Swetman Island, formerly False Duck Island, is a small Canadian island in Lake Ontario, south of Picton, Ontario.[1][2] It is the largest island in a chain of islands and shoals known as the False Duck Islands, not to be confused with the nearby Main Duck Islands.[3] Nearby Timber Island is also considered part of the False Duck Islands. The False Duck Islands, the Main Duck Islands, and Galloo Island and Stony Island on the US side, and their associated shoals, form the Duck Galloo Ridge.
The first stone lighthouse on the island was built in 1829.[1][2] A second, taller lighthouse, built from concrete, replaced the original lighthouse in 1865. It was changed to automated operation in 1989.
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"False Ducks (1967) Lighthouse". Lighthouse Friends. Retrieved 2017-06-21.
The easternmost island of the False Ducks was originally called False Duck Island but is now more commonly called Swetman Island, the surname of the first two lighthouse keepers to serve there. Duckling Reef extends southwest from Swetman Island, nearly reaching Prince Edward Point, while Timber Island, the other of the False Ducks, lies just northwest of Swetman Island.
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Susanna McLeod (2016-06-21). "Island has unique heritage". Kingston Whig-Standard. Archived from the original on 2017-12-04.
The treacherous nature of the islands was at last recognized in the late 1800s. Lighthouses were installed on Galoo Island to the east of Main Duck, near Sacket's Harbour, N.Y., and on False Duck Island to the west, near Picton.
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"Duck Islands Claim Three More Lives". Syracuse Herald. Kingston, Ontario. 1931-01-18. Retrieved 2017-06-21.
Mariners of past years now living in the cities and towns of both the United States and Canada are always ready to tell of incidents which took place in the neighborhood, and each new disaster recalls memories of the past.