Part 6

Thomas B. Laighton, who was defeated for Governor of New Hampshire in 1839, sold his business in Portsmouth and became keeper of the Isle of Shoals Light. Five years before, he had purchased Appledore, Smutty Nose, Malaga, and Cedar Islands, across the boundary line in Maine, from Capt. Samuel Haley. When Laighton retired as keeper in 1847, he had built a large hotel, the Oceanic, on Star Island.

During the Civil War, because of the danger from blockade runners and Southern gunboats, the lighthouse was entirely rebuilt of granite, with walls 2 feet thick.

One night in 1873, Louis Wagner, knowing that the men were away from Smutty Nose Island, rowed all the way across from the mainland to rob fisherman Houtnet’s residence. Caught and recognized by the women, Wagner killed two of the three females on the island. Then he returned to his dory and rowed back to the mainland. Later he was captured, tried, and hanged.

Today the white conical tower rises 58 feet above ground and 82 feet above the water, and the 170,000-candlepower second-order incandescent oil-vapor light, flashing white every 15 seconds, is visible for 15 miles. An air diaphragm horn blasts for 3 seconds every 30 seconds during fog. (5) (6)

_NEW HAMPSHIRE_ PORTSMOUTH HARBOR LIGHTHOUSE

In 1771 the first wooden tower at Portsmouth Harbor was built on a point of land running out into the harbor. This early colonial tower was one of the 12 lighthouses turned over to the Federal Government under the act of August 7, 1789. The original tower was replaced by another wooden tower in 1804. In 1877 this second tower was removed and a cast-iron beacon erected 1,000 feet east of the first station. This was on ground known as Newcastle. In reaching the lighthouse by land one has to pass through the “Old Fort” yard before arriving at the lighthouse reservation.

For 30 years after its first settlement in 1623, this area was known as “Strawberry Bank” because of a large patch of wild strawberries on the bank of the river.

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In 1789 the Portsmouth Lighthouse was visited by George Washington who remained in Portsmouth 4 days. Earlier in 1782 General Lafayette had been a lighthouse visitor. Daniel Webster practiced law here in 1807, and was a frequent visitor at the lighthouse during his 9 years of residence in Portsmouth.

Today the lighthouse is a white conical tower, with a fog signal house attached, built on Fort Point. It rises 52 feet above the water and its 3,000 candlepower fourth-order electric light flashes a green light visible 13 miles. During fog a bell strikes once every 10 seconds. (5) (7)

_NEW JERSEY_ NAVESINK LIGHTHOUSE

Navesink Light, N. J., on Navesink Highlands, south of the entrance to New York, was established in 1828. It consisted originally of two rubble towers. In 1862 two brownstone towers replaced these, the north tower being octagonal and the south tower square. They are 73 feet high and connected by a dwelling. The present light is exhibited from the south tower only and shows a flashing white light every 5 seconds, 246 feet above water and visible 19 miles. The light in the north tower was discontinued in 1898.

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In 1841 the first Fresnel lens to be used in this country was imported from France and installed in the south tower. In 1898 an electric arc lamp replaced oil lamps in the south tower, this being the first primary lighthouse in the United States to use electric light. The electric arc lamp was equipped with a bivalve lens of the new lighting type. This lens, weighing over 7 tons, revolved in 10 seconds, and gave a flash every 5 seconds, lasting 0.3 seconds. The Navesink Light was the only shore station having a plant for generating electricity. Its estimated candlepower was 25,000,000 making it the most powerful coast light in the United States. Although on account of the curvature of the earth, the light itself could not be seen more than 22 miles, its beam was reported to have been observed in the sky at a distance of 70 nautical miles.

After the establishment of this electric flashing light many complaints were made by residents of the neighborhood of the great discomfort and annoyance caused by the brilliancy of the flash. This was remedied by darkening several of the lantern panels on the land side. The light was later changed to an electric incandescent light of 9,000,000 candlepower. With the improvement in floating aids, however, this lighthouse lost some of its early importance, and the candlepower was reduced to 5,000 candlepower. It was changed to unwatched in 1949. The light was discontinued in 1952 and used as a daybeacon until 1963. (3) (4)

_NEW JERSEY_ SANDY HOOK LIGHTHOUSE

The Sandy Hook Light tower is the oldest original tower still standing and in use in the United States. The light in this tower was lighted for the first time on June 11, 1764. Originally called the “New York Lighthouse,” it was built by Mr. Isaac Conro of New York City with money collected by a group of New York merchants and maintained by tonnage dues of 22 pence per ton paid to the port of New York “By order of an Act of the Colony.” The location of the lighthouse on New Jersey land eventually caused dissension between the two States. It was one of the 12 lighthouses built by the colonies which, by the act of August 7, 1789, were ceded to the United States. The new Federal Government agreed to maintain them thereafter.

The lighthouse was described in 1764 as follows: “This House is of an Octagon Figure, having eight equal sides; the Diameter of the Base 29 feet; and at the Top of the Wall 15 Feet. The Lanthorn is 7 feet high; the Circumference 15 Feet. The whole Construction of the Lanthorn is Iron; the top covered with Copper. There are 48 Oil Blazes. The Building from the Surfaces is Nine Stories; the whole from Bottom to Top 103 Feet.”

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A lot of about 4 acres “at the point of Sandy Hook, in Monmouth County,” was ceded to the United States by the State of New Jersey on November 16, 1790, and on March 1, 1804, the State of New Jersey “consented to the purchase of a lot on the north point of Sandy Hook, for the purpose of erecting a beacon.” Appropriations for a beacon “to be erected on the north point of Sandy Hook” were made in 1804 ($2,000), 1805 ($6,000), 1807 ($1,200) and 1817 ($1,200). In 1832 there were two beacons on the Hook, “one on the north point, ranging with the light and buoy of the upper middle; and the westernmost one and light ranging with the buoy on the SW. spit, in both of which are lamps.”

In 1852 the Lighthouse Board reported “The tower of Sandy Hook main light was constructed in 1764, under royal charter, of rubblestone, and is now in a good state of preservation. Neither leaks nor cracks were observed in it. The mortar appeared to be good, and it was stated that the annual repairs upon this tower amount to a smaller sum than in the towers of any of the minor lights in the New York district. * * * The illuminating apparatus is composed of 18 21 inch reflectors, and argand lamps which were fitted new, according to the best information on the subject, in 1842.”

The light is a 60,000-candlepower, third-order electric light, fixed white, in a white stone tower, 85 feet above ground and 88 feet above water, visible for 15 miles. (1) (2) (7)

_NEW YORK_ CROWN POINT MEMORIAL, LAKE CHAMPLAIN

In 1858 a light was placed on a 7-acre site at Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, near the historic Grenadier Battery, historic ruins of French and English fortifications. The base of the tower was 57 feet above water and the focal plane was 86 feet above water level. A fixed fifth-order, white light was there in 1894. In 1888 a steamboat wharf had been built to accommodate visitors by water to the fortifications.

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In 1926 the light was discontinued and the site conveyed to the State of New York. The States of New York and Vermont, as part of the commemoration of the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the lake by Samuel de Champlain, removed the old tower and built in its stead an ornamental cylindrical tower of cut granite blocks, surrounded by eight Doric columns. On the pedestal is an heroic group in bronze with Champlain as the central figure, presented by the Republic of France. The bronze group was designed by Rodin, the famous French sculptor. (3)

_NEW YORK_ PORTLAND HARBOR (BARCELONA) LIGHTHOUSE SOUTH SHORE OF LAKE ERIE

Congress appropriated $5,000 on May 23, 1828, “for building a lighthouse at a proper site, at or near Portland, on Lake Erie, in the State of New York.” The site was purchased for $50 and contract was made to erect a lighthouse and dwelling which cost $3,456.78. The first keeper appointed May 27, 1829, was Joshua Lane, a “deaf, superannuated clergyman, having numerous female dependents” whose salary was $350 per annum.

The first light apparatus was described in the contract as 11 patent lamps with 11 14-inch reflectors and 2 spare lamps. There were double tin oil butts for 500 gallons of oil. No mention was made at that time of equipment for burning natural gas.

On January 1, 1831, a contract was made to provide the light with natural gas “at all times and seasons” and to keep the apparatus and fixtures in repair at an annual cost of $213. This was described at the time as follows:

“The Lighthouse at Portland Harbor in the County of Chautauqua and State of New York, is now illuminated, in the most splendid style, by _natural carburetted hydrogen gas_. Ever since the first settlement of the country about Portland, it has been known that an inflammable gas constantly issued from the fissures of a rock, which forms the bed of a little brook that empties into Lake Erie, near the harbor, in such quantity as to be easily set on fire by applying a flame to it. This fountain of gas was known to the early settlers of the country by the name of the ‘burning spring.’ No valuable use, however, was made of this gas until Mr. W. A. Hart, an ingenious gunsmith of the village of Fredonia, and some other young mechanics, five or six years ago, collected a quantity of similar gas from the rocky bed of Canadaway creek in a reservoir, and conveyed it from thence to all the principal stores, taverns, and shops in the said village, where it is still used instead of lamps.”

In the fall of 1829, on completion of the lighthouse at Portland Harbor, several persons associated together for the purpose of conveying the gas from the “burning spring” to the lighthouse. They dug into the rock at the place where the largest quantity of gas was found, in the form of a common well, about 40 or 50 feet in diameter and 3 feet deep. Over this well they erected a cone of solid mason work, so tight as to contain the gas which should collect within it, and at the same time exclude the water around it. They inserted a pipe at the base of the cone; bent down the end toward the bottom of the well; and then extended the pipe along on the bed of the brook to its termination below the dam. From that point it was conducted by pipes buried in the ground the distance of 230 rods to the lighthouse.

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A stand of lamps adapted to the reception, emission, and burning of the gas was next invented and constructed by Mr. Hart. These consisted of several horizontal arms extended like the radii of a semicircle, at the end of each of which a brass pipe was attached. The quantity of gas consumed by each burner was regulated by a stopcock. Each burner had a large and suitable reflector. There were two tiers of these lamps, seven on the lower tier and six in the upper, interspaced so that, when viewed from the lake at night, the whole tower represented one complete, constant and unwavering blaze.

“Altogether” the account continues “this is one of the greatest natural, philosophical and mechanical curiosities which the country can produce. As a light for a lighthouse it exceeds, both in quantity and brilliancy, anything of the kind I ever saw.”

In November 1838 it was reported, however, that “Owing to a failure of gas, that may be attributed to the excessive draught, oil is now substituted. It is presumed, however, that the fall rains will replenish the stream from which the fountain is supplied, and thus prevent the escape and loss of the gas.”

In 1851 the report read: “We have one lighthouse at Portland on Lake Erie, lighted with natural gas, carried a distance of 2 miles in pipes to the tower; and even here we are obliged to keep oil and lamps, as water frequently collects in the pipes, over which the gas will not pass, and whilst they are being taken up and freed from water, oil light has to be used. We have a contract for supplying this gas at the annual cost of the oil which would be required, if lighted with that material.”

The Portland Harbor (Barcelona) Light was discontinued in 1859 and in 1872 the buildings were sold to the highest bidder. (1) (2)

_NEW YORK_ RACE ROCK LIGHTHOUSE

Race Rock Lighthouse, in Long Island Sound, 8 miles from New London, Conn., was built under great difficulties. The builder was Captain Scott. His engineer was F. Hopkinson Smith, who later became famous as a writer of lighthouse stories. Race Rock Lighthouse is off Fisher’s Island Sound, at the mouth of the Race, where the waters of the Sound rush both ways, according to the tide, with great velocity and force, and where, in heavy weather, the waves run high. By 1837 eight vessels had been lost in 8 years on Race Point reef.

In 1838 Congress appropriated $3,000 for erecting a lighthouse at Race Rock but the money was never expended. In 1852 the Lighthouse Board reported: “Various efforts have been made, and numerous appropriations expended, in endeavoring to place an efficient and permanent mark on this point. Buoys cannot be kept on it, and spindles have hitherto only remained until the breaking up of the ice in the spring.” In 1853 $7,000 was appropriated “for a beacon on Race Rock.” This took the form of a daybeacon completed in 1856.

In 1854 Congress appropriated $8,000 for a lighthouse but only $1,600 of this was spent, mostly in surveys. In 1869 $90,000 was appropriated “for a lighthouse at or near Race Point, Fisher’s Island, Long Island Sound.” After preliminary surveys costing $6,528.57, an additional appropriation of $10,000 was made in 1870, after the Board had estimated that $200,000 would be required to build the lighthouse. In 1871 $150,000 more was provided by Congress.

Construction of the riprap foundation began in April 1871. In all 10,000 tons of granite were used in the foundation. “The proposals for the construction of the foundation and pier of this structure were so excessive in rates” the Board reported in 1872, “and so much above the amount of the appropriation on hand ($95,539.66 had been expended out of $261,000 appropriated to June 10, 1872) that no more than the landing and the enrockment of the foundation, and two courses of the pier, could be contracted for.”

In 1873 Congress appropriated a further $75,000 and the lighthouse was completed at an additional expenditure of $175,048.09 between 1873 and 1878. The total cost of the lighthouse was $278,716.33.

The ledge on which the lighthouse is built is under water and three-fourths mile from Race Point Reef. It has one large and several smaller spurs of rock rising above the general surface. The least depth at mean low water on the principal spur or Race Rock proper, is 3 feet. The greatest depth at mean low water, within the circle of 69 feet, is 13 feet.

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The ledge was, with the help of divers, made approximately level with small broken stone and riprap. Upon this was placed a circular-stepped mass of concrete, 9 feet thick, built in 4 concentric layers. The lower layer is 69 feet in diameter and 3 feet thick. To form the layers of concrete, cylindrical bands of half inch iron, of the height and diameter required for the respective layers, were used. The upper surface of the concrete, 8 inches above mean low water, carries a conical pier, 30 feet high, 57 feet in diameter at the base, and crowned by a projecting coping 55 feet in diameter. The pier is made of heavy masonry backed with concrete, in which cisterns and cellars are located.

The pier is surmounted by a granite dwelling one story and a half high. From the center of its front the granite light tower ascends. A landing-pier, 53 feet long and 25 feet wide, built of heavy masonry, gives access to the lighthouse. The whole structure is surrounded and protected by riprap. The tower, which is square at the base and octagonal at the top, carries a fourth-order alternating flash white and red electric light of 90,000 candlepower, being 67 feet above sea level and 45 feet above land, and visible 14 miles at sea. (1) (2)

_NORTH CAROLINA_ CAPE FEAR LIGHTHOUSE, “BALD HEAD LIGHT”

On December 14, 1790, the State of North Carolina ceded to the United States 10 acres of land on Cape Fear Island, in response to the invitation held out by the act of August 7, 1789, for the States to make cessions to the Federal Government of “lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and public piers, and lots of land for lighthouses, etc.”

On April 2, 1792, Congress appropriated $4,000 and provided “that the Secretary of the Treasury, under the direction of the President of the United States, be authorized, as soon as may be, to cause to be finished in such manner as shall appear advisable, the lighthouse heretofore begun under the authority of the State of North Carolina, on Bald Head, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in said State.” Three further appropriations totalling $7,359.14 were made between 1793 and 1797 and the light was completed and first shone in 1796.

Between 1813 and 1817, $16,000 was appropriated “for rebuilding Bald Head Lighthouse.”

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On July 1, 1834, Capt. Henry D. Hunter of the revenue cutter Taney inspected Bald Head Light which he described as having 15 lamps, 109 feet above the level of the sea, showing a fixed light. Two years later he again inspected the light. “The keeper is an old revolutionary soldier,” he reported “and is unable from sickness to give the lighthouse his constant personal attention. The light, however, shows well from a distance.”

A Jones fog bell was placed near Bald Head Lighthouse in 1855. In the same year the Lighthouse Board recommended the substitution of “a third-order lens, larger model, 360°, for the present apparatus.” It also recommended a fixed light, light, varied by flashes “to distinguish this light, under all circumstances, from Federal Point Light.”

The range lights on the upper jetty of Cape Fear River, which had been installed in 1856, “were extinguished by the rebels in 1861, and the structures entirely destroyed.”

In 1866 Bald Head Light was discontinued after a new lighthouse had been built at the mouth of the Cape Fear River to replace Federal Point Light. In 1880, however, Federal Point Light had been rendered useless and was discontinued because of the closing of the New Inlet Channel by the Engineer Department. Bald Head Light was relighted at that time and, together with a small stake light on the beach in front of it, served as a guide through the 16- to 18-foot Oak Island Channel across the bar.

The shore on the inside was reported in 1881 as being “rapidly abraded by the action of the sea, which is doubtless increased by the augmented flow of water through Oak Island Channel due to the closing of New Inlet.” In the following year it was noted, “Some means of protection must soon be used, or the lighthouse will be destroyed.” In August 1883 a stone jetty, 150 feet long, was authorized for the protection of the foundation of the tower. This work was completed, in time probably, to save the tower from destruction in the hurricane of September 1883. In 1885 the jetty was extended another 50 feet.

In 1889 the Lighthouse Board reported that the shoals forming the continuation of Cape Fear for about 18 miles to the southeast were dreaded by ship masters only a little less than those at Cape Hatteras. The lightship, near the outer extremity of the shoals, warned vessels of danger and gave them a good point of departure, but was not sufficient to insure adequate protection because of the small area lighted by it, and its liability to being set adrift from its moorings during violent storms, at the very time it was most needed. The Cape Fear Light (Bald Head), on account of its inland position and want of height, did not cover the shoals and therefore did not give sufficient warning to vessels in case the lightship should drift from her moorings. The Board, therefore, recommended a first-order lighthouse, with a radius of 18½ miles of light, about 150 feet high and costing $150,000 to be built on the pitch of Cape Fear.

This recommendation was made each year thereafter until 1897, the estimate being revised downward to $70,000 in 1893. On July 1, 1898, Congress appropriated $35,000 for the new lighthouse, with authority to contract for another $35,000, followed by an appropriation for a similar amount on March 3, 1901. A new skeleton tower was completed in 1903 on Smith Island and furnished with a first-order flashing lens apparatus.

Upon completion of the new Cape Fear Light the old Cape Fear Station (Bald Head) was changed to a fourth-order fixed light and its name changed to Bald Head Light Station. The station was discontinued in 1935. A radiobeacon was established on the site in 1941. (1) (2) (7)

_NORTH CAROLINA_ CAPE HATTERAS LIGHTHOUSE

On July 10, 1797, Congress appropriated $44,000 “for erecting a lighthouse on the head land of Cape Hatteras and a lighted beacon on Shell Castle Island, in the harbor of Ocracoke in the State of North Carolina.”

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse cost $14,302 to build and the Shell Castle Island Lighthouse was built from part of the surplus. Both were completed in 1803.

The Cape Hatteras light marked very dangerous shoals which extend from the cape for a distance of 10 nautical miles. The original tower was built of dark sandstone and retained its natural color. The original light consisted of 18 lamps, with 14-inch reflectors, and was 112 feet above sea level. It was visible in clear weather for a distance of 18 miles.

In July 1851, Lt. David D. Porter, USN, reported as follows: