told their children that it was the I Love You flash, their father’s way of telling them how much he loved them from across the water. Each flash corresponded to the number of letters in each word of the phrase: I love you!