During the 1800’s shipping in Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay had to contend with a navigational hazard in the West Passage known as the Plum Beach Shoal. Ships would hug the western side of the passage to avoid Dutch Island, but would sometimes end up running onto the shoal. Mariners asked for a navigational marker to be placed on the shoal and Congress responded in 1895 with an appropriation to build the Plum Beach Lighthouse.