Post Your Lighthouses!

[Stiga]

Driving south along the Outer Banks of NC in 2004 there was a long skinny section where we could see water on both sides of the road (Hurricane Isabel cut the road in about three places along here - washed it completely out and made three new inlets). We got to Avon, and then a short while later we could see the Hatteras lighthouse. This is where the USS Monitor was wrecked.

Cape Hatteras Light


The black and white spiral makes Cape Hatteras one of the most recognizable lighthouses in the US, and the 208 feet height makes it also the tallest in the United States. The light can be seen for 20 miles, warning ships of Diamond Shoals (the graveyard of the Atlantic) which is a twelve-mile (12) long sandbar just offshore.

Diamond Shoals is the meeting place of two great ocean currents: the cold Labrador and the warm Northbound Gulf Stream. Where they collide, it creates fog and ever changing sandbars just beneath the water surface.The present lighthouse was built like the light at Cape Lookout and had a first-order Fresnel lens to magnify a small oil wick flame. It was replaced by a rotating beacon--a double affair with 1000-watt lamps in each beacon. Today, the beacon is automated, but at the time it was built, the keeper had to wind weights suspended by heavy cables in order to rotate the thousand-prism lens. In good visibility, it can be seen 51 miles at sea and 115 miles in the air. The octagonal base of brick and granite, measures twenty-four (24) feet by fourty-five (45) feet six inches. The black and white barber-pole paint, or "candystriping" was added in 1873 to make the lighthouse more distinctive during the day.

There is another similarly painted lighthouse in Florida ( St. Augustine - shorter and with a red lantern), but I guess they figured that if you didn't even know whether you were in NC or FL, you were in such sorry shape that there wasn't much hope for you. The lighthouse isn't available for climbing this time of year.

Cape Hatteras Light postcard


I have a postcard from my grandfather - he climbed it back in 1908. He wrote my grandmother, "Was up to the top of this, the finest light house in America, lens cost $15000." In 1908, postcards were my grandfather's Tweets

back of the postcard


As early as the 1920s, erosion became a major problem to the new lighthouse. In the summer of 1999, the lighthouse was moved 2899.57 feet from its original location.

Top of ligh

Hatteras Lighthouse from the Keeper's House

View attachment 7998

Impressive

 

[Stiga]

Macduff, NE Scotland

 

[Stiga]

Leith, the Port of Edinburgh

 

[inphoto]

On the Old Venetian Castle of Corfu

 

[greatgrandma]

Wonderful photos, Rosalie. And the post card is really special.

Someone writing a book or something about the lighthouse asked me to sell him the card. For $50.00. I thought that was too much money, but he insisted.

 

[JohnPD]

Someone writing a book or something about the lighthouse asked me to sell him the card. For $50.00. I thought that was too much money, but he insisted.

So you sold it?

 

[greatgrandma]

So you sold it?

Yes. I asked him to make me a high quality digital copy of both sides and he did I have five or six shoeboxes of postcards of various vintage. Several written by my grandfather who was apparently something of a traveling salesman around 1905. I even have one he sent from Honolulu. He was a harness salesman.

 

[greatgrandma]

When we first visited Grand Turk in 2008

We went out to the lighthouse, and Bob took one of the cameras and walked out to the end of the property and took pictures, while I took pictures from between the lighthouse and the bus. Originally there was an admission charge, but there was no one to take the money.This rare early cast iron lighthouse was partly restored and reactivated in 1998. The focal plane is 33 m (108 ft) with a white flash every 7.5 seconds. Located at the northern tip of Grand Turk Island, the lighthouse is accessible by road.

The rust showing on the lighthouse is because this is a cast iron tower (designed by Alexander Gordon) which was prefabricated in London by Chance Brothers. The lighthouse dates back to 1852. It was constructed mainly at the insistence of Americans who had salt trading ships visiting the island.

When it was built, the lighthouse cost £4 100. It featured 8 Argand type whale oil lamps with reflectors which magnified the light to 450 times its original intensity. Gordon called it “a grand sea light” but in the first four decades of its use wrecks continued along with complaints that the light was either not lit or too dim. In 1943 Chance Brothers installed a Fresnel lens and kerosene light which had a visibility at sea in excess of 15 miles.

In 2006, Carnival Cruise line repainted and refurbished the lighthouse, keeper's cottage, and other light station buildings as a part of a plan to develop Grand Turk as a regular stop for cruise ships. Cruise ships offered hop on-hop off bus tours that included the light station and the town. However, since the hurricane the bus just gives a tour of the island (there's no town to stop at yet). The tour does stop at the lighthouse. You can't climb the lighthouse but you can buy water and snacks there and there is a trail with informational signs.

Before the 2008 hurricane (Ike), there was a lighthouse keeper's house and kitchen plus a kerosene storage house here and the 4º Fresnel lens which was removed from the lighthouse in 1971 when it became electrified was on display at the Turks and Caicos National Museum. But most buildings on the island (including the museum and the buildings at the lighthouse) were destroyed or severely damaged by the hurricane. At that time, instead of a building with a shaded patio to have a snack or cool drink, there is a lady who sells water and drinks from a cooler under a tree.

The north end of the island where the Grand Turk Lighthouse is situated is a good place to spot whales in February and March. The Lighthouse area also provides some shade, a picnic area. We didn't get a chance to whale watch because we have only been to Grand Turk in November

 

[greatgrandma]

Grand Turk lighthouse from the ship

Additional details

 

[Stiga]

Ardnamurchan Peninsula, NW Scotland