A new vessel bearing Charlie Erdmann’s name will increase access to Greens Ledge Lighthouse while honoring a life defined by a deep connection to Long Island Sound.
When the boat touched the water for the first time, Barbara Erdmann watched and stayed visibly emotional for a long while afterward. It wasn’t just a boat—sleek, aluminum, built for speed and purpose. The boat bore her son’s name, painted on a vessel that would carry people across the waters he loved for years to come.
That boat—a 23-passenger Munson landing craft built to travel at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour, carry more than three tons of cargo and beach itself directly on sand — departed a boatyard in Washington state on a Friday for a seven-day journey to Long Island Sound. Its name, painted proudly across the hull: Lightkeeper Charlie Erdmann.
The story of how it got there begins, in a sense, with a lighthouse that almost didn’t survive. Standing a mile off the coast of Rowayton and Darien since 1902, Greens Ledge Lighthouse was once listed by the National Register of Historic Places in “deteriorated” condition—just one rung above “ruins.” In 2016, the Pettee family of Rowayton purchased the lighthouse at a federal auction for $150,000 and established the nonprofit Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society (GLLPS) to save and restore it.
What followed was years of painstaking, expensive work: stripping away decades of paint by hand, rebuilding a structure where nothing sits perfectly plumb and creating a self-sustaining building powered by solar panels, wind energy and a desalination system that makes seawater drinkable. By 2023, the lighthouse—repainted its signature red and white, with its interior fully restored—opened to the public for the first time ever, hosting tours, weddings and overnight guests lulled to sleep by waves breaking against the caisson a mile from shore.
The organiation’s original plan was to lean on third-party charter operators to ferry visitors to the lighthouse. It didn’t take long to realize that approach had limits. “The third-party charter business was lacking in the Norwalk-Darien community,” says Tim Pettee, president of GLLPS. About three years ago, his son, Alex, proposed a different solution to the board: purchase their own vessel.
Alex Pettee had already been imagining a vessel designed for more than ferrying visitors. He envisioned one that could land directly on local beaches, making trips to the lighthouse possible for school groups that couldn’t otherwise afford a private charter.
They found their answer in Munson Boats, a builder best known for its fireboats, police vessels and military craft— rugged, workhorse boats built for demanding conditions, not just leisurely cruises. GLLPS placed its order in December 2023, then waited out a long production queue for a boat intentionally designed to fit within reach of an all-volunteer organization: big enough to carry an entire school group out to the lighthouse, yet small enough not to require a large crew that they didn’t have.
By the time the boat was ready to be named, everything had changed. On March 2, Charlie Erdmann—a 28-year-old Norwalk native and an avid boater and fisherman who’d spent much of his life on Long Island Sound—was killed in a car accident in Stratton, Vermont. His parents, Jeff and Barbara, had been fixtures in the Fairfield County community for years, with deep ties to the Maritime Aquarium, where Jeff’s father had logged more volunteer hours than almost anyone in the organization’s history. At that point, the boat had no official name—just a working title: the Lightkeeper.
Within days of Charlie’s death, board members Tim Pettee, Alex Pettee, Chris Walker and Anthony DeChellis proposed naming the vessel in his honor. “It provided a meaningful uplift amidst their grief,” Tim Pettee says. “It provided a channel for them to think about Charlie in the future.” Still reeling their loss, the Erdmann family immediately embraced the idea. Naming rights of this kind typically come with a hefty contributionthe community quickly met in Charlie’s memory.
“Charlie was constantly on the water,” board member Chris Walker says. “He probably went by Greens Ledge Lighthouse a thousand times in his boating life.” A plaque now mounted on the vessel captures his connection to the Long Island Sound:
Charlie Erdmann knew the water the way most people know solid ground—by instinct, by feel, by the pull of something deeper than words. He was a boatman, an outdoorsman, and a friend to everyone who ever had the good fortune to step aboard a boat with him. This vessel carries his name because it carries his purpose: to bring people together on the water.
What GLLPS leaders saw was a family who’d given generously to a shared cause, and a young man whose connection to the Sound mirrored their own—not casual but deeply rooted. “It’s a very fitting tribute,” Alex Pettee says. “His passions are very much shared by us and are consistent with our mission.”
The Sound has a way of drawing people to it—a wide, working, occasionally unpredictable body of water now watched over by a restored 1902 lighthouse that serves as an education center and gathering place. Charlie Erdmann spent his life exploring those waters. Now, his name on the bow of a sturdy vessel will carry his legacy forward, helping others discover the same connection to the water that meant so much to him.