Skip to main content

Full text of "The United States lighthouse service, 1915"

See other formats


Google 



This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project 

to make the world's books discoverable online. 

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject 

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books 

are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover. 

Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the 

publisher to a library and finally to you. 

Usage guidelines 

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the 
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing tliis resource, we liave taken steps to 
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying. 
We also ask that you: 

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for 
personal, non-commercial purposes. 

+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine 
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the 
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help. 

+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for in forming people about this project and helping them find 
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it. 

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just 
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other 
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of 
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner 
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe. 

About Google Book Search 

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers 
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web 

at |http: //books .google .com/I 



1 



DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE 



THE 



UNITED STATES 
LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE 



1915 



u.^.v'^ 



, a- 1 V . ., - V^t^> ^ ^- 



U 




J J 
1 ^ 















WASHINGTON 

GOVEBNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1916 



"5 






\',., - 



Department of Commerce, 

Bureau of Lighthouses, 
Washington, December 1, 1915. 

This pamphlet is published for the purpose of furnishing general 
information r^arding the organization and operation of the United 
States Lighthouse Service, and to enable the Bureau to supply- 
data asked for in inquiries frequently received. It has been compiled 
mainly by John S. Conway, Deputy Commissioner of Lighthouses. 

George R. Putnam, 

Commissioner. 
2 



• • « • 
•I • 



.• • 



■ • .. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

1. Duties and organization 5 

2. Jurisdiction 6 

3. Cooperation 7 

4. District limits and offices 7 

5. Aids to navigation 11 

6. History and growth of the Lighthouse Service 14 

7. Development of lighthouse work in Alaska 16 

8. Types of construction of lighthouses 17 

9. Lighting apparatus and illuminants 30 

10. Distinctiveness and characteristics of lights 35 

11. Visibility and candlepower of lights 36 

12. Fog signals 40 

13. Buoys 46 

14. River lighting 53 

15. Lighthouse depots 55 

16. Light vessels 58 

17. Lighthouse tenders 66 

18. Personnel and civil-service systems 72 

19. Light keepers* quarters 76 

20. Saving of life and property 79 

21. Lighting of bridges 79 

22. Private aids to navigation 80 

23. Laws for protection of aids • 81 

24. Publications 82 

25. Engineering and fiscal matters 84 

26. Exhibits of the Lighthouse Service 91 

27. Past and present officers of the Service 93 

3 



« > /> /v ,-^ ' ^ 



« • « 






THE UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE. 1915. 



1. DUTIES AND ORGANIZATION. 

The United States Lighthouse Service is charged with the estab- 
lishment and maintenance of aids to navigation, and with all equip- 
ment and work incident thereto, on the coasts of the United States. 
The term ''aids to navigation" comprises all land and sea marks 
estabhshed or adapted for the purpose of aiding the navigation of 
vessels, and includes light stations, light vessels, fog signals, buoys 
of aU kinds, minor lights, and day beacons. 

There is an office in Washington, known as the Bureau of Light- 
, houses, which is the executive center of the Service, under the Com- 
missioner of Lighthouses and the Deputy Commissioner. There are 
in this office an engineering construction division, imder the chief 
constructing engineer; a naval construction division, under the 
superintendent of naval construction; a hydrographic division, under 
an assistant engineer; and the general office force, under the chief 
clerk. 

The Service outside of Washington is divided into 19 lighthouse 
districts, each of which is \mder the charge of a lighthouse inspector. 
In each district there is a central office at a location selected on 
account of either its maritime importance or its geographical posi- 
tion. Attached to each district office is a technical force for the 
construction and upkeep of both land structures and floating equip- 
ment, and also a clerical force, with a chief clerk and assistants, for 
the work of the district. The principal technical assistant to the 
inspector is the superintendent, and there are assistant superin- 
tendents and aids as required by the size of the district. In the 
field are construction and repair parties under foremen, and in a 
number of districts there are mechanicians who attend to special 
repairs and installations of apparatus. AU of this force is composed 
of civihans, except that in the three river districts officers of the 
Corps of Engineers who are in charge of river improvements act also 
as lighthouse inspectors. 

One or more lighthouse depots are conveniently located in each 
district for carrying on the work of the district in the matter of storing 
and distributing suppHes and apparatus. In addition to the various 
district depots, there is in the third lighthouse district, on Staten 
Island, New York Harbor, a general lighthouse depot, where many 
of the supplies for the whole Service are piKchased and stored and 

5 



6 UNITED SgPAijCS i.iaHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

» • " 

sent out for. (Mstribuwioki, and where much of the special apparatus 
of the Service is manufactured or repaired, and where also there is 
carried on various technical work in the way of testing apparatus 
and supplies and designing or improving apparatus. 

Each district is provided with one or more lighthouse tenders for 
the purpose of distributing supphes to the various stations and light 
vessels and for transportation of materials for construction or repair, 
for the placing and care of the buoyage system in the district, and for 
transporting the inspector and other officers of the Service on official 
inspections of stations and vessels and on other official duty. 

2. JURISDICTION. 

The jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service extends over the Atlantic, 
GuM, Great Lakes, and Pacific coasts, the principal interior rivers, 
Alaska, Porto Bico, and Hawaii, and all other territory under the 
jurisdiction of the United States, with the exception of the Philippine 
Islands and Panama. In the Philippine Islands the lighthouse service 
is maintained by the insular government and supported entirely 
out of the revenues of the islands. At Panama the can^l government 
has charge of the lighting of the canal and approaches \mder the 
general appropriations for the canal. 

All the work of establishing and maintaining the aids to navigation 
imder the jiuisdiction of the Lighthouse Service is performed directly 
by that service through district organizations, with the exception of a 
few minor aids, which are maintained by contract, and the exception 
of the American Samoan Islands, the island of Guam, and Guanta- 
namo, Cuba, where the aids are maintained under the supervision of 
the naval comniandants \mder allotments made from the appropria- 
tions for the Lighthouse Service. The Lighthouse Service also has 
supervision over the establishment and maintenance of private aids 
to navigation and the lighting of bridges over navigable waters of 
the United States. 

At the present time the United States assists in the maintenance of 
but one lighthouse outside of its territory, this being at Cape Spartel, 
Morocco. Tbis light is maintained in accordance with the conven- 
tion between Morocco and the United States, Austria, Belgium, Spain, 
France, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden, in 
force since March 12, 1867. The lighthouse was constructed at the 
expense of Morocco, but it is maintained by the other contracting 
powers. The annual appropriation by the United States for this 
purpose is $325, and it is not under the control of the Lighthouse 
Service. 

The jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service over rivers not included 
in tidewater navigation is restricted to such as are specifically named 
in the various acts of Congress. These now include practically all 
the important navigable rivers and lakes of the coimtry. 



DISTRICT LIMITS AND OFFICES. 7 

3. COOPERATION. 

In performing its duties, the Lighthouse Service cooperates actively 
with all other branches of the Government engaged in related work. 
Notices to mariners are issued jointly with the Coast and Geodetic 
Survey, and information affecting charts is supplied to that office for 
pubhcation. Similar information is furnished the Lake Survey and 
other offices publishing charts. Cooperation is had with the Corps of 
Engineers, War Department, in connection with river and harbor 
improvements, as to special aids to navigation maintained for such 
works, information of improvements that will affect aids to navigation, 
the marking of river channels, lighting of wrecks, etc. Information 
as to deficiencies in aids is received from the Hydrographic Office and 
from naval vessels, and from other maritime services of the Govern- 
ment. The PubUc Health Service aids in matters of sanitation 
affecting lighthouse vessels and stations, the Bureau of Standards in 
the design of radio apparatus and in special tests, the Forest Service 
in the growing and management of timber on lighthouse reservations, 
the Steamboat-Inspection Service in the inspection of steam plants of 
vessels, etc. The Lighthouse Service suppUes information respecting 
aids to navigation to all branches of the Government having need for 
this data and cooperates in the placing of buoys for special purposes. 

Arrangements are in effect with the War Department for the assign- 
ment of lighthouse tenders from time to time for mine-planting 
practice, and in the event of necessity the Lighthouse Service is 
prepared to turn over to the Navy Department, with the approval of 
the President, such tenders as may be required in miUtary operations. 

In addition to the foregoing special effort is made to consult the 
needs of merchant shipping as to aids to navigation. Apphcations 
from maritime interests for establishing or improving aids are care- 
fully considered, and all matters involving extensive changes are 
taken up with such interests before action is decided upon. 

Mariners and others interested are invited to give prompt infor- 
mation to the district lighthouse inspectors, or by direct commimi- 
cation to the Commissioner of Lighthouses, of all cases of injury to 
or tmsatisf actory condition or incorrect position of any aid to navi- 
gation, or of the necessity for additional aids, or of any existing aid 
not needed, and of all cases where the lights are not exhibited punc- 
tually at sunset and extinguished at sunrise. 

4. DISTRICT LMTTS AND OFFICES, 

The limits of the lighthouse districts are as follows : 
First district. — From the head of navigation on the St. Croix River, 
Me., the northeastern boundary of the United States, to and includ- 
ing Hampton Harbor, N. H. It embraces all aids to navigation on 



8 



UNITED STATES UGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 




DISTRICT LIMITS AND OFFICES. 9 

the seacoast of Maine and New Hampshire, and on all tidal waters 
between the limits named. 

Second district, — From Hampton Harbor, N. H., to EUsha Ledge, 
off Warren Point, R. I., but not including either the harbor or the 
ledge. It embraces all aids to navigation on the seacoast and tidal 
waters of Massachusetts, except on the Taunton River and that part 
of Mount Hope Bay lying within the State boundary. 

Third, district. — ^From Elisha Ledge, off Warren Point, R. I., to 
Cape May, on the coast of New Jersey, excepting Cape May Light- 
house, and to a point on the coast opposite Rehoboth, Del., excepting 
Cape Henlopen Lighthouse and Hen and Chickens Shoal. It em- 
braces all aids to navigation on the coasts of Rhode Island, Connec- 
ticut, New York, and New Jersey northward of Cape May, including 
Northeast End, Five-Fathom Bank, and Overfalls light vessels, 
and McCries Shoal, and on all tidal waters tributary to the sea or 
Long Island Sound between the limits named, together with the aids 
on Whitehall Narrows, and on the United States waters of Lakes 
Champlain and Memphremagog. 

Fourth district, — From and including Cape May Light Station, on 
the coast of New Jersey, to and including Fenwick Island Light 
Station on the coast of Delaware. It embraces all aids to navigation 
on the seacoast of New Jersey and Delaware between the points 
named, the entrance to Delaware Bay, Delaware Bay and River, and 
the waters tributary thereto, but does not include McCries Shoal, 
Overfalls Light Vessel, and the aids to navigation seaward thereof, 
nor the shoals seaward of Fenwick Island. 

Fifth district, — ^From (but not including) Fenwick Island Light 
Station, on the coast of Delaware, to and including New River Inlet, 
N. C. It embraces all aids to navigation off the seacoast of Dela- 
ware seaward of Fenwick Island, on the seacoasts of Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, and North Carolina between the limits named, all of Chesa- 
peake Bay, the sounds of North Carolina, and tributary waters. 

Sixth district, — From (but does not include) New River Inlet, N. C, 
to and including Hillsboro Inlet Light Station, Fla. It embraces all 
aids to navigation on the seacoasts, bays, soimds, harbors, rivers, 
and other tidal waters of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 
and Florida between the limits named. 

Seventh district. — Yram. a poiat just south of Hillsboro Inlet Light 
Station to and iucluding. Cedar Keys, Fla. It embraces all aids to 
navigation on the sea and Gulf coasts of Florida, Florida Keys, and 
on other waters tributary to the sea and Gulf between the limits 
named. 

Eighth district. — ^From (but not including) Cedar Keys, Fla., to 
the southern boundary of Texas. It embraces all aids to navigation 
on the Gulf coast of the United States and tidal waters tributary to 



10 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

the Gulf between the limits named, together with those on the 
Mississippi River below and including New Orleans, and on Grand. 
Lake and Lake Chicot. 

Ninth district.— The island of Porto Rico and the adjacent islands 
and other islands and stations ceded to the United States in the 
West Indies. 

Tenth district. — ^From the mouth of the St. Regis River, St. Law- 
rence River, N. Y., to the mouth of the Detroit River. It embraces 
all aids to navigation on the United States shores and waters of 
Lakes Ontario and Erie and the upper part of the St. Lawrence 
River and the Niagara River, excepting aids to navigation at the 
mouth of the Detroit River. 

Eleventh district. — ^From and including all aids to navigation at 
the mouth of the Detroit River, Mich., to the western end of Lake 
Superior. It embraces all aids to navigation on the United States 
shores and waters of Lakes St. Clair, Huron, and Superior, the 
Detroit River, including the mouth, the St. Clair and St. Marys 
rivers, and that part of the Straits of Mackinac lying to the eastward 
of a line drawn across the straits just to the eastward of Old Mackinac 
Point light Station, Mich. 

Twelfth district. — Includes all aids to navigation on Lake Michigan, 
Green Bay, and tributary waters lying west of a line drawn across 
the Straits of Mackinac just east of Old Mackinac Point Light Station, 
Mich. 

Thirteenth district. — ^The Mississippi River from the head of naviga- 
tion to the mouth of the Missouri River; the Minnesota River from 
the head of navigation to its mouth; the Illuiois River from the 
head of navigation to its mouth; the Osage River from the head of 
navigation to its mouth; the Gasconade River from the head of 
navigation to its mouth; the Missouri River from the head of naviga- 
tion to its mouth; St. Croix River and Lake; Lake Traverse; and 
includes all aids to navigation within these limits and navigable 
rivers tributary thereto. 

Fourteenth district. — ^The Ohio River from Pittsburgh, Pa., to 
Cairo, 111.; the Tennessee River from the head of navigation to its 
mouth; the Kanawha River from the head of navigation to its 
mouth; and embraces all aids to navigation within these limits and 
navigable rivers tributary thereto. 

Fifteenth district. — ^The Mississippi River from and including the 
mouth of the Missouri River to New Orleans, La.; the Red River 
from the head of navigation to its mouth; and includes all aids to 
navigation within these limits and navigable rivers tributary thereto. 

Sixteenth district. — From the boimdary between Alaska and the 
Dominion of Canada to the boundary between Alaska and Siberia. 
It embraces all aids to navigation on the seacoast, bays, rivers, and 
other tidal waters of Alaska. 



AIDS TO NAVIGATION. 



11 



SeveTdeenih district. — ^From the botuidaiy between California and 
Oregon to the northern botindary of the United States. It embraces 
all aids to navigation on the seacoast of Oregon and Washington, 
on the United States waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Wash- 
ington Sound, and the Strait of Georgia, and on the tidal waters 
tributary to the sea, straits, and sounds between the limits named. 

Eighteenth district. — ^From the boimdary between Califomia and 
Mexico to the boundary between Califomia and Oregon. It em- 
braces all aids to navigation on the seacoast, bays, rivers, and other 
tidal waters of Califomia. . 

Nineteenth district. — ^Embraces the Hawaiian Islands, the Midway 
Islands, the island of Guam, and the American Samoan Islands, and 
includes all aids to navigation in the waters thereof. 

The location of each district office, with the address of the light- 
house inspector, is given in the following table: 



District. 


Address. 


District. 


Address. 


1st 

2d 

3d 

4th 

5th 

6th 

Tth 

8th 

9th 

10th 


Portland, Me., Y. M. C. A. Building. 
Boston, Mass., Customhouse. 
Tompkinsville, N. Y. 
Philadelphia, Pa., Post Office Bujllding. 
Baltimore, Md^ New Customhouse. 
Charleston, S. C., Old Post Office Build- 
ing. 
Key West, Fla. 

New Orleans, La., Customhouse. 
San Juan, P. R. 
Buffalo, N. Y., Federal Building. 


nth 

12th 

13th 

14th 

15th 

16th 

17th 

18th 

19th 


Detroit, Mich., Post Office Building. 
Milwaukee, Wis., Federal Building. 
Rock Island, HI., Federal Building. 
Cincinnati, Ohio. Customhouse. 
St. Louis, Mo., Customhouse. 
Ketchikan, Alaska. 
Portland, Oreg., Customhouse. 
San Francisco, Cal., Customhouse. 
Honolulu, Hawaii, McCandless Build- 
ing. 



5. AIDS TO NAVIGATION. 

The table following gives a smmnary of the 14,544 aids to naviga- 
tion, under each principal class, in commission on Jime 30, 1915: 

Lighted aids: 

Lights (other than minor lights) 1, 662 

Minor lights 2, 837 

Light-vessel stations. , 53 

Gas buoys 479 

Float lights 124 

Total 5, 155 

Unlighted aids: 

Fog signals 527 

Submarine signals 50 

Whistling buoys, unUghted 86 

Bell buoys, unlighted 237 

Other buoys 6, 488 

Day beacons : 2, 001 

Total 9 , 389 

Grand total 14, 544 



12 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

Grouped according to the fixed or floating character of the aids, 
the following tabtdation may be made: 

Lighted fixed aids 4, 499 

Urdighted fixed aids 2, 478 

Total fixed aids 6,977 

Lighted floating aids 656 

Unlighted floating aids 6, 911 

Total floating aids 7, 567 

Grand total 14,544 

The class described as '^ Lights (other than minor) '' includes major 
Ughts classified under the Fresnel system of orders, which will be 
described more fuUy in another place, range lenses, reflectors, and lens 
lanterns. (See p. 31.) There are 744 stations with resident keepers, 
provided with dwellings, and in many cases these keepers have chaige 
not only of the principal light but also such other lights in the vicinity 
as may be conveniently cared for from the same station. 

The number of keepers varies from one to five, according to circuaa- 
stances, and the number of stations having more than one keeper 
is shown in the following table: 

Five-keeper stations 3 

Four-keeper stations 28 

Three-keeper stations 167 

Two-keeper stations 238 

Total stations with more than one keeper 436 

The term ''minor light'' includes post lights and small lights 
generally not attended as a rule by resident keepers. These lights 
are usually cared for by persons living in the vicinity, who are not 
obliged to devote their entire time to the work and who sometimes 
have several lights, if conveniently located, in their charge. This 
type of light is commonly used on inland rivers and particularly 
on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. 

Light vessels are used as a rule to mark offshore dangers, or the 
approaches to harbors or channels, where lighthouses would not be 
feasible or economical. They are more fully described on page 58. 

Gas buoys are used to mark important channels or shoals or as 
general guides for navigation. Many improvements have been 
made in this type of aid, and they are considered among the most 
valuable of recent developments in modem coast lighting. 

Float lights are usually small lights borne on a float or raft. They 
are employed for less important places where more convenient or 
economical than lighted buoys and where the expense of providing a 
foundation for a fixed structure would not be warranted. 

Fog signals include various types of aerial soimd-producing apparat- 
us for use in foggy or thick weather. They embrace various types of 



AIDS TO NAVIGATION. 



13 



whistles, sirens, or horns, actuated by steam or compressed air, and 
bells, operated by machinery of various types or by hand. 

Submarine signals are auxiliary fog signals consisting of bells 
operated under water. They are commonly a feature of light-vessel 
equipment, but are employed also at some light stations or attached 
to buoys. 

WhistUng and bell buoys, as the names imply, are buoys fitted 
with sound-producing apparatus operated by the motion of the buoy 
in the sea. Whistling buoys are more efficient in rough outside 
waters and bell buoys are more. commonly used in harbors or inside 
waters. Further iniormation in regard to both types appears on 
page 50. 

Other buoys include cans, nuns, and spars of various types, and 
are the most extensively used of all aids. They are more frequently 
employed in channels and inside waters generally, and are described 
more fuUy on page 49. 

Day beacons include minor fixed structures not bearing a light. 
They are of various types, the most common being a post or spindle 
bearing a target or some other object of a distinctive shape ctnd color. 

The number of light stations, light vessels, and fog signals of the 
world, as listed in the British Admiralty List of Lights for 1915, is 
approximately as given in the table below. The statistics do not 
include the Great Lakes of North America nor rivers above the limit 
of seagoing navigation, and the lights are given in greater complete- 
ness for some countries than for others. 



Continents. 



Europe 

North America 

Asia 

Australia and Oceania 

Africa 

South America 

Total 



Light 


Light 


stations. 


vessels. 


7,335 


192 


2,913 


49 


1,355 


36 


746 


3 


519 





358 


10 


13,226 


290 



Fog 

signals. 

779 

645 

116 

21 

10 

15 



1,586 



It is of interest to compare similar statistics of light stations for 
about 1888 (The Modern Lighthouse Service, Johnson). 



Continents. 



Europe 

North America 

Asia 

Oceania 



Light 
stations. 



OfUJv 

1,435 

476 

319 



Continents. 



Africa 

South America 

Total . . . 



Light 
stations. 



219 
167 



5,925 



The lists for 1915 show that the United States Lighthouse Service 
has under its charge materially more lights and fog signals than any 
other organization, and this would be numerically increased if there 
were included the lights on the lakes and rivers, and if aU aids to 
navigation were counted, including buoys and imlighted beacons. 



14 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

6. HISTORY AND GROWTH OF THE LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE. 

The history of lighthouses in the United States dates back to 
1715-16, when the first lighthouse on this continent was built at the 
entrance to Boston Harbor by the Province of Massachusetts. This 
light was supported by light dues on all incoming and outgoing ves- 
sels, except coasters. Several other Ughthouses were built by the 
colonies. Congress, by the act of August 7, 1789, authorized the 
maintenance of hghthouses and other aids to navigation at the expense 
of the United States. There were at that date eight lights in opera- 
tion maintained by the colonies. These, together with others com- 
pleted later, 13 in all, were ceded to the General Government by the 
States. The Lighthouse Service of the United States is supported 
entirely by appropriations out of the general revenues of the Gov- 
ernment, and the United States lighthouses have been free to vessels 
of all nations from 1789 to the present time. There is no system of 
Ught dues, as is the case in a number of foreign maritime countries. 

The maintenance of Ughthouses, buoys, etc., was placed under the 
Treasury Department, and up to 1820 was directed personally by 
the Secretary of the Treasury, except for two intervals when super- 
vision was assigned by him to the Commissioner of the Revenue. 
In 1820 the superintendence of the lights devolved upon the Fifth 
Auditor of the Treasury, who was popularly known as the General 
Superintendent of Lights and who continued in charge thereof until 
1852, when the United States Lighthouse Board, consisting of officers 
of the Navy and Army and civilians, was organized, with the Secre- 
tary of the Treasiuy as ex officio president of the board. The board 
selected from its own nimiber a member to act as chairman. 

The Lighthouse Service was transferred to the Department of 
Commerce on July 1, 1903. On July 1, 1910, the Lighthouse Board 
was terminated and the present Bureau of Lighthouses established. 

The eight colonial Ughts in the order of their establishment were: 

Boston, on Little Brewster Island, Mass 1716 

Brant Point, on Nantucket Island, Mass 1746 

Beavertail, on Conanicut Island, R.I 1761 

Sandy Hook, N. J., entrance to New York Bay 1764 

Cape Henlopen, Del., entrance to Delaware Bay 1764 

Charleston, on Morris Island, S. C .• 1767 

Gurnet, near Plymouth, Mass 1769 

Portsmouth, N. H., entrance to harbor 1789 

• 

All of these are still in existence, although with many improve- 
ments; at Sandy Hook and Cape Henlopen, however, the original 
towers are stiQ in use. 

The gradual increase in the nimiber of aids to navigation from 1790 
to 1910, by 10-year periods, and for each year since 1910, is shown in 
the following table: 



HISTORY AND GROWTH OF THE LIGHTHOUSE SERTICE. 



15 



Year. 



1790... 
1800... 
1810... 
1820... 
1830... 
1840... 
1850... 
1860... 
1870... 
1880... 
1890... 
1900... 
1910... 
1911... 
1912... 
1913... 
1914... 
1915... 







Lighted aids. 












Unllghted aids. 






1 


1 

1 


> 


ight ves- 
sels. 


ighjted 
buoys. 


1 

1 


otal light- 
ed aids. 


• 
03 


lib marine 
bells. 


to 


1 


1 


• 


Total un- 
Hghtedaids. 


h^ 


9 




h^ 


h^ 


1^ 


e 


Ph 


OQ 


pq 


O 


« 


12 










12 


2 

3 

12 

26 

49 








117 

156 

350 

800 

1,034 

1,738 

2,446 

3,115 


22 
30 
60 
90 
121 


(«) 


23 

42 

59 

137 

234 

297 










23 

42 

60 

153 

264 

332 








84 
141 
189 
422 
916 
1,204 


















1 

16 
30 
35 
















































425 




47 






472 


111 






9 


220 


2,074 


528 




32 






560 


117 






9 


324 


2,892 


661 


819 


31 




12 


1,523 


194 




25 


9 


355 


3,694 


833 


1,550 


26 


7 


34 


2,450 


254 




60 


75 


4,143 


372 


4,904 


1,243 


1,745 


44 


93 


38 


3,163 


393 




70 


120 


4,749 


496 


6,828 


1,397 


2,256 


54 


225 


60 


3,992 


467 


42 


89 


178 


5,783 


1,120 


7,669 


1,424 


2,362 


51 


287 


87 


4,211 


506 


40 


88 


189 


5,821 


1,295 


7,939 


1,475 


2,552 


51 


346 


92 


4,516 


510 


43 


84 


205 


5,992 


1,474 


8,308 


1,531 


2,666 


53 


388 


101 


4,739 


520 


46 


84 


216 


6,174 


1,655 


8,695 


1,590 


2,791 


52 


453 


118 


5,004 


519 


48 


86 


233 


6,330 


1,978 


9,194 


1,662 


2,8 


37 


53 


479 


124 


5,155 


627 


50 


86 


237 


6,488 


2,001 


9,389 



(«) 

107 

183 

249 

575 

1,180 

1,536 

2,550 

3,456 

6,221 

7,354 

8,991 

11,661 

12,150 

12,824 

13,434 

14,198 

14,544 



a No definite information on record. 

Notes.— The information prior to 1850 should be considered approximate only, and the figures given 
may be regarded eenerallv as somewhat less than the actual numbers. 

Minor lights ana float lights originally covered only post lights on the Mississippi River and tributaries, 
first reported in 1875 (280 minor, 21 float). 

Li^ied buovs first reported in 1884 (4 buoys). 

Early records of fog signals compiled from light lists and other sources and are somewhat indefinite. 
Whistles not regularly reported prior to 1872 (33 whistles); bells not prior to 1882 (115 bells). 

Submarine bells first reported In 1906 (5 bells). 

Whistling buoys first reported in 1876 (4 buoys). 

Bell buoys first reported r^n^ilarly in 1881 (11 buoys). Bell buoys were introduced about 1855 (9 buoys} . 
Bell boats, filling practically same purpose, were used at a much earlier date, although no definite records 
appear. 

Buoy boats, consisting of a decked scow about 20 feet long by 7 feet beam, carrying a light mast or perch, 
were also in use in the early days. 

The increase in the number of aids to navigation maintained by 
the United States Lighthouse Service is shown graphically for the 
last 15 years in the following diagram, as well as the range in general 
appropriations for maintenance during the same period. 



jioee. 







nxALYOfs m ifoz ms not iv» two mn mob m9 m? m/ /f/r /f/3 /w /fa mo W7 



U5. U^fhouse Service 
Mmlfer^ /licfsto Mmga/ibn and /kmKri /^jpnpnations 



16 



UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SEKVICE, 1915. 



7. DEVELOPlftENT OF LIGHTHOUSE WORK IN ALASKA. 

The first aids to navigation of the Lighthouse Service in Alaska 
were established in the spring of 1884 (14 iron buoys) and the first 
light in June, 1895. The following table gives the total number of 
aids to navigation at the end of the fiscal years named (June 30 in 
each case) illustrating the progress of the Service in the Territory: 



Aids. 



Lights 

Fog signals. 

Buoys 

Daymarks. 

Total 



1890 







27 

15 



42 



1895 



1 


57 
26 



84 



1900 



1 



57 

25 



83 



1905 



15 

8 

68 

30 



121 



1910 



37 

9 

84 

30 



160 



1915 



112 
10 

167 
49 



338 



The 112 lights are of the foUowing classes: 10 Ughthouses with 
resident keepers, 62 unattended flashing acetylene lights, 34 minor 
lights, and 6 float lights, the use of the latter-named being confined 
to narrow channels or harbors where a small light answers all require- 
ments of navigation. 

Special attention has been given to increasing and improving the 
lights and buoys in Alaska, as shown by the table above, which indi- 
cates an increase of 203 per cent in the number of lights and 111 per 
cent in the total number of aids during the past five years. 

There has been a considerable increase of shipping to this Territory 
with the rapid development there of the mining and other industries. 
The coast line, however, is of great extent in proportion to the amount 
of shipping. It is a difficult coast to navigate because of a number 
of causes in addition to the incompleteness of the system of aids to 
navigation. All the soi^them and more frequented portions of the 
Alaskan coast are subject, even in the summer months, to fog, rain, 
and storms; the coast is precipitous and rocky and hidden dangers 
are numerous; there is a great rise and fall of tide, resulting in strong 
tidal currents; the trafiic is new and mainly restricted to only a part 
of the year, so that it is difficult for navigators to become thoroughly 
famihar with the region and conditions; much of the coast has not 
been completely surveyed and thorough surveys are rendered diffi- 
cult by the nature of the bottom, and the coast is so abrupt and the 
depths so great that convenient and safe anchorages are not always 
available. On the other hand, southeastern Alaska has a remarkable 
network of well-protected inside channels in large part sufficiently 
wide and deep for any class of vessels, and has numerous small har- 
bors. During the summer season, when traffic is heaviest, there is 
either dayUght throughout the 24 hours or the time of darkness is 
short, thus materially aiding navigation, but the reverse condition 
exists in winter, because of the northern latitude. The immense coast 
line in proportion to the population and the amount of shipping, and 



TYPES OF CONSTRUCTION OF LIGHTHOUSES. 17 

the uncertainty as to the permanency in routes of traffic, would not 
warrant the Government at this stage of development of the Territory 
in making the expenditures necessary to mark its coasts as elaborately 
as similar coasts in older and more settled portions of the United 
States. 

The justice of the demands for additional aids to navigation in 
Alaska is, however, fully recognized. To meet these real needs, 
Alaska, which has formerly been under the charge of the district 
office at Portland, Oreg., was on August 1, 1910, made a separate 
lighthouse district, permitting the inspector in chaise to give his 
entire attention to this important territory. A district office and 
depot have been established at Ketchikan and office and construc- 
tion forces have been organized in the new district. 

One of the largest tenders in the service, the KuJcui, has been as- 
signed to duty in Alaska, and a still larger vessel, the Cedar j is now 
being built for the same purpose. The new tender Fern has been 
constructed especially for work in the inside waters of southeastern 
Alaska. 

Appropriations for special works in Alaska made in recent years 
include two appropriations of $60,000 each, made by the acts of 
March 4, 1911, and August 1, 1914, for aids to navigation in Alaska; 
$25,000 for rebuilding and improving Lincoln Kock Light and Fog 
Signal (act Mas-. 4, 1911) ; and $115,000 fo^ establishing Cape St. Elias 
Light and Fog Signal (act Oct. 22, 1913). In addition to these 
special works, the average expenditures from general appropriations 
for the support of the service in ordinary maintenance and better- 
ments have averaged about $135,000 annually for the past two years. 

8. TYPES OF CONSTRUCTION OF LIGHTHOUSES. 

The type of construction adopted in each case for lighthouse struc- 
tures depends largely on the importance of the light and the foundation 
conditions. Brief descriptions of the various types more commonly 
employed are as follows: 

Post lights are generally a single timber post, with a shelf or 
bracket for the lantern. In some cases ladders are attached, and to 
assist in identifying the aid by day, wooden wing boards for daymark 
purposes are frequently added. For similar construction in water, 
single piles, either timber or concrete, are used. A small service box 
for the lantern and suppUes is often added. 

Where the light is of more importance, framed timber towers have 
been used, generally built with four posts on proper foundations, 
battered and provided with the necessary framing and bracing, with 
a ladder and service box. Similar structures in water are generally 
of three or more piles, driven on a batter and forming a cluster at 
the top. 

18247°— 16 2 



18 



UNITED STATES LIOHTHOUBE SERVICE, 1915. 



Recent improvements along this line include structural steel 
skeleton towers, also similar towers of iron pipe. Standard plans 
have been prepared for each of these types, both of which are useful 
when quickness of construction is 
desired. Each type is square in plan 
and strongly brftCed, with due pro- 
vision allowed for corrosion in pro- 
portioning the sizes of the members. 
For similar structures in water, con- 
crete pile foundation structures con- 
sisting of four, seven, or nine piles, 
with suitable cast-iron struts and 
structural bracing, have been devel- 
oped and standard plans prepared 
for each type. 

In addition to the foregoing typea, 
which are principally adopted for 
nonattended lights, mention should 
be made of unlighted beacons, or 
daymarks. Some of these may be 
merely a pile or stake, ■ occasionally 
with a pointer indicating the chan- 
nel; others are timber structures of 

Sand ahDBl Inlet Light, Va. ... 

various designs, carrying a tai^et 
or some other characteristic feature to attract attention; others are 
iron or steel spindles with a barrel or some form of ci^e work at the 
top, and some older types are monuments of stone. A type recently 
developed is that of stroi^ly braced 
reinforced concrete tripods, to re- 
place old wooden tripods destroyed 
by the sea. In some locahties, par- 
ticularly on rivors in California, 
where fog is prevalent part of the 
year, echo boards are used. These 
are rather loi^ wall-like structures 
with projecting wings, to permit 
steamers obtaining an echo from 
their whistles in passing. These 
sometimes carry a p<«t hght on 
top of the board. 

In case of attended lights where 

" Pptalunw Creek Light, Cttl. 

resident keepers are employed, 

which may be considered as lighthouses proper, there are also many 
types. A common form, frequently used for harbor or lake lights, 
is a combined tower and dwelling of timber or brick construction. 



r--^»s. 


U 


-^^mt^mammi 



TYPES OP CONSTRUCTION OF LIGHTHOUSES. 



19 




LarctamoDt Breakwater Light, t 



Sometimes the tower only is of nmsonry, while the dwelling is frame. 
For the more important lights, the tower is detached from the dwell- 
ings and as a rule is of fireproof construction. Most of the older 
towers of this type are builtof brick 
or stone masonry, with stairways, 
lantern, and other appurtenances 
of cast iron. Others of a more 
recent type have a structural open 
framework of wrought iron or steel, 
usually with an inclosed stair well 
in the center. In still more recent 
years reinforced concrete towers 
have been used and will probably 
be more extensively adopted in 
the future. 

A completely equipped lightsta- 
tion on a land site usually consists 
of the light tower, oil house, fog-signal building, keepers' dwellings, 
workshop, water supply and drainage systems, landing wharf, boal^ 
house and ways, bam, and the usual outbuildings, roads, walks, 

and fences; although, owing to 

the restricted area of some sites, 
several of these purposes may 
be served by a single buUding. 
On submarine sites the whole sta- 
tion is frequently confined to one 
structure. 

Where not built on rock, the 
foundation for towers on land sites 
is usually a single block of concrete 
resting upon the foundation soil, 

which has been previously exca- I 

vated to the proper depth. Occa- 
sionally these blocks are placed 
upon a timber grillage supported 
by piles for sites upon low or 
marshy land, and in all cases the 
block is extended so as to brii^ the 
unit pressures within the bearing 
power of the foundation material. 
Many lighthouses at the entrances 
.., i,«»v,«»^ I. 1* iL J Fairport West FioT Light, Ohio. 

to harbors are built on the ends 

of breakwaters or pierheads, utilizing, as a rule, such structures as 
the foundation. In such cases the problem is not essentially dif- 



20 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

ferent from ordinary shore construction, although the weight of the 
superstructure must be considered carefully to avoid undue settle- 
ment'of the foundation, providing at the same time a lai^e margin 
of reserve strength to resist the impact of the waves and the vibra- 
tions caused thereby. Also, in such cases the necessary restrictions 
of available space require that the 
lighthouse be as compact as pos- 
sible. 

In the case of lighthouses on 
submei^ed sites the engineering 
features are important and often 
present great difficulties both in 
des^n and construction. Where 
the bottom is rocky or hard, the 
lighthouse is either built directly 
on the rock or on a pier. When 
placed on a ledge of rock, the latter 
is usually leveled or stepped as far 
as practicable and the structure 
heavily rag bolted to the rock. 



BerkdeyReelBeBoon.CaL TwO important lighthoUSeS On the 

Great Lakes were built by constructing cofferdams, pumping out the 
water and leveUng off the bod rock on wliich the Ughthousc was 
built of cut stone, securely fastened. In other types, particularly on 




Duck Kwks Tripod, Mn. 



the Great Lakes, cribs filled with stone are placed on the bottom 
and capped with concrete or other masonry. 

Important wave-swept lighthouses, most of which are masonry 
structures founded on rocky ledges or hard bottom, include the fol- 
lowing 20 stations: 



TYPES OF CONSTEUCTION OF LIGHTHOUSES. 



First district: 

Saddleback Ledge, Me. 

Halfway Rock, Me. 

Riun Island Ledge, Me. 

Whaleback, Me. 
Second district : 

The Graves, Mass. 

MinotB Ledge, Mass. 

Bishop and Clerks, Mass. 
Third district: 

Race Rock, N. Y. 

New London Ledge, Conn. 

Stratford Shoal, N. Y. 
Tenth district: 

Toledo Harbor, Ohio. 



Eleventh district: 

Port Austin Reef, Mich. 

Spectacle Reef, Mich. 

Stannard Rock. Mich. 

Rock of Ages, Mich. 
Twelfth district: 

^^Tiite Shoal, Mich. 

Racine Reef, Wis. 
Seventeenth district: 

Tillamook Rock, Oreg. 
Eighteenth district: 

St. George Reef, Cal. 

Mile Rocks, Cal. 




Butralo Llgbt SlatioD, N. '1 



Other severely exposed stations which are not given in the fore- 
going list include, in the seventh district, Fowey Rocks, Carysfort 
Reef, Alligator Reef, Sombrero Key, American Shoal, and Rebecca 
Shoal, Fla.; and, in the eighth district, Ship Sboai, Southwest Reef, 
and Sabine Bank, La. These stations appear in other lists on pages 
25, 27, and 28. 



22 



UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 



Other stations not named in any of these lists, hut which are 
noteworthy hecause of their unusual remoteness or isolation, include 
in part the following 34 locations: 

Firat district; 

libby Islands. Me. 
Petit Manan, Me. 



Gieat Duck Island, Mc. 
Mount Deaert Bock, Me. 
MatinicuB Bwk, Me. 
Boon Island, Me. 
laleHofShoats. N.H. 



Eighth district — Continued. 

Matagorda, Tei. 
Ninth dietrict: 

Mona laland, P. R. 

Culebrita Island, P. R. 

Muertos Island, P. R. 
Sixteenth district: 

Cape Saricbef, Alaska, 




Hinots LedKB LiKht : 



Third district: 

Falkner Island, Conn. 
Fifth district: 

Cape Hatteras, N. C. 

Cape Lookout, N. C. 
Sixth district: 

Cape Bomain, S. C. 

Himtinglaland, S, C. 

Cape Canaveral, Fla. 
Seventh district: 

Dry Tortugas, Fla. 
Eighth dist.rict: 

Cape San Bias, Fla. 

Sand Island. Ala. 

Timbalier, La. 



I Scotch Cap, Alaska. 

Cape Hinchinbrook, Alaska. 
I Lincoln Rock, Alaska. 
I Seventeenth district: 

Cape Flattery, Wash. 

Destruction Island, Wash. 

Cape Blanco, Oreg. 
Eigbteenth district: 

Piinta Gorda, Cal. 

Farallon, Cal. 

Point Sur, Cal. 
Nineteenth district - 

Makapuu Point, Hawaii. 

Molokai, Hawaii. 

Kilauea Point. Hawaii, 



TYPES OP CONSTRUCTION OF LIGHTHOUSES. 23 

For submarine sites, where the bottom is sand, either a pile or cais- 
son foundation is commonly employed. The screw pile, which was 
frequently employed some years ago, consists of a pile with a broad 
helicoidal flange On the foot, which is bored like an auger into the 
bottom, thereby greatly increasiug the bearing power of the pile as well 
as anchoring it firmly. The caiason type usually consists of a cylinder 
from 21 to 35 feet in diameter, built up of cast-iron plates, and sunk 
by dredging or by the pneumatic process into the shoal until a firm 



bearing is attained, after which the interior is solidly filled with 
concrete, A few caissons have been placed on rocks or ledges. 
Both of these types are comparatively modem, the first screw- 
pile structure in the United States being at Brandywine Shoal, 
Delaware Bay, lighted in 1850, and the first pneumatic caisson 
structure being at Fourteen Foot Bank, Delaware Bay, completed 
in 1887. There are at the present time 76 attended lighthouses on 
piles, most of which are in Chesapeake Bay and the Carolina Sounds, 



24 



UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915, 



and 46 on caisson foundations, principally on the north and middle 
Atlantic coasts. The names and locations of such lighthouses are as 

follows: 

ATTENDED LIGHTHOUSES OK PILES. 

Second district: Fifth district — Continued. 

•Nbjtowb, Maas. Pagea Rock, Va. 

Third district: *BellB Rock, Va. 

*Long Beach Bar, N. Y. *01d Plantation Flats, Va. 

•Bridgeport Harbor, Conn. •Cherryst'ine, Va. 



Fourth district; 

Mahon River, Del. 
Fifth district: 

•KilUck Shoal, Va. 
•Craney Island, Va. 

Nansemond River, Va. 

White Shoal, Va. 

Point of Shoala, Va. 

York Spit, Va. 
•Deep Water Shoals, Va. 
*Tue Marahes, Va. 



JoQ, N. c. 

"Stingray Point, Va. 
*Bowlera Rock, Va. 
•Windmill Point, Va. 
•Tangier Sound, Va. 
•James Island, Md. 

SoraeraCove, Md. 
•Great Wicomico River. Va. 
•Ragged Point, Md. 
•Cobb Point Bar, Md, 

Lower Cedar Point, Md. 
•Mathias Point Shoal. Md. 

(M). 



TYPES OF CONSTRUCTION OF LIGHTHOUSES. 



Fifth district — Continued. 

Upper Cedar Point, Md. 
"Maryland Point, Md. 
"Holland Island Bar, Md. 
•Great Shoals, Md. 
•Sharkfln Shoal, Md. 
•Hooper Strait, Md. 
*Drum Point, Md. 

Chop tank River, Md. 
•Thomas Point Shoal, Md. 
•Greenbury Point Shoal, Md. 

Love Point, Md. 



Fifth, district — Continued, 
•Harbor Ishind Bar, N. C. 
•Brant Island Shoal, N. C. 
•Pamlico Point, N. C. 
•Neuse River, N. C. 
Sixth district: 

*Fort Ripley Shoal, S. C. 
Seventh diatrict: 

Fowey Rocks, Fla. 
Carysfort Reef, Fla. 
All^tnr Reef, Fla. 
Sombrero Key, Fla. 



Hog Island Shoal Light Station, K. I. 



•Seven Foot Knoll, Md. 

Hawkins Point, Md, 

North River, N.C. 

Wade Point, N. C. 
•Laurel Point, N. C. 

Roanoke River, N. 0. 
•Croatan, N. C. 

Long Shoal, N.C. 
•Hatterafl Inlet, N. C. 
•Gull Shoal, N. C. 
•Bluff Shoal, N.C. 
•Southwest Point Royal Shoal, N, C. 



American Shoal, Fla, 
•Sand Key, Fla. 

Rebecca Shoal, Fla. 
Eighth district: 

Horn Island, Miss. 
•Cat Island, Miss, 
•Merrill Shell Bank, Miss. 
•Lake Borgne, Miss. 
•New Canal, La. 

South Pass East Jetty, La. 

Amite River, La. 
•Ship Shoal, La. 

le atmctums (50). 



26 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 



ft-fr-jj-rw^ijRj^i-^ 



KUbuw Paint Light Bt&tioa. Kauai, Hawaii. 



TYPES OF CONSTRUCTION OP LIGHTHOUSES. 



Eighth district — Continued. 
"Southwest Beef, La. 
Oyster Bayou, La. 



I SeveDt«eDth dislrict: 

DeademoDEk Sands, Ot^. 
1 WiUtunette Biver, Oreg. 



Cape HatMns Light Slatloa, N. C. 



"Galveston Hai'bor, Tex. 
"Bed Fish Bar Cut, Tex. 
"Hall Moon Reef, Tex. 
"Braaos Santiago, Tex. 



Eighteenth district; 

Oakland Harbor, Oal. 
Southampton Shoal, Gal. 
Boe Island, Gal. 

lealructur6S(50). 



28 



UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 



ATTENDED LIGHTHOUSES ON CAISSONS. 



First district: 

Lubec Channel, Me. 

Crab tree Ledge, Me. 

Goose Rocks, Me. 

Spring Point Ledge, Me. 
Second district: 

Deer Island, Mass. 

Duxbury Pier, Mass. 

Butler Flats, Mass. 
Third district: 

Sakonnet, R. I. 

Hog Island Shoal, R. I 

Borden Flats, Mass. 

Whale Rock, R. I. 
*Plum Beach, R. I. 

Conimicut, R. I. 

Latimer Reef, N. Y. 

Orient Point, N. Y. 

Saybrook Breakwater, Conn. 

Southwest Ledge, Conn. 

New Haven, Conn. 

Pecks Ledge, Conn. 

Greens Ledge, Conn. 

Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y. 

Stamford Harbor, Conn. 

West Bank, N. Y. 

Old Orchard Shoal, N. Y. 



Third district — Continued. 

Romer Shoal, N. Y. 

Great Beds, N. J. 

Tarrytown, N. Y. 

Rockland Lake, N. Y. 
Fourth district: 

Brandywine Shoal, Del. 
♦Fourteen Foot Bank, Del. 

Miah Maull Shoal, N. J. 
*Elbow of Cross Ledge, N. J. 

Ship John Shoal, N. J. 
Fifth district: 

♦Thimble Shoal, Va. 

Newport News Middle Ground, Va. 
*Wolf Trap, Va. 
♦Smith Point, Va. 
♦Solomons Lump, Md. 
♦Point No Point, Md. 
♦Hooper Island, Md. 

Sharps Island, Md. 

Bloody Point Bar, Md. 

Sandy Point, Md. 
♦Baltimore, Md. 

Craighill Channel Front, Md. 
Eighth district: 

♦Sabine Bank, La. 



In designing lighthouse structures, particularly towers, it is cus- 
tomary to assume the wind, wave, current, ice, and other external 
pressures at the maximum in each instance, as lighthouses are 
commonly exposed to severe action from the elements. The usual 
procedure in determining the stability of a tower is to locate the 
common center of effort of all forces acting upon the structure to 
overturn it, and to proportion the weights (with due regard for the 
buoyancy of the water in the case of submarine work) so that the 
resultant of the active forces and the net weight falls properly within 
the outer edge of the base. In seeking this result the lateral resist- 
ance of the soil is considered, when the structure penetrates it for 
some distance, for the reason that it is often heavily compressed by 
a large deposit of riprap and offers good support. The superstruc- 
tures are calculated in the manner conmionly employed for chimneys 
and viaduct bents, with the exception that great stiffness and rigidity 
must be provided, as excessive vibrations are detrimental to the 
proper operation of the lamps and clocks of the illuminating appa- 
ratus. 



* Indicates caissons sunk by pneumatic process (11). 



TYPES OP CONSTRUCTION OF LIGHTHOUSES. 29 

Practically all the usual materials of construction are used in 
building lighthouses, as indicated in the foregoing paragraphs, such 
as stone masonry, brickwork, concrete (plain and reinforced), framed 
timber, and structural cast iron, wrought iron, and steel in various 
forms. 



Cupe Cbarles Ligbt StatioD, Va. 



The heights of towers vary according to the character of the shore 
and the importance of the light. On the Atlantic coast, where the 
beach as a rule is low and presents little relief, comparatively tall 
towers are required for the principal coast lights, while on the Pacific 



30 



UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 



coast, which is generally bold and high, a low tower erected on a 
prominent headland is generally sufficient. The tallest tower in the 
service is in the fifth district, at Cape Hatteras, N. C, and is 200 feet 
high. The names and locations of 20 towers with heights of 150 
feet and over are as follows, in the order of height: 



Dis- 
trisit. 



5 
5 
5 
8 
3 
4 
6 
6 
3 
5 



Station. 



Cape Hatteras, N. C 

Hog Island, Va 

Cape Charles. Va. . . 

Pensacola, Fla 

Absecon,N. J 

Cape May, N.J 

Mosquito Inlet, Fla. 

Cape Fear. N.C 

Fire Island, N.Y... 
Cape Henry, Va 



Height, 
top of 

lantern 
above 
base. 



Feet. 



200 
191 
191 
171 
170 
170 
168 
166 
163 
163 



Dis- 
trict. 



3 
6 
3 
5 
5 
5 
6 
6 
7 
7 



Station. 



Bam^at,N. J 

St. Augustine, Fla. 

Shinnecock Bay , N. Y 
Currituck Beach, N. C, 
Cape Lookout. N.C. 

B>die Island, N.C 

Charleston, S.C 

Cape Romain, S. C . . . 

Dry Tortupas, Fla 

Sombrero Key, Fla 



Height, 
top of 

lantern 
above 
base. 



Feet. 
161 
161 
161 
161 
161 
161 
161 
161 
167 
153 



9. LIGHTING APPARATUS AND ILLUMINANTS. 

The earliest type of lighting apparatus consisted of an open coal or 
wood fire, with other inflammable materials, such as pitch, burned 
in a brazier, on top of the tower. When Boston Light was estab- 
lished, in 1716, the common oil burner of the period was used, 
inclosed in a lantern consisting of a cylinder of heavy wooden frames, 
holding small, thick panes of glass. The illuminant was fish or 
whale oil, burned in spider lamps with solid wicks and suspended by 
iron chains from the top of the lantern. Sperm oil was in general 
use about 1812, and was burned in a lamp constructed on the Argand 
principle, with a rough reflector and a so-called lens or magnifier. 
This apparatus was inclosed in a heavy wrought-iron lantern glazed 
with panes about 12 inches square. Improvements were gradually 
made in this apparatus, and by the year 1840 the useless bull's-eye 
''magnifiers'' had been entirely removed, and the reflectors were 
made on correct optical principles, approaching the paraboloid in 
form, heavily silvered and properly placed. The lanterns were also 
improved by making the frames lighter, the panes larger, and by 
providLag more adequate ventilation. To provide illumination all 
around the horizon, sets of from 8 to 20 lamps were used, placed side 
by side around the circumference of a circle. This arrangement, in 
its most complete form, is designated as the catoptric, or reflector 
system, and its relative merits as compared with the lenticular system 
originally devised by the French physicist Augustin Fresnel about 
1822, was the source of much controversy in the years preceding the 
establishment of the Lighthouse Board in 1852. The first lens in the 



LIQHriNG APPABATUS AND ILLUMINANTS, 31 

United States was installed at Navesink Light, N. J., in 1841, and is 
still preserved by the Service. (See p. 91.) 

The Fresnel apparatus consists of a polyzonal lens inclosing the 
lamp, which is placed at the central focus. The lens is built up of 
glass prisms in panels, the central portions of which are dioptric or 
refracting only, and the upper and lower portions are both reflecting 



Faint Reyes LUtit [Station, Cal. 

and refracting, described as ' ' catudioptric." The advantages of this 
system he in the greater brilliancy owing to the fact that a large pro- 
portion of the light given out by the source is concentrated by the 
prisms into beams useful to the mariner, and the consequent economy 
in the consumption of oil or other illuminant employed. The prin- 
cipal sizes of Fresnel lenses are classified according to their order, 
this depending upon the inside radius or focal distance of the lens— 



32 USITED STATES UGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

that is, the distance from the center of the light to the inner surface 
of the lens — as given in the following table: 

Ord«i. MQUmeters. Inches. 

First 920 36. 2 

Second 700 27. 6 

Third 6O0 19.7 

Three-and-a-half 375 14. 7 

Fourth 250 9.8 

Fifth 187.5 7.4 

Sutth 150 5. 9 



PlEMin Point Ltgbt StsUtm, Ca), 

One of the first steps taken by the LighthoiKO Board in' 1852 was 
to install lenses generally throughout the Service in place of reflec- 
tors, and this change was carried out as rapidly as possible, being 
practicaUy completed in 1859. Lenses are in use at the present time 
at all important stations, with many subsequent improvements, how- 
ever, in the design and arrangement of the panels. Improvements 
were also made from time to time in the lantern inclosing the lens, and 
the standard type now in use is of cast iron and bronze, with helical 
bars bent to the curvature of the lantern supporting lozenge-shaped 
panes of curved plate glass. These bars, crossing the beams of Ught 
diagonally, offer the least possible obscuration to the beams toward 
any point of the horizon. Suitable ventilators and flues to furnish 
the requisite draft and to carry off the products of combustion are 



UGHPING APPARATUS AND ILLUMINANTS. 33 

also provided, and the entire lantern is constructed in a number of 
sizes corresponding to the order of the lens which it accommodates. 

The lai^est lens in use in the Lighthouse Service at present is that 
at Makapuu Point, Oahu, Hawaii, the landfall Ught for vessels hound 
from the States to the Hawaiiui Islands. This is of the hyper- 
radiant order, a larger size than those regidarly listed, and has a 
focal distance of 1,330 miUimeters, or 52.4 inches; the inside di- 
ameter of the lens is therefore nearly 9 feet, and it is inclosed in a 
specially designed lantern of 16 feet inside diameter. It is the only 
one of its type in the Service. The number of other lenses, from the 
first to the sixth orders, inclusive, in commission on June 30, 1915, 
is as follows: 57 first order; 29 second order; 68 third order; 21 
three-and-a-half order; 350 fourth 
order; 155 fifth order; and 86 sixth 
order; total, 766. 

Reflectors are also in use, partic- 
ularly for range lights, which are 
frequently employed to mark the 
axis or center line of a channel. 
For ranges two lights are necessary, 
and are placed a proper distance 
apart, usually with the rear light 
higher than the front, so that both 
bghta show in line in the same 
vertical plane when the observer 
is in the center of the channel. 
Such reflectors are either silvered 
surfaces of metal in the form 
of a paraboloid, similar to head 
lights for locomotives or automo- 
biles, or in improved forms of glass lenses with prismatic glass 
reflectors back of the light source. The latter are known as range 
lenses. On Jime 30, 1915, there were 100 reflectors and 41 range 
lenses in use in the lighthouse Service, 

During the transition period of lighthouse apparatus from reflec- 
tors to lenses sperm oil remained as the leading illuminant, but with 
the yearly diminution of the whale catch it gradually increased in 
price until its use became prohibitive. Colza oil was used in smaU 
quantities about 1862 and succeeding years, but during the period 
1864-1867 lard oil was adopted as the standard iUuminant, and was 
generally employed to 1878, when kerosene came into use. Its use 
was gradually extended, and by 1884 kerosene became the principal 
illiuuinant and so remains at the present time. The lamps used 
were also improved, passing through various styles to a special form 
of concentric wick, using five wiclts for the largest sizes. The incan- 
182470— 16 3 



34 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915, 

descent oil-vapor lamp, which is now generally employed for important 
lights, hums vaporized kerosene under an incandescent mantle, 
giving a much more powerful light with little or no increase in oil 
consumption. The kerosene is stored in a convenient size tank and 
is forced by compressed air, produced hy operating a hand pump 
attached to either the oil tank or a separate air tank, into the 
vaporizer of the lamp. The air pressure varies from about 40 to 
60 pounds per square inch and decreases so slowly during the opera- 
tion of the light that a few strokes of the pump once or twice a night 
serves to maintain the required pressure. The kerosene is con- 
verted into vapor by a preheating torch when starting the lamp and 
subsequently by the heat of the mantle itself. The vapor issues 
from a minute nozzle, mixes with a proper supply of air, and ignites 
as a blue flame in a Bunsen burner 
under the mantle, which is thereby 
brought to a brilliant incandes- 
cence. 

Various other iUuminants are 
now in use; oil gas is extensively 
used,particularly for lighted buoys; 
acetylene gas is used for lighted 
buoys and imattended lighted 
beacons; electric arc and incan- 
descent lights and coal-gas lights 
are also used in special instances. 
Electric lights with distant con- 
trol are employed in a number of 
Incandescent oo-vaoot lamp, 35.in]iiim«t«t cases where a reliable source of 

mantlo, wltu aoubla tanks- 

current may be obtamed. Such 
lights may be on pierheads or structures built in the water, and 
can be easily operated by a switch on shore connected to the light by 
cable. A flashing characteristic may be arranged by means of an 
automatic make and break apparatus consisting of a small motor 
drivii^ a clockwork and wheel with cams. The principal details as 
to illuminants used in the Service on Jxme 30, 1915, are given in the 
following table: 

LIgbts. 

Incandeecent oil vapor 288 

Kerosene wick 2, 067 

Acetylene 516 

Oil gas 418 

Coal gaa 4 

Electric incandescent 56 

Electric ate 6 



DISTINCTIVENESS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF LIGHTS. 35 

This table includes lighted buoys, but does not include the minor 
lights in the three river districts, of which there are 1,801, with 
kerosene wick lanterns. 

All lights on the seacoast, with a few exceptions, are exhibited 
throughout the year, between sunset and sunrise. On the northern 
lakes and rivers lights are exhibited from sunset to sunrise at all 
seasons when vessels can enter the ports or are navigating in their 
vicinity. Some of these lights, notably on Lake Michigan, are 
maintained throughout the year. The closed time varies with the 
seasons, generally embracing a part of December, January, Feb- 
ruary, and a part or all of March. Gas buoys and Ught vessels in 
these localities are replaced by unlighted buoys in the fall when 
endangered by ice conditions, and agam placed on then- stations as 
early as practicable in the spring. 

10. DISTINCTIVENESS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF LIGHTS. 

In order to avoid the likelihood of confusion between lights, 
endeavor is made to give the lights distinct characteristics. As much 
of the coast was lighted before the introduction of modem lighthouse 
apparatus, the original lights were as a rule fixed, but at the more 
important of these stations apparatus has now been installed to 
make the lights flashing or occulting. This effect is produced in the 
case of flashing lights by revolving all or a part of the lens, which is 
specially constructed with panels of prisms for concentrating the 
rays into beams; and in the case of occulting lights by some form of 
traveling screen or shutter which obscures the light at intervals. In 
either case the motion is regulated by a clockwork generally actuated 
by weights woimd over a drum and provided with the necessary 
governing mechanism so that the light and dark periods may occur 
in accurate sequence and produce the proper characteristic. The 
usual phases so attained are as follows: Fixed, showing a continuous 
steady light; flashing, showing a single flash at regular intervals; 
fixed and flashing, showing a fixed light varied at regular intervals 
by a single flash of greater brilliancy; group flashing, showing at regu- 
lar intervals groups of flashes; occulting, showing a steady light 
suddenly and totally eclipsed at regular intervals; and group occult- 
ing, showing a steady light suddenly and totally eclipsed by a group 
of two or more eclipses at regular intervals. The foregoing refers 
only to lights which do not change color, commonly white, but further 
diversification is obtained by the use of red screens, changing the 
color from white to red in various combinations, such lights being 
known as alternating. In the case of gas or electric lights, the supply 
of gas or current is cut off at intervals by specially designed mechan- 
isms whereby the characteristic may be adjusted as desired. 



36 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

The terms '^ flashing '^ and '* occulting V refer to the relative dura- 
tions of light and darkness, a flash being an interval shorter than the 
duration of an eclipse, and an occultation being shorter than, or 
equal to, the duration of light. In approaching a light of varying 
intensity, such as fixed varied by flashes, or alternating red and white, 
due allowance must be made for the inferior brightness of the less 
powerful part of the light, which at a distance may show flashes only 
or white only, in the respective instances cited. Flashing lights may 
show a faint continuous light, due to reflection from the lantern, in 
clear weather and at short distances. White lights may have a 
reddish hue in some conditions of the atmosphere, and where lights 
change from white to red, by sectors or otherwise, there is a small 
amount of uncertain color on each side of the line of demarcation. 
Red sectors are produced by screens of colored glass; they are often 
employed to mark outljring dangers near the light, or the limits of 
channels, and are usually arranged so that the light shows white while 
a passing vessel is clear of such dangers, changing to red as the shoal 
or other obstruction is approached. Also, at the edge of a sector of 
visibility, the light is not cut off sharply, but gradually fades away. 

To assist identification in daylight, towers are frequently dis- 
tinguished by characteristic painting, in addition to peculiarities of 
form or outline. The effect of several colors, when combined in 
bold patterns of spirals, bands, or blocks, is quite striking in a number 
of important lighthouses. 

The principal details of characteristics of lights in commission on 
June 30, 1915, are given in the following table: 

Lights. 

Fixed white 1, 316 

Fixed red 864 

Flashing or occulting 1, 050 

Fixed and flashing 69 

The above table includes lighted buoys but does not include the 
53 Ught vessels nor the 1,801 post lights on the Mississippi River and 
its tributaries, all of which are fixed. Of the light vessels, 29 have 
fixed white lights, 5 fixed red, 6 fixed white and red, and 13 flashing 
or occulting. 

11. VISIBILrrY AND CANDLEPOWER OF LIGHTS. 

Under normal atmospheric conditions the visibility of a light 
depends upon its height and intensity; the distance due to the former 
being known as the geographic range, and to the latter as the luminous 
range. As a rule, for the principal lights the luminous range is 
greater than the geographic, and the distance from which the principal 
lights are visible is limited by the horizon only, and imder some con- 
ditions of atmospheric refraction, the glare or loom of the light and 
occasionally the light itself may be visible far beyond the computed 



VISIBILITY AND CANDLEPOWER OP LIGHTS. 37 

geographic range of the light. On the other hand, and unfortunately 
more frequently the case, these distances may be greatly lessened by 
unfavorable weather conditions due to fog, rain, snow, haze, or 
smoke. Weak and colored lights are more easily obscured by such 
conditions. The distances of visibility in nautical miles for objects 
of various elevations in feet above sea level are given in the foUowii^ 
table, which is employed in calculating the geographic range: 



Ocnenl lining of Atlantic co 



t at eatranoeB to Boston, New Ytrk, uid PhUsitolphia. 



=«" 


.^u'S^l 


Height, In 


Distuu!«,fn 
nautical mllea. 


Be^t,in 


Distance, In 


5 


2.M 


M 


^■0 


130 


13.03 


10 


3.ei 


6G 


9.21 


140 


13.62 


IE 




70 




58 


150 


14.00 


» 


B.11 


7fi 






an 




13 


6.71 


SO 


10 


23 


Z50 


18.07 


30 


S.3S 








300 


19.80 j 


35 


«,70 


60 




W 


S60 


21.38 1 


40 


7.23 


03 


11 


M 


100 






7.67 


IDO 


11 


« 


450 




CO 


8. OS 










2S-66 1 


Si 


8.« 


lai 


12.51* 




i 



38 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

Distances corresponding to heights not included in the above table 
may be found approximately by the formula D = fVH^ in. which 
H = the elevation, or height, in feet, of the object above sea level, 
and D = the corresponding distance of visibility, in nautical miles. 
The formida is based on the mean curvature of the earth and is cor- 
rected for ordinary atmospheric refraction, and should be used only 
for moderate distances and elevations. 

To make use of the above table in a practical way, it is necessary to 
add the distance corresponding to the height of the observer's eye 
above sea level, as illustrated in the following example : 

A light 130 feet high is seen just at the horizon; what, under 
ordinary atmospheric conditions, is its distance from the observer? 

Nautical 
miles. 

From table, distance corresponding to 130 feet height 13. 03 

Add distance corresponding to height of eye above sea level, say 

15 feet 4.43 

Distance of light , 17. 46 

The highest light in the Service is at Cape Mendocino, Cal., the focal 
plane (or center of the Ught) of which is 422 feet above mean high 
water, thus giving it a geographic range of about 28 miles, under 
normal atmospheric conditions and with the observer's eye at a 
height of 15 feet. The following Ust gives the names and locations 
of 23 Ughts with focal plane heights of 200 feet and aver, arranged 
in the order of height: 



Dis- 
trict. 



18 
19 
18 

9 

9 
18 
18 

9 
17 
19 

3 
16 



Station. 



Cape Mendocino, Cal 

M^capuu Point, Hawaii 

Farallon, Cal 

Culebrita Island, P. R 

Muertos Island, P. R 

Point Reyes, Cal 

Point Sur, Cal 

Cape San Juan, P. R 

Cape Blanco, Oreg 

Aunuu Island, Samoa 

Navesink, N. J 

Cape Hlnchinbrook, Alaska 



Height 


i 
1 


of focal 




plane 


Dis- 


above 


trict. 


mean 




high 




water. 




Feet. 




422 


17 


420 


9 


358 


3 


305 


3 


297 


17 


294 


19 


270 


18 


260 


19 


252 


11 


250 


17 


246 


3 


235 





Station. 



Cape Disappointment, Wash. . . . 

Mona Island, P. R 

Staten Island, N. Y 

Chapel HiU, N.J 

Cape Meares, Oreg 

Kilauea Point, Hawaii 

Alcatraz, Cal , 

Molokai, Hawaii 

Grand Island, Mich 

Heceta Head, Oreg , 

Block Island Southeast, R. I 



Height 
of focal 
plane 
above 
mean 
high 
water. 



Feet. 



233 
231 
231 
221 
220 
216 
214 
213 
205 
204 
201 



The intensities of lights were formerly indicated merely by the 
order of the optical apparatus. So long as the lenses were similar in 
arrangement and the same type of lamp was used this gave a con- 
venient basis of comparison, but with the introduction of more 
modern apparatus, with flash panels of great power and illuminating 



VrSlBILITY AND CANDLEPOWER OF LIGHTS. 6V 

apparatus of increased intensity, such distinctions became uncertain 
so far as indicating the relative brightness of hghts. The statement 
of orders has now been generally superseded by a statement of the 
approxunate eandlepower in EngUsh candles. The actual deter- 
mination of such candlepowers for large lenses is difficult, and 
it is in most cases estimated on the basb of accurate photometric 
measurements of small lights, pro- 
portioning the results so obtained 
to suit the elements of the lens 
under study, taking into account 
the intrinsic power of the light 
source, the horizontal and ver- 
tical aisles of the various panels, 
the divergence of the rays at the 
source, the absorption or reflec- 
tion of a percentage of the hght 
by the prisms themselves, and 
such other factors as enter into 
consideration. Although only ap- 
proximate, the final figures are, 
however, reasonably consistent, 
and from them the observer may 
judge of the relative brilUancy and 
power of the various lights. 

The brightest light in the Serv- 
ice, and considered by some au- 
thorities as one of the brightest in 
the world, is at Navesink, N. J., on 
the highlands at the entrance to 
New York Bay, the eandlepower of 
which is estimated at 25,000,000. 
The geographic range of this light 
is 22 miles, but its glare has been 

seen at a distance of 70 miles at sea i^«.idi«gn™oiPri»m,,Kiiau»Potat. 
under unusual conditions of the atmosphere. This great intensity is 
produced by a powerful electric arc inclosed in a modern lens of high 
magnification. The cost of maintenance is relatively large as com- 
pared with other stations, but is justified by the amount of commerce 
entering New York. The names and locations of 42 lights in the 
Service having candlepowers of 100,000 or greater are given in the 
following list in the order of brightness : 



40 



UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SEBVICE, 1915. 



Dis- 
trict. 


Station. 


Intensity 
of brightest 
part of 
light, in 
approxi- 
mate Eng- 
lish can- 
dles. 

1 


Dfe. 
trict. 

1 


Station. 


Intensity 
of brightest 
part of 
ifeht, in 
approxi- 
mate Eng- 
lish can- 
dles. 


3 


Navesink, N.J 


25,000,000 
620,000 
580,000 
420,000 
420,000 
380,000 
370,000 
360.000 
300,000 
280,000 
280,000 
280,000 
270,000 
260,000 
240,000 
230,000 
220,000 
220,000 
200,000 
180,000 
180,000 


3 

6 

6 

6 

17 

1 

8 

3 

4 

5 

7 

8 

1 

6 

8 

11 

11 

16 

18 

2 

11 


Fire Island, N. Y 


170,000 
170 OOO 


19 


Molokai, Hawaii 


Cape Remain, P. r, , . . 


2 


Cape Cod, Mass 


Cane Canaveral. Fla. . 


170,000 
170 OOO 


4 


Listons Range Rear, Del 

Hillsboro Inlet, Fla 


Jnpitnf Tnlet, Fla 


6 


Heceta Head. Orec. . . . 


170,000 
160,000 
160,000 
130,000 
130,000 
130,000 
130,000 
120,000 
110,000 
110,000 
110,000 
110,000 
110,000 
110,000 
110,000 
100,000 
100,000 


2 


The Graves, Mass 


Monbezan Island . aC e 


7 


Dry Tortugas, Fla 


Shin Shoal. I^a 


12 


White Shoal, Alich 


Montauk Point. N. Y . . . . 


3 


Staten Island, N. Y 


Cape May. N. J. 


18 


Farallon, Cal 


Cabe Charles. \ a 


5 


Hog Island, Va 

Pciisacola, Fla 


Carvsfort Reef, Fla 


8 


Matagorda. Tex 


11 


Whiteflsh Point, Mich 


Moose Peak. Me 


3 


Shinnecock Bay, N. Y 


St. Autnistine. Fla 


19 


Kilauea Point, Hawaii 

Point Arena. Cal 


Cape San Bias, Fla 


18 


Stannard Rock. Mich 


11 


Split Rock, Minn 


Outer Island, Wis 


17 


Grays Harbor, Wash 


Cape Hinchinbrook, Alaska 

Point Cabrillo. Cal 


11 


Rock of Ages, Mich 


1 


Petit Manan, Me 


Boston. Mass 


10 


Bullalo, N. Y 


Manitou. Mich 









12. FOG SIGNALS. 

The first fog signal in the United States was a cannon, installed 
at Boston Light in 1719, which was fired when necessary to answ^er 
the signals of ships in thick weather. Guns of various types were 
used at other Ughthouses but have now been generally abandoned. 

Bells were introduced at a comparatively early date, and at first 
were usually small and rung by hand to answer vessels. Larger 
bells were developed and striking machinery, governed by clockwork, 
devised for ringing a regular code or characteristic. Many bells 
are now in use, ranging from smaU hand bells up to 4,000 pounds in 
weight, and are of value for inside waters, harbors, etc., but are not 
sufficiently powerful for use on the seacoast. 

Trumpets were the next improvement, and were first introduced 
about 1855. The original device consisted of a steel reed or tongue 
inclosed in a box with a large trumpet or resonator; the apparatus 
was sounded by means of compressed air produced by horsepower 
operating through suitable machinery. Although the sound was 
more penetrating than that of bells, the expense and inconvenience 
of the maintenance of a horse prevented its extended use. A modi- 
fication was made, using an Ericsson hot-air engine instead of the 
horse as the motive power, and trumpets so equipped were established 
at a number of stations. A somewhat similar device, known now as- 
a reed horn, is in use at a number of inside stations and is generally 
operated by compressed air, the compressors being driven by internal- 
combustion kerosene or gasoline engines. The sound is of moderate 
volume only and is not sufficiently loud for rough outside stations. 



FOG SIGNALS. 41 

Steam whistles were investigated first in 1855, and an installation 
of a 5-iuch whistle was made at Beavertail, R, I., in the fall of 1857, 
which was subsequently replaced about 1866 by a hot-air engine. The 
first station regularly equipped was at Cape Elizabeth, Me., where the 
installation was placed in commission on June 15, 1869. This 
consisted of a boiler and fittings with a 10-inch locomotive-typ© 
whistle, giving an S-second blast every minute. This was the most 
powerful apparatus devised up to that time, and in point of volume 
and carrying power of the sound is still considered a very efficient 
aid. The rapid deterioration of the boilers, the expense of providing 
fresh water and fuel, the possibiUty of confusion with the whistle 



Detroit Blver Llglit Btadan, Hlch,, sUovIde tog stgnaL 

of a passing vessel, and, above all, the time required to place the 
signal in operation in the event of sudden fog, are factors which have 
tended toward the nonuse or abandonment of this type of signal in 
practically all foreign lighthouse services, though it is still exten- 
sively employed in this country with whistles up to 12 inches in 
diameter. 

Experiments with sirens were first made in 1867, and the first 
service installation was at Sandy Hook East Beacon on March 31, 
1868. Originally this instrument consisted of a fixed disk, with a 
number of radial slits, back of which was a revolvii^ plate with the 
same arrangement of slits, and a trumpet at the outer end. Steam 
at about 70 pounds pressure was driven through the apparatus, 



42 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

and the escape and interruption of the jets through the openings 
in the disk and rotating plate produced the note. The apparatus 
has been modified and improved, and in its present form the revolv- 
ing plate has been superseded by a cyUnder with peripheral slots, 
known as the rotor, which is inclosed in a casing also with slots. 
leading to a horn or trumpet. The rotor is in some types driven 
by a separate auxihary mechanism and in others automatically 
by the main supply of steam or air, this latter type being known 
as the automatic siren. Compressed air is generally employed 
as the sounding medium, though steam is used at a few places. 
The compressors are driven by internal-combustion engines. The 
principal advantages of the compressed-air siren are distinctiveness 



Fog signal Rt Cape Rtatj Light Slatiaii, Vo. 

of note, which is entirely unlike the ordinary whistle, and quickness 
of starting, rarely over 10 minutes being required in any case, while 
some of the more recent installations may be sounded almost instan- 
taneously. 

A number of other signals have also been introduced, such as 
air whistles, in which the same type of plant as for an air siren is 
employed, except in regard to the sound-producing apparatus; also 
electrically operated bells and gongs, which do not differ essentially 
from those operated by clockwork. 

Distant control is often used for electric fog signals, pMiicularly 
when placed on the ends of jetties or breakwaters and other inac- 
cessible places. The striking mechanism is usually driven by 8 
motor incased in a storm-proof box or casing, with all gears r unni ng 



FOG SIGNALS. 43 

in a bath of oil. A generally heavy and safe construction is adopted, 
and the striker is connected by submarine cable, if necessary, to 
the starting box, located on shore, where it is necessary only to throw 
a switch to start the apparatus. 

Other types are the "sireno,'' an electrically driven blower siren, 
and the "diaphone," an instrument similar to the siren but having 
a reciprocating piston instead of a rotor. The diaphone is used 
quite extensively in the Canadian Ughthouse service and a few 
installations have recently been made in this country. An experi- 
mental installation has also been made of an acetylene fog gxm, 
which consists of an apparatus for firing an explosive mixture of 
air and acetylene gas by means of an electric spark. 

Tests have been made with various shapes of resonators or trumpets 
for the most efficient propagation of the sound waves. A vertical 
mushroom trumpet has been found to give good results where an 
even distribution of the sound is desired at all points of the compass, 
as, for instance, in the case of hght vessels. In other cases, par- 
ticularly light stations marking important places, horizontal double- 
mouth horns have been found to give satisfactory results by effecting 
a wider and more even distribution of the sound. 

Practically all fog signals as now installed are provided with a 
governing device for timing the strokes or blasts; this usually con- 
sists of a clockwork whereby the cycle is repeated every minute 
in order to faciUtate identification. 

Fog signals, though of the greatest value to the mariner, are 
subject to a number of aberrations, so that they can not be relied 
upon imphcitly. Every endeavor is made to start fog signals as 
soon as signs of fog have been observed at the station, but such 
signals should be regarded by mariners as auxiUary aids only and 
soundings should be taken in all conditions of doubt. A fog often 
creeps imperceptibly toward the land and a vessel may have been in 
it some time before it is observed at the signal. Sound is con- 
veyed irregularly through the atmosphere and mariners can not 
place dependence on judging their distance from the fog signal 
by the power of the sound. Under certain conditions of the atmos- 
phere the sound may be lost a short distance from the signal, as 
there may be silent areas or zones; or the sound may carry much 
farther in one direction than in another, and these conditions may 
vary in the same locahty within short intervals of time. 

It is often observed that in any given direction from a fog signal, 
and near its limit of audibility, the sound may become extremely 
faint, and at a greater distance it may again become quite distinct. 
It should never therefore be assumed that fog signals are not ia 
operation because the sound is not heard, even when in close prox- 
imity. Frequently noises in the ship may interfere with the hearing 



44 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

from the deck or bridge, especially with the engines running. In such 
cases it is well to stop the ship and listen in a quiet position. Whis- 
tling and bell buoys are sounded only by the action of the sea; there- 
fore in calm weather they are less eflfective or may not sound. 

However, by due caution in navigation and the prudent use of the 
lead, sufficient warning of danger is generally obtained. In order to 
guard against the possibility of breakdowns, all modem fog-signal 
installations are in duplicate, so the second signal may be started at 
once in event of accident to the jfirst. Care is taken to give each 
signal an equal amount of use, as far as practicable. These pre- 
cautions are taken owing to the difficulty of making quick repairs at 
the station. 

Submarine signals, which have been introduced in recent years, 
have as a rule a more effective and constant range of audibility than 
signals sounded in air. Such a signal consists essentially of a specially 
designed bell, submerged sufficiently to avoid wave disturbance, with 
some form of striking mechanism. On Ught vessels the bell is usually 
swung over the ship's side on a chain attached to a davit, and the 
striking device is operated pneumatically to ring a certain set of 
blows at prescribed intervals. At light stations the bell is usually 
supported on a tripod, placed on the sea bottom, a short distance 
away from the light, and the striking mechanism operated electrically 
through a cable, with characteristic number of blows &t regular 
intervals. When attached to buoys a swinging vane is .provided, 
which is forced up and down as the buoy surges in the sea. The 
motion of the vane causes a spring to stretch, which is released at a 
sufficient tension, striking a blow on the bell: The blows are of equal 
intensity, being due to the elongation of the spring, although the 
interval between them varies with the condition of the sea, and no 
regular code of blows is therefore practicable. 

In order to obtain the best results with submarine beUs, a receiv- 
ing apparatus, somewhat similar to a telephone, has been devised 
for attachment to a vessel. This is apparently more effective in ves- 
sels of deep draft, and a ship so equipped may determine the approxi- 
mate bearing of the signal. The sound may be heard also on ves- 
sels not equipped with receiving apparatus, by observers below the 
water hne, and particularly in iron or steel ships, but the bearing of 
the signal can not then be readily determined. 

There is sometimes an unfortunate conflict of interest between 
the need of a loud and distinctive sound to aid the mariner in a fog 
and the quiet and comfort of residents in the vicinity of the signal. 

The numbers and types of the 578 fog signals in use on June 30, 
1915 (not including sounding buoys), are shown in the following 
table : 



FOG SIGNALS. 



45 



Steam (112): 

Whistle 108 

Siren 4 

Air (150): 

Whistle 13 

Siren 82 

Diaphone 3 

Sireno (electric) 6 

Reed horn 46 

Bell (261): 

Clockwork 231 

Electric 13 

Engine 1 

Hand 16 

Horn (4) : Hand 4 

Gun (1) : Acetylene : 1 

Submarine bells (50): 

On light vessels, operated by compressed air 38 

On bottom, operated by electricity 3 

On buoys, operated by the sea 9 

Total 578 

Sinc0 1885 systematic records have been kept of the number of 
hours of fog or thick weather observed per year at each fog-signal 
station. These figures present interesting statistics, and are of 
some value in approximating the prevalence of fog at various locali- 
ties when proposed new signals are under consideration. A sum- 
mary of the principal results is given in the subjoined table. 







Mean 




Num- 


hours 


Dis- 


ber 


per 


trict.o 


ofsta- 


year 




tlans. 


for dis- 
trict. 


1 


56 


874 


2 


36 


680 


3 


100 


463 


4 


12 


363 


5 


85 


218 


6 


7 


135 


7 


1 


112 


8 


16 


281 


10 


15 


228 


11 


47 


310 


12 


54 


359 


16 


10 


278 


17 


29 


439 


18 


40 


606 



Maximum observed. 



Station. 



Seguin 

Great Round Shoal 

Light Vessel. 
New London Harbor.. . 
Delaware Breakwater . . 

Cape Henry 

Martins Industry Light 

Vessel. 

Egmont Key 

Cubits Gap. 

Cleveland Breakwater. . 
Thunder Bay Island. . . 

Calumet Harbor 

Scotch Cap 

Swlftsure Bank Light 

Vessel. 
San Francisco Light 

Vessel. 



Hours. 



2,734 
1,727 

1,809 
912 
902 
320 

128 
819 
1,224 
1,085 
2,269 
1,144 
1,770 

2,145 



Year. 



1907 
1907 

1885 

1887 
1904 
1898 

1913 
1907 
1915 
1909 
1913 
1915 
1912 

1915 



Highest annual average. 



Station. 



Petit Manan 

Pollock Rip Slue Light 
Vessel 

Block Island S£ 

Delaware Breakwater. 

Baltimore 

Brunswick Light Ves- 
sel. 

Egmont Key 

Cubits Gap 

BuHalo Breakwater. . . 

Middle Island 

Calumet Harbor 

Cape Hinchinbrook . . . 

S^ftsure Bank Light 
Vessel. 

Point Reyes 



Aver- 
age. 



1,691 
1,175 

831 
525 
426 
183 

112 
562 
524 
541 

1,196 
555 

1,203 

1,337 



Years. 



31 
14 

31 
30 

7 
8 

3 

10 

22 

11 

9 

5 

9 

31 



o No fog-signal stations in the ninth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and nineteenth districts. 



The absolute maximum record is that at Seguin, Me., 2,734 hours 
ia 1907, equivalent to about 30 per cent of the entire year (8,760 
hours). The maximum observed on the Great Lakes was at Calumet 



46 



UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 



Harbor, near Chicago, HI., where 2,269 hours of fog occurred in 1913, 
amounting to about 26 per cent of the year. This and other stations 
near large cities are aflfected somewhat by smoke in the vicinity. 
The highest Pacific coast record was observed in 1915 on San Francisco 
Light Vessel, Cal., being 2,145 hours, or about 24 per cent of the year. 
Fog is more generally prevalent throughout the first district than 
any other, as shown by the following table, from which it will be seen 
that out of 29 stations in the entire service averaging over 1,000 hours 
of fog per year 14, or practically one-half, are in that locality: 



Dis- 
trict. 



1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 

18 
1 
1 
1 
1 

17 

12 

2 

18 

1 

18 

18 

2 

1 

2 

18 

18 

18 

2 

18 

2 



Station. 



Petit Manan. Me 

Whitehead, Me 

Libby Islands, Me 

Matinicus Rock, Me 

Great Duck Island, Me 

West Qiioddy Head, Me 

Moose Peak, Me 

Egg Rock, Me 

Point Reyes, Cal 

Seguin, Me 

Mount Desert, Me 

liittle R iver . Me 

The Cuckolds, Me 

Swiftsure Bank Ll«:ht Vessel, Wash 

Calumet Harbor, HI 

Pollock Rip Slue Light Vessel, Mass 

Bonita Point, Cal 

Manana Island, Me 

Point Arena, Cal 

B lun ts Ree f Light Vessel , Cal 

Great Round Snoal Light Vessel, Mass 

Nash Island, Me 

Pollock Rip Light Vessel, Mass 

Point Cabrillo, Cal 

Humbol dt , Cal 

San Luis Obispo, Cal 

Nantucket Shoals Light Vessel, Mass 

San Francisco Light Vessel, Cal 

Gloucester Breakwater, Mass 



Average 




hours of 


Years of 


fog per 


record. 


year. 




1,691 


31 


1,544 


31 


1,536 


31 


1,399 


31 


1,384 


25 


1,372 


31 


1,356 


3 


1,341 


11 


1,337 


31 


1,331 


31 


1,304 


24 


1,219 


10 


1,208 


23 


1,203 


9 


1,196 


9 


1,175 


14 


1.143 


31 


1,116 


31 


1,076 


31 


1,065 


10 


1,064 


23 


1,063 


10 


1,061 


31 


1,045 


7 


1,037 


7 


1.027 


25 


1,005 


23 


1,004 


18 


1,002 


4 



Percent- 
age of fog 
based on 
entire 
period. 



19 
18 
17 
16 
16 
16 
15 
15 
15 
15 
15 
14 
14 
14 
14 
13 
13 
13 
12 
12 
12 
12 
12 
12 
12 
12 
11 
11 
11 



13. BUOYS. 

Buoys are, as a rule, employed to mark shoals or other obstructions, 
to indicate the approaches to and limits of channels or the fairway pas- 
sage through a channel, and in some cases to define anchorage grounds. 
There were some buoys in service at the time of the transfer of the 
lighthouses to the Federal Government in 1789. Buoys originally 
were either solid wooden spars or built up in various shapes of wooden 
staves, like barrels. Wooden spars are still extensively used, particu- 
larly in inside waters; but built-up buoys are now constructed of iron 
or steel plates. 

In order to give the proper distinctiveness, buoys are given certain 
characteristic colors and numbers; and following the uniform practice 
of maritime nations generally, Congress by the act of September 28, 
1850, prescribed that all buoys along the coast or in bays, harbors, 



BUOYS. 47 

sounds, or channels shall be colored and numbered so that passing up 
the coast or sound or entering the bay, harbor, or channel, red buoys 
with even numbers shall be passed on the starboard or right hand; 
black buoys with odd numbers on the port or left hand; buoys with 
red and black horizontal stripes without numbers shall be passed on 
either hand, and indicate rocks, shoals, or other obstructions, with 
channels on either side of them; and buoys in channel ways shall be 
colored with black and white perpendicular stripes, without numbers, 
and may be passed close-to, indicating mid-channels. Buoys to mark 
abrupt turning points in channels or obstructions requiring unusual 
prominence, are fitted with perches or staves surmoimted by balls, 
cages, or other distinctive marks. 

Buoys marking hght-vessel stations are placed in close proximity 
to the light vessel, are colored in a similar manner, and bear the letters 
LV with the initials of the station they mark. Buoys defining an- 
chorage grounds are painted white, except those used for such pur- 
poses at a quarantine station, in which case they are painted yellow. 

To assist further in distinguishing buoys, the ordinary unhghted 
types are made in two principal shapes in the portion showing above 
the water line: Nun buoys, conical in pattern with pointed tops, and 
can buoys, cylinder shaped with flat tops. When placed on the sides 
of channels, nun buoys, properly colored and numbered, are placed 
on the starboard or right-hand side going in from sea, and can buoys 
on the port or left-hand side. The numbers and letters placed on aU 
buoys are formed by standard stencils, to insure uniformity, and the 
largest size practicable is used so that these may show as prominently 
as possible. White characters are painted on black buoys and black 
characters on red buoys. 

Buoys are anchored in their positions by various types of moorings, 
depending on the character of the bottom and the size and importance 
of the buoy. They are placed in position and cared for by the light- 
house tenders, which are provided with specially designed derricks 
and lifting gear for handling them. It is customary to reheve all 
buoys at least once a year for overhauling, repairing, cleaning, and 
painting, and oftener when circumstances render it necessary. 
Although among the most useful of aids to navigation, buoys are 
liable to be carried away, dragged, capsized, or simk, as a result of 
ice or storm action, collision, and other accidents, and therefore may 
not be regarded as absolutely reliable at all times. Great effort is 
made, however, by the Service to maintain them on station in an 
efficient condition, which frequently requires strenuous and hazardous 
exertions on the part of the vessels charged with this duty. It is 
necessary to keep an ample supply of spare or relief buoys, with the 
necessary appendages, always on hand to provide for emergencies, 
and the systematic reheving of buoys on station. 



48 



UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 




BUOYS. 49 

Buoys may be divided broadly into two general classes, lighted 
and unlighted, of which the latter are in the great majority. 
Unhghted buoys comprise spars, both wooden and iron, can, nun, 
bell, and whistDng buoys, with a few other types for special purposes. 
Lighted buoys are provided with some form of gas apparatus and a 
lantern; frequently a bell or whistle is also attached, in which case 
they are known as combination buoys. A brief description of each 
kind follows. 

Wooden spar buoys are usually cedar, jimiper, or spruce logs, 
trimmed, shaped, and provided with an iron strap and band at the 
lower end for attaching the mooring, which is as a rule a heavy stone 
or concrete block, or iron sinker, sometimes shackled directly to the 
buoy, or to a short piece of chaia, as required by the depth. Such 
buoys are among the most economical and generally used of all aids, 
and are particularly employed in rivers and harbors. They are, 
however, easily damaged by ice or collision, and in some waters 
suffer greatly from the attacks of the teredo and other mariae borers, 
although this may be reduced by special paints or other protective 
treatment when not imduly expensive. Four sizes or classes are in 
use, varying in length from 50 to 20 feet over all, to conform properly 
to the depth of water at the position of the buoy. The weights of 
such buoys vary from 1,500 to 350 poimds each. 

Iron spar buoys are built up of iron or steel plates in the form of 
wooden spars, and are particularly valuable where severe ice condi- 
tions exist, or where the teredo is imusually active. They are nat- 
urally more expensive and heavier to handle, thus restrictiag their 
use to special localities. They are made in three classes, in lengths of 
from 50 to 30 feet over all, weighing from 4,000 to 2,000 pounds, 
respectively. 

Cans and nuns, as already noted, are built of iron or steel plates, 
the former showing a cylindrical and the latter a conical top, and 
are the most extensively used of metal buoys. The iaterior of the 
buoy is divided into two or more compartments, by bulkheads or 
diaphragms, to prevent sinkiag when damaged. Each kind is built 
ia three classes or sizes, and in addition two general types are in use, 
the ordinary type and the tall type, or channel buoys; the latter being 
a modem development of a larger and more prominent buoy for 
use ia deeper water. These buoys weigh from 8,300 to 700 poimds 
each, accordiug to size, and are generally moored by means of a stone 
or concrete block, or a specially designed hemispherical cast iron 
sinker, shackled on a length of chain about two or three times the 
depth of water in which the buoy is placed. The ordinary type 
buoys commonly require a cast-iron ballast ball attached directly 
below the buoy, the mooriag chain being shackled in turn to the 

18247«*—16 -4 



50 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

lower end of the ballast ball; this is necessary to assist the buoy in 
maintaining an upright position, regardless of tidal or other currents. 
The ballast ball is not needed with the tall type buoy, which has 
more stability, due to its greater draft and to a fixed counterweight 
of cast iron bolted on its lower end. To prevent kinking or twisting 
of the chain, a swivel is occasionally placed in the mooring chain for 
all types. 

Bell buoys have a hemispherical-shaped hull, built of steel plates, 
with flat deck, and carry a structural-steel superstructure which sup- 
ports a bronze bell and usually four iron clappers. The motion of the 
buoy in the sea causes these clappers to strike the bell, so that the ac- 
tion is entirely automatic. Although the buoy is quite sensitive and 
responds to even a very slight motion of the waves, the sound may 
be faint or absent in unusual calms. This type of buoy is especially 
efficient in harbors or inside waters for marking points where a sound 
signal is desired. Bell buoys weigh about 6,900 poxmds each, com- 
plete, and are moored by means of a bridle of chain attached to lugs 
on the opposite sides of the hull near the water line, the main mooring 
being shackled to the middle and lowermost part of the bridle and 
extending in the customary scope of chain with a swivel to a heavy 
cast-iron sinker on the bottom. A large-sized ballast ball is shackled 
to a mooring eye at the bottom of the buoy, and the whole effect of 
this arrangement is to assist in the pendular motion necessary for 
ringing the beU. 

Whisthng buoys are built of steel plates, and consist of a pear- 
shaped body with the smaller end uppermost, with a long open tube 
on the lower end. This tube extends throughout the length of the 
buoy, and is closed at the upper end by a headplate on which is 
mounted a check valve and a whistle on the superstructure of the 
buoy. The sound is produced by the air in the upper portion of the 
tube being compressed by the falling of the buoy in the waves, its 
means of escape being through the whistle. A fresh supply of air is 
drawn through the check valve as the buoy rises again. Like the bell 
buoy, the sound is automatic, depending solely on the motion of the 
waves, and therefore the whistle may be silent when the sea is very 
smooth. The whisthng buoy is most efficient in rough outside waters, 
where a groxind swell exists, and is employedforimportant points where 
a soimd signal is considered desirable. It is generally moored with 
a single chain of the proper scope and a heavy iron sinker. The 
weight of the buoy is about 6,500 pounds. For great depths, where 
the necessary quantity of chain impedes the flotation of the ordinary 
size of this buoy, a special and larger size is in use similar to the 
regular size in design and operation but weighing about 11,000 
pounds. 



BUOYS. 51 

Lighted buoys are a modem invention, having come into vae 
within about the last 30 years, and are considered by mariners gen- 
erally as among the most valuable of recent developments in coast 
lighting. The first buoy of this kind was a gas buoy established 
experimentally by its manufacturers in 1881 near Scotland Lightship, 
entrance to New York Bay; it was officially taken over by the Light- 
house Service in April, 1884. Electric buoys, operated by a cable 
from shore, were established in Gedney Channel, New York Bay, in 
November, 1888, and were discontinued in 1903, after many mishaps, 
due chiefly to breaking of the cable. The operating expense was 
high, and in the final year of service these buoys were extinguished 
through accident on 120 nights. 

All of the lighted buoys now in service nse compressed gas, either 
oil gas or acetylene. Various 
types of self-generating acetylene 
buoys have been in use, operating 
on the carbide-to-water and water- 
to-carbide principles, but have 
been abandoned on account of 
uncertainty of length of run diffi- 
culty of cleaning, and danger of 
explosion. 

In the types now in use the gas, 
at a pressure of about 12 atmos- 
pheres, is contained either directly 
in the body of the buoy or in tanks 
fitted into compartments of the 
body, and is piped to the lantern 

at the top of the superstructure. T«.tmgpr,«sareinga=buoy,KewY«kB.y. 

If the light is flashing, as is commonly the case, a small pilot light 
bums continuously and ignites the main burner as gas is admitted 
from the flashing chamber, which is a regulating compartment in the 
base of the lantern provided with a flexible diaphragm and valves 
for cutting off and opening the flow of gas at intervals, the opera- 
tion being due to the pressure of the gas in the reservoirs. The 
length of the light and dark periods may be adjusted to produce the 
desired characteristic, such as five seconds light, five seconds dark, 
etc. Some types bum the gas as an ordinary flat flame, while others 
make use of an incandescent mantle, which is, however, not wholly 
satisfactory in rough water on account of breakage. 

Gas buoys are made in a number of different sizes, weighing from 
2,800 to 34,500 pounds each, depending on the importance of the 
location, and bum continuously by night and day for intervals of a 
month to a year without recharging. The apparatus is patented by 



52 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SEEVICE, 1915, 

the various makers and has been brought by them bo a considerable 
d^ree of perfection, so that considering the rough us^e to which 
such buoys are subjected by the elements, gas buoys are generally 
satisfactory within the limits of reliability to be expected from such 
aids. They should not, however, be relied upon implicitly, as they may 
become extinguished or dragged 
from their proper positions, or 
the apparatiis may be out of order 
and some time may elapse before 
the buoy can be reached to repair 
or rehght it. Gas buoys furnish 
valuable marks for approaching 
entrances, defining channels, and 
marking dangers, and at times may 
obviate the necessity for light ves- 
sels or lighthouses on submei^ed 
sites, either of which would be 
many times more expensive. 
There is a constant demand among 
mariners for more gas buoys and 
for buoys with more briUiant lights. 
Many gas buoys are provided 
with some automatic form of 
sound-producing device, such as a 
bell or whistle, and in a few cases 
have both a whistle and a sub- 
Gas and whiaUing buoy, eatrance to New marine bell. Thcse Operate in the 
York Bay. manner heretofore described (see 

pp. 44 and 50), and are of especial value in fog or thick weather, or 
in case of accidental extinguishment of the light. 

The numbers and types of the 7,290 buoys in the Lighthouse Service 
in commission on June 30, 1915, were as follows: 

Unlighted buoys (6,811 1: 

Wooden spars 4, 516 

Iron spars, cans, and nuns 1,972 

Bell buoys - 237 

Whistling buoys 86 

Lifted buoys (479); 

Gas buoys. 335 

Gaa and bell buoys 81 

Gas and whistling buoys - 55 

Gas, whistling, and submarine bell buoys 8 

Total 7,290 



BIVEB LIGHTING. 53 

14. RIVER LIGHTING. 

The lighting of nontidal rivers is litnited to those which have been 
specifically authorized by law; these, however, now embrace nearly 
all the important streams of the country. In the Lighthouse Service 
three districts, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, are engaged 
entirely in the lighting of the Mississippi River and its principal 
tributaries. The lighting of these streams began in 1874 and has since 
been continued. The problem presented by these districts diflfers 
considerably from that found in the coast and lake districts. As 
noted in a previous chapter (p. 5), the inspectors in charge of these 
districts are officers of the Corps of Engineers, United States Army 
and are usually those in charge at the same time of the river improve- 
ment work of the War Department proceeding in the vicinity. 

The lights used are simple ia character and are generally known as 
post lights. In some cases these consist of an ordinary 14-inch hand 
lantern, inclosed in a square or triangular tia case with plaia glazed 
sides; and in other types a specially designed post lantern, with a 
1-inch flat wick and pressed glass lens about 8 inches in diameter, is 
used inside a small triangular case, with glass on two or three sides 
as the location requires. A wire screen is fitted to the top of the 
lantern to prevent the entrance of insects. These lights burn kero- 
sene and as a rule are fixed white in character, although some are 
fitted with red globes or shades. 

The channel of these rivers generally follows the concave banks, 
with crossings where the concavity shifts from one side of the river 
to the other, and the lights are located so as to show the general 
shapes of the bends and the positions of the crossings. Tne lights 
are usually placed on the banks of the river and the crossings marked 
by two range lights, one ahead, the other astern. Where the crossing 
is crooked it is sometimes necessary to have a series of range lights 
and duriug low water some of the lights are placed on sand bars or 
on small floats or rafts, these latter being known as float Ughts. 

The most complete type of structure on which post lights are 
placed consists of a post with braces and steps, with the lantern on 
top. Wings are attached to make a better daymark, and are set in 
obhque positions with a view to catching the sunlight in various 
directions and thus assist the pUots in locating it. The wings are 
perforated to diminish wind action, and the stations are further 
designated by nmnbers placed conspicuously above them. It is 
necessary to shift the position of many of these lights from time to 
time, on account of changes in the channel, caving banks, and other 
reasons. For this reason some of these structures are of a more 
temporary character than the type just described; in emergencies 
the Ught may even be attached to a tree. 



54 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SEBVICE, 1915. 

Where the channel is narrow or crooked, or the ends of wing dams 
are to be marked, buoys have been found desirable, and a special 
type has been developed. It was found that the buoy best adapted 
to fulfill the conditions pecuhar to these waters is one having but a 
slight reserve buoyancy, in order that drift and other floating objects 
coining in contact with it will pass over the buoy, submerging but 
not displacing it. One type in use is a built-up spar consisting of a 
central barrel-shaped section fitted with galvanized sheetr-iron cones 
or hoods at each end, A shde for a hand'lantem w provided at the 
upper end, and the buoy is moored by a hght wire cable attached to 
the lower end, with an iron weight for a sinker. Another type is 
composed of two galvanized sheet-iron cones placed base to base; 



the upper cone is a right cone, but the lower is obUque in order that 
the buoy may not spin in the current and untwist the light -wire 
anchor cable. 

The river fights are attended by persons fiving in the vicinity, 
known as laborers in chaige, and in some cases a group of several 
fights may he in charge of the same person when they may be con- 
veniently cared for in that manner. These laborers are not required 
to devote their entire time to the Service, as in the case of regularly 
appointed keepers. The suppHes for the hghta are defivered by the 
fighthouse tender or Engineer Department vessels, and such vessels 
also patrol the river and make the changes in location as required. 
Captains and pilots of river steamers are supplied with franked postal 
cards on which they are requested to report to the inspector's office 
whenever a light is found not burning properly. 



LIGHTHOUSE DEPOTS. 



55 



Of the 2,961 aids in commission on Jmie 30, 1915, classed as minor 
lights and float Ughts, 1,801, or about 61 per cent, were in the three 
river districts. In the remaining districts the systems of river light- 
ing are naturally not so extensive, although the aggregate niunber 
of such hghts in rivers like the Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware, and 
St. Johns on the Atlantic coast, and the Columbia and Willamette on 
the Pacific coast, together with many other shorter streams, con- 
stitutes no small part of the activities of many districts. A specially 
designed post lantern is manufactured by the Lighthouse Service for 
this work in the coast districts. It is constructed of brass, with ah 
outside protecting cag/B, and contains a pressed glass lens of 200 
millimeters (approximately 8 inches) diameter, with a burner of two 
1-inch flat wicks, using kerosene. Great pains were taken to make 
the lantern wind proof, and at the same time to provide proper ven- 
tilation and a reasonably bright light. .The type now in use has 
been found satisfactory, even in gales of considerable violence. The 
lights are carried on various types of simple structures, ranging from 
single posts on shore to pile clusters for use in the water. They are 
attended by laborers, as in the case of the river districts, or some- 
times by the keepers of some adjacent light station. 

IS. LIGHTHOUSE DEPOTS. 

An important feature of lighthouse work consists of the lighthouse 
depot, which is used as a base of supplies and repairs and n base 
station for vessels. There are 44 such depots in the various districts, 
as given in the following list. The principal depot of the district is 
indicated by the larger type. ^ 



First district: 

Bear Island, Me. 

LiTTLB Diamond Island, Me. 
Second district: 

LovELLS Island, Boston, Mass. 

Woods Hole, Mass. 
Third district: 

Goat Island, R. I. 

Juniper Island, Vt. 

New London, Conn. 

Tompkins VELLE, Staten Island, 
N. Y. 

Tucker Beach, N.J. 
Foiirth district: 

Edoemoor, Bel. 

Lewes, Bel. 
Fifth district: 

Annapolis, Md. 

Chincoteague, Va. 

Lazaretto Point, Md. 

Point Lookout, Md. 



Fifth district — Continued. 

Portsmouth, Va. 

Washington Wharf, B. C. 

Washington, North Carolina. 
Sixth district: 

Castle Pinckney, Charleston, 
S. C. 
Seventh district: 

Egmont Key, Fla. 

Key West, Fla. 
Eighth district: 

Fort San Jacinto, Galveston, Tex. 

Mobile, Ala. 

Port Eads, La. 
Ninth district: 

Culebrita Island, P. R. 

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 

San Juan, P. R. 
Tenth district: 

Buffalo, N. Y. 

Erie, Pa. 



56 



UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 



Tenth district — Continued. 

Maumee Bay, Ohio. 

Rock Island, N. Y. 

Sandusky Bay (Cedar Point), Ohio. 
Eleventh district: 

Detroit, Mich. 

Minnesota Point, Minn. 

St. Marys River, Mich. 
Twelfth district: 

Charlevoix, Mich. 

Milwaukee, Wis. 



Twelfth district — Continued. 

St. Joseph, Mich. 
Sixteenth district: 

Ketchikan, Aijlska. 
Seventeenth district: 

Ediz Hook, Wash. 

Tongue Point, Oreg. 
Eighteenth district: 

Goat Island, Cal. 
Nineteenth district: 

Honolulu, Hawaii. 



To be of the greatest efficiency depots should be central in location 
with reference to the district, adjacent to important mercantile cen- 
ters for facilitating pm'chases, and easily accessible by teams, rail, and 
water. Many of the depots in the service were originally intended 
only for the storage of relief or spare buoys, and were often located on 
islands or other remote places; hence not fulfilling the ideal condi- 
tions just outlined. Constant effort is made, however, to improve 
such conditions as available funds permit, and, as an instance, the 
case of the sixth district may be cited, in which a new depot on the 
mainland, on the Ashley River side of Charleston, S. C, is being made 
ready in place of the old depot on an island in the harbor. 

The principal features of a depot are a dock and a storehouse; to 
these other structures, such as isolated oil houses for inflammable 
articles, lamp, machine, carpenter and blacksmith's shops, cement 
houses, buoy, lumber, and coal sheds, offices, keepers' dwellings, der- 
ricks and other Ufting gear, tramways, and similar appurtenances, 
are added as may be required by the extent and character of the 
work in the respective districts. 

The principal work at a Ughthouse depot consists in caring for the 
articles in stock and the filling of approved requisitions for the use of 
such articles in the work of the Service, also in the cleaning, painting, 
and overhauUng of the buoys and appendages. Tools and equipment 
for working parties on stations and vessels are also stored at the 
depots when not in active use; damaged and worn-out articles are 
brought to the depot from the vessels and stations for repair or survey 
and condemnation, as their condition warrants. The depots are 
headquarters for the vessels of the Lighthouse Service, both for the 
routine work of the tenders and for examination and sometimes 
repair of tenders and hght vessels. 

The general depot at Tompkinsville, N. Y., which is much larger 
than the customary district depot, has already been mentioned on 
page 5. This depot fills the double purpose of being headquarters 
for the third district as well as a central supply station, i*epair shop, 
and purchasing agency for the entire Service. Proposals for annual 
supplies are issued from this depot for articles to be delivered on 



LIGHTHOUSE DEPOTS. 



58 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

contract; these are then issued to other districts on the basis of 
requisitions made by the inspectors and approved by the Commis- 
sioner. The various shops at this depot are employed cliiefly in the 
manufacture and repair of special apparatus used by the Service, 
much of which can not be obtained from regular dealers at an econom- 
ical price; and a considerable amount of repair work to vessels is also 
performed. A small laboratory is also maintained for the analysis 
and testing of articles used in the Service; and a large amount of 
experimental work is done on various light and sound producing 
devices, either submitted by the makers for test or designed by the 
technical force of the Service. About 210 persons are engaged at this 
depot; this number including also those who are directly concerned 
in the work of the third district. 

16. LIGHT VESSELS. 

The Lighthouse Service maintains light vessels on 63 stations, and 
has for this purpose 66 light vessels, of which 13 are rehei vessels; all, 
figures being those of June 30, 1915. They are generally employed 
for marking dangers at sea, approaches or entrances to harbors, or 
important points in the coiu-ses of vessels, where a Ughthouse would 
not be feasible or economical, and are of particular value in providing 
both a hght and a fog signal which may be approached close-to, thus 
enabling mariners to fix their position at sea with reasonable cer- 
tainty. In this respect hght vessels are superior to hghthouses, as in 
the case of the latter, in the majority of instances, due allowance must 
be made for a safe distance in passing. A valuable secondary advan- 
tage is the fact that hght vessels may be shifted to meet varying 
conditions of trafiic, such as changes in shoals or channels, use of 
deeper draft vessels, and similar contingencies. 

The first light vessel estabhshed in this Service was in the summer 
of 1820, at Willoughby Spit, Hampton Roads, Chesapeake Bay, Va., 
but proved too small for the station and was moved to Craney Island, 
Elizabeth River, Va. A larger vessel was stationed on Willoughby 
Spit in 1821. The first outside vessel was placed 7 miles off Sandy 
Hook, N. J., in 1823. The idea of Ughtboats, as they were then 
called, became popular, and by 1839 there were 30 in service, most of 
them being small craft in inside waters. The largest vessel was that 
on the Sandy Hook station, which had a tonnage ot 230. 

By the year 1852, when the Lighthouse Board was established, 
there were 38 hght vessels in service, of which number 26 were in bays 
or sounds. The maximum number of men employed on each was 10 
for the most exposed stations, varying down to 4 for those least 
exposed. The type of vessel used at that time was evidently not 
wholly suitable for the purpose, as there were often complaints that 
the vessels were frequently blown from their moorings, and that the 



LIGHT VESSELS. 59 

expense of maintenance and repair was excessive, considering also 
the comparative feebleness of the lights. 

The early activities of the board were directed toward the replaco- 
ment of many inside hght vessels by lighthouses, screw-pile founda- 
tions being used extensively for the latter; and more careful attention 
was given to the design of vessels suitable for exposed outside stations. 
Wooden construction was the rule up to the year 1882, when the first 
iron light vessel, No. 44> ^as built, for station on the sea«oast of 
New Jersey. About the same time several vessels of the composite 
type, with steel frames and wooden sheathing, were constructed; but 
the modem tendency has been toward all-steel construction. Another 
practical feature of design which has greatly increased the efficiency 



Saa Fnmoiaoo Light Vessel No. TO, CaL 

of light vessels is the use of propelling machinery, thus enabling them 
to proceed to and from their stations under their own power and to 
assist them in maintaining their positions in heavy weather. The 
first light vrasels in this Service so equipped were Nos. 55, 66, and 67, 
biult in 1891 for service on the Great Lakes. 

The question of the proper form of the hull of a Hght vessel pre- 
sents many interesting and complex problems in naval architecture. 
Steadiness and ease of motion are the chief requirements for the 
general efficiency of the light, as well as for the comfort of those on 
board. In order to obtain this desired result recent practice is to 
design the hull so that the wedges of immersion and emersion in 
transverse rolling are approximately equal, thus avoiding the usual 
impulse of excess buoyancy, while the metacentric height has been 
reduced to a miniDium of 12 inches. The lines are quite full fore 



60 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

and aft, thereby increasing the displacement rapidly as the vessel 
pitches into a sea, while bilge keels and ballast are both employed 
when necessary to insure steadiness; the whole idea being to make 
use of all elements tending to control both rolling and pitching. The 
scantling throughout is much heavier than ordinarily required in 
vessels of similar size, for the double purpose of providing great 
excess strength as well as guarding against the injurious effects of 
corrosion. An ample number of water-tight bulkheads is provided 
below the main deck, to increase the stiffness and safety of the vessel, 
and especial care is taken in the design of the mooring gear, which 
consists essentially of a large central hawse pipe, protected by a 
water-tight breakwater, with chain compressors, springs, and a 
powerful double windlass, usually operated by steam. The main 
mooring chain is, as a rule, composed of links made of the best double- 
refined wrought iron. If inches in diameter, with cast-iron studs, 
in accordance with rigid specifications, and tested to a proof strain 
of over 80,000 pounds. The chain is carefully inspected during all 
stages of manufacture, and is made up iuto cables of suitable lengths, 
with the necessary shackles and swivels. Such chain weighs approxi- 
mately 160 pounds per fathom (6 feet), so that the entire weight of a 
standard 120 fathom cable is about 9 tons. Specially designed cast- 
steel mushroom anchors, in weights up to 7,000 pounds, are used for 
mooring to the bottom, and in the case of vessels in severely exposed 
positions in deep water a spherical mooring buoy strongly braced to 
resist coUapsiug pressures, is shackled into the submerged portion of 
the chaiQ, tendiug to carry a portion of the weight, and forming a 
double catenary which is of value in avoiding injurious strains on the 
vessel as it surges in rough weather. 

The standard type of propelling machinery now in use consists of 
one vertical, inverted, direct-acting, surface-condensing, fore-and-aft 
compound engine of a size suitable to the dimensions and duty of the 
vessel, driving a cast-iron propeller and suppUed with steam from 
two Scotch boilers; the engine and boiler space being located amid- 
ships. Some of the more recent vessels are provided with internal- 
combustion kerosene engines, which it is believed will be more 
economical than steam, particularly in avoiding the expense and 
difficulty due to keeping light vessels supphed with coal and fresh 
water, as w.^'i ..s avoiding the deterioration of boilers. 

Much pi ogress has been made in the interior arrangements of light 
vessels, T)articularly in the way of accommodations for the crew. 
The early Ughtships were single-deck vessels, with the quarters 
generally below the water hne. A forecastle head was then added, 
which was gradually extended in height and length, until an entire 
spar deck had been developed. The latest vessels are flush-decked 



LIGHT VESSELS. 61 

throughout, with all quarters on the main deck well above the water 
line, thereby also conducing greatly to the stability and safety of the 
vessel when seas are shipped in heavy weather. The details at the 
interior of the present types of light vessels are also worked out with 
care; comfortable staterooms and berths are provided, the vessels 
are steam heated throughout, sanitary plumbing systems with baths, 
toilets and drainage attachments are fitted, and in some cases electric 
hghts are also installed. 

The complement of a first-class light vessel is generally 4 officers 
and 10 men, which is varied in the case of smaller and loss exposed 
3 conditions justify, down to a minimum of 3 men all told, 



Biiffelo Light Vessel No. BS. N, Y. 

for the smallest size of inside lightships. Liberal provision is made 
for shore liberty, as wQl be taken up in greater detail in another 
chapter. {See p. 73.) 

The illuminating and fog-signal apparatus on board light vessels 
has undergone many improvements. Ordinary ship's lanterns 
served for hghts on the early vessels, while the fog signal was a hand 
bell or horn. When reflector hghts were introduced, each Ught was 
composed of eight lamps with reflectors 12 inches in diameter, set 
upon a ring which encircled the mast, the whole apparatus being in- 
closed in a lantern with lai^e panes of glass to protect the hght from 
the wind. When not in use the lanterns were kept in a small bouse 



62 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

with a hinged roof at the base of the mast, and were lighted and hoisted 
to the masthead at night. This arrangement is still in use on some 
of the older vessels. Sometimes such lights are shown on two masts. 
White, lights are commonly employed, red being used occasionally 
when necessary to give distinctiveness. 

The next development was the substitution of a group of three- 
lens lanterns instead of the reflectors, placed in gimbals on a ring 
around the mast and operated similarly to the reflector lanterns. 
In recent years a tubular steel mast, of diameter sufiicient to con- 
tain a ladder, has been installed. This is surmounted by a helical 
bar lantern of the type used in lighthouses on shore, containing a 
regular hghthouse lens. Access to the lantern is through the inte- 
rior of the mast, and the lantern is surrounded by a gallery reached 
from the interior to permit cleaning the glass, and serving also as a 
distinguishing daymark. Any illuminant may be employed in such 
a lantern, such as electric light, incandescent oil vapor, acetylene, or 
oil gas, as desired. 

Corresponding improvements have also been made in fog signals 
on board hght vessels, but these installations are essentially the 
same as have already been described. (See p. 40.) The 12-inch 
steam whistle is still used on many light vessels as the main signal, 
and a pneumatically operated submarine beU is frequently added as 
an auxihary. 

Four of the most important light vessels on the Atlantic and Gulf 
coasts, those on Nantucket Shoals, Diamond Shoal (Cape Hatteras), 
and Frying Pan Shoals, and the relief vessels for these stations, also the 
vessel on Heald Bank, are equipped with radio, at present operated 
by the Navy Department in connection with their coast radio sys- 
tem. These installations have been found of considerable valiie, and 
it is expected that the number will be increased. 

Light vessels are distinguishable in the daytime by their unusual 
shape and rig, including generally some form of cagework as a day- 
mark at the mastheads, and by their characteristic painting and 
lettering. The hull is often painted red or straw color, although 
many other colors or combinations of color are employed to make 
adjacent vessels as different as possible, and a short station name is 
painted on the sides of the vessel in the largest size letters practica- 
ble. From 1867 to 1913 light vessels also exhibited a number, painted 
at first on the stem, and afterwards on each bow and quarter. These 
numbers were solely for identification of the ship, regardless of the 
station occupied, and hence formed a possible source of confusion 
when vessels were transferred. The numbers are stiU retained as 
part of the official designation of the vessel for service purposes, but 
are no longer prominently displayed. Light vessels on seacoast sta- 
tions are also assigned international code-signal letter flags, identify- 



LIGHT VESSELS. 63 

ing the geographical locality, which they display to passing vessels 
when it is necessary to warn them. 

Light vessels are brought in from station at regular intervals for 
docking, overhauling, and repair, and during the interim a rehef 
hght vessel is placed on the station. Care is taken when practicable 
to have the rehef ships 80 equipped that they can show the identical 
light of the station ship at night, md during fog the identical fog 
signal; also sotmding the some code number on the submarine bell, 
and displaying the international signal flags described above of the 
vessel relieved. Relief vessels are commonly painted red, with the 
middle third of the hull white, bearing thereon the word "Relief" 




Light Vessel No. 02, seveal«eiith district. 



in laige black letters. They also exhibit an oval daymark on the 
spring stay, midway between the two masts, when two are provided. 

To avoid confusion when light vessels are off their stations while pro- 
ceeding to or from port, or during stress of weather, they fly under 
such circumstances the signal letters QE, a square yellow flag over a 
triangular flag with vertical bands of red, white, and blue, meaning 
m the international code "Lightship is not at anchor on her station." 

The average life of a Ught vessel is estimated at 30 years, and in 
order to maintain the present number of light vessels it is necessary 
to build on an average two new light vessels annually. 

The principal facts relating to Ught vessels in commission during 
the fiscal year 1915 are shown in the table on the foDowing page: 



Il 1^ 



III; llllllill 11 PBIK^ii 



yr'fc 



I !ll-5ll|5!v-|:-|:- !-J5 :ll-lj||fcjl- 



.p^'*^Tfc 



I ESSp|S|"|pi gS i2-ISgS§^| 




immmmmM^ 



TTT7TTTTTT 



11 



N; 



3 siiaissfiiiiif ssa issapffifiis 



iiiiliilMiil' 




LIGHT VESSELS. 



65 



: :::;S22'^a 88S53^ 2£; 2 SSS::* 83 SS-*"* SS'^g 






• • • 
■ • • 






















or. 


t 

• 
■ 


t>.t>.tN.t>.N 


t^t^ 


t^t^t^O 


'*;3S» 


QOt^OO 



H *« wv ^ a^ ^ ^ 

I r^ C'* O ® ^J tr 



i§§i 



liiiS 



Soco CO 



'^ceSO u5 A 00 i-H 



^ '^ t^ r^ CO CO 



00 CO CO ^ 
v-t i-H V-) t» 



ggf^*^" 



iQ O 



?ss 



o C4 CO -"v* 00 u5 u5 o O At»009 r^>Q v '^u5aau5o eo F> 9lo 



t 

CO 



00 oc oo CO o ^ a» «-< C4 t<>iooo«^c4 c«o C4 '<4<^e<4u»^ »a»a 



o<oc^ 
•©'•c'eooo* 



QOOOQt>. 



t»a»oo 

$3^ 



v-t ^ >c >o »OC0C0 



05 00'^ ^^^ r>-0 CO 

SosoONQ^JErN 
cocoo»eoOoo 



«c<<^ 



lO-* 



38|ii i§ - §§§1 



0» lMl-4«H 



eow 



eneo 






18' 



8- 



§ 






e^ M 



• • • rt • • 1 OB 

ddd-Sd '.^^ . 
'd'O'O.^'Ca OSS 
:w :o<JOO 



d d In 




p o o o CO 
W O 






•0*0 •O'O 



•O'O'O'd 




2 ■ 

pj : 
wo 



iO 

® 
49 



CO O 

05-3 



• 9 



• u 



So 
< • 52^ • • mS • 



III 






:ooPQ 



o-l OOr-l • ^^ 



^- j5 li 

en 'S Ml? m • 



44 



■O A -o 

• ■ • 

op o 
'O'O'O 



CO CO 00 O C0 a» 00 C4 C9 00«0U300O COOO C4 COCOC4C4CO C4C4 C^eOCOiO 00>0»H *HiCO 
1^ »^ ^^»-« V-) fH f-4 



•^ -^ -^ «fl « ^ ■<<« ^ »-J WC^CO'*'* 



eococs-^fco '<«^ ^ccN'* '*'<«c^'* '<«N'* 



Ss5 uSqo 
i-»coeo»R-v 



1-1 C0( 



:^ 8 

• CO >-i 



s 



88 8 



:S8i 

ICO'*' 



;8: 



1 

c4 

tt 

So* 

»Sw 



OOOOOCOOOCO OOOOO OCO U3 OO0»OU3 OO OcOOe4 oooo ooo 
N '* C» CO i*t C»» CO CI O COO«-<COCO C^N ^ 0)00^0>-l ooo OOOO^O COCOCOCO C0C4C0 



COOCOCOCOCOO>CCO OOCOOO OCO CO OCOOOCO OO OcDCOO cDOOO COOOcO 



cOOOOCOOkQcOO OOOUdCO OO o 

'^oooc*©!^ ojwjo^ eo^o>»0"5 ooo> i^ 
e!jCMiF^csio<c555ooo oo«-"coco ^« o 



C9e^a»coo 0000 ooc^ous t^io>o>o ocoo 



00 00 00 00 o 






^ O >» O +j ^ ^^ 
•UOQUCO 



O p ffi p o 
• 'CO • • 



ii 



• »rt • • • • 

p so© OP 

• ^ -QQ • • 



1 



• • • • • Q, • • • o. • * 

* * * m^ * ^y— < • • ^?<— J • 

O Q O so H900 H«0 



l«t«-< 



§8sg® 



OO' 



©a; 

xoo 



ICO 
too 



le^ i^»H ^' 



oa oo' 



ud mcoc4QO'* 
^4 e§ooQ'-i 

0> 00 00 A 99 



.-1^ r-icocoes 



.|-«.00( 

188! 



si: 



§8! 



s 



ii 



;S8 



<-4^4 'CO 

oo -t^ 



oo oo 



S'«jjcOU5i 
CO'*M( 
»^ coe^JNi 



8S8 



^ocoQcooQig 

■V/f -^ -v iS ^ ^ 9 
Q Q Q C3 (3 O Q 



t^C4 udooeoo 

OOCO t-"5^Q0l> 

csl ««-"co55co 



«5»QQ»20 

>oo c- 



S ci^i 



?)Q 0>0>CQQ QC0>Oi 
)ra eoo^» iQQOwi 

r-li^ r-li^r-ieO ^ CO CO • 



•»-,•»«» 



(3 tS (3 



tS Q O 



>0 to U3 U3 to >C U3 U3 >0 OCOCOCOCO 00 00 



MC>« C>«C>«C>«« l^t^t^t^ OOOOOO 






OS 

> 






s 









O oj 

R 10 



I sill 






o 

QQ 

all 



Wo? 






d 

CO 



5g 

I' 






a iz; 



o 

-a- 



i ? 



2 -S *j ^ « 

K Ooq rt ® 

4) pH 



?.s, 



PQ 



QJ • — ' rtj ^J F*^ 

08 C8 03 * O 

i-3p:)mSP4 



08 

o 

ll 

§sa 



o 

< 






08 

o 

pa 

m 

r>. wi -tJ 

3 •'^ 



<5 



Q -O 



'*^lOt>»l'»00CBO»*.'l C0»C00O» 

18247*»— 16 5 



CO 

■voo 



r-i 00 »-ic^u50s« '^'O r-or-ko i-ooeico 
00 a> cOcOt^ooA tniZ iAor«aa cooooacS 



OCO CO 
t^t>-00 



66 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SEKVICE, 1915, 

17. LIGHTHOUSE TENDERS. 

The work of these Teasels is to attend to the buoyage, to supply the 
light ressela and isolated light stations both with the ordinary articles 
for maintenance and materials for construction or repair, and also for 
inspection purposes when necessary. The 47 vessels which were in 
commission during the year ended June 30, 1915, steamed a total of 
about 469,000 nautical miles in the performance of their duties. 

The original tenders were sailing vessels and the first in use was the 
former revenue cutter Rush, transferred to the Lighthouse Service in 
May, 1840, and thereafter used in New York Bay and vicinity; prior 
to that time and for a considerable period thereafter much of the buoy 
work and other duty now devolving on tenders was performed by 
contract. The first steam tender was the Shubrich, built at the navy 



Li^thouse tendfr "Lilac," third district. 

yard in Philadelphia in 1857 and first used on the Pacific coast in 
1858. In 1865 six small steamers, used in the war, were transferred 
to the Lighthouse Service from the Navy Department for service on 
the Atlantic coast, and these formed the nucleus of the present fleet, 
although none of the original vessels are now in the Service. The 
early steam tenders, like other steamers of that period, were side- 
wheelers, and frequently carried SEiil aa well. 

The first propeller ship used as a lighthouse tender on the aeacoast 
of this country was the former Fern, built in 1871, and turned over to 
the Navy Department in 1891. With a few exceptions, all of thc 
tenders now in service are screw vessels. The old sailing tenders were 
disposed of as rapidly as replacement could be made, and by 188'.' 
only two remained, the Pharos and the Mignonette, both schooners. 
The latter was lost in a hurricane off the Texas coast in 1887, while 
the Pharos was in service as late as 1908, when she was condemned 
and sold. 



LIGHTHOUSE TENDEB8. 67 

The essential features of a lighthouse tender, in which it differs 
from the ordinary vessel of similar size, are the low forward deck and 
the buoy-handling gear, whereby the foremast is ri^ed as a derrick, 
with a boom and falls for reaching over the side. The construction 
of the hull, the framing of the deck and all parts of the superstruc- 
ture, also all mechanical apphances, are designed with a lai^e reserve of 
strength, and are made as simple and sturdy as possible. As these ves- 
sels are frequently required to take and keep the sea even in the face 
of the most violent storms, a high degree of seaworthiness is essential; 
and as the nature of their duty requires them to be hajidled around 
shoals, rocks, and other obstructions in the placing and relief of buoys, 
their economic maximum draft is proportionally limited, and un- 
usually strong hulls are required to prevent damage from accidental 
grounding which such work frequently entails. 



ender "Fen>," sixtemCli district 



It is the policy of the Service in the design of lighthouse tenders to 
plan working boats as effective as possible for placing and tending 
buoys and for other lighthouse duties, and to provide suitable and 
sanitary quarters for the officers and crews of the vessels. As oppor- 
tunity offers in connection with the overhaul of older vessels improve- 
ments along these lines are effected. 

As the average life of a lighthouse tender is estimated at 25 years, 
it is necessary on an average to build from one to two new tenders a 
year in order to maintain the present number of vessels in service. 

To provide for frequent overhaul, cleaning, and painting of the 
underwater body, it is customary to dock tenders in exclusively salt- 
water districts every six months; in districts having a reasonable 
amount of or all fresh water, once a year is deemed sufficient. A 
standard style of painting is prescribed, using red lead and approved 
antifouling paints lor the underwater body, black for the exposed 



68 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

outside of the hull and funnel, and white for the top-sides and deck 
houses. White is also given the preference for the larger portion of 
the interior painting, while the lower deck is painted metallic brown 
and the upper deck light lead. 

Since 1867 it has been the custom to give botanical names to tend- 
ers, generally of some plant, flower, or tree indigenous to the district 
wherein they are assigned. This name appears commonly on the 
stem; brass miniature lighthouses are also fitted on each side of the 
bow. 

The typical arrangements of a number of tenders are along the fol- 
lowing general lines, although in a number of instances variations 
have been made. The anchor windlass is forward on the main deck; 
this is often protected by a forecastle head. Below this the chain 







Lighthouse tender "Anemone," second district. 

lockers, tanks, and crew^s quarters are located. The open portion 
of the main deck is devoted to space for carrying and handling buoys; 
a large hatch gives access to the fore hold, which is the principal 
freight-carrying space. The foremast is fitted with a boom, falls; and 
Ufting gear as a derrick for handling buoys and heavy articles. 
The hoisting engine for the derrick is sometimes on the main deck, 
just aft of the foremast or in the hold directly below and operated 
from the deck by levers. The officers' quarters, wardroom, galley, 
and entrances to the upper engine room and drum room are usually 
on the main deck, the gangways of which are as a rule inclosed. 
There is generally an open space aft with towing bitts and a hawser 
rack. The amidships portion of the hold is given over to the engine, 
boiler, and bunker space, while the after space contains petty officers' 
quarters, ship's stores, and tanks. 



LIGHTHOUSE TENDERS. 69 

The upper or spar deck generally extends from just abaft the fore- 
mast to the stem; here may be found the wheelhouse and master's 
quarters, the small boats, generally three in number, a laimch, a 
whaleboat or cutter, and a dinghy, and quarters for the inspector or 
other official passengers. The mainmast appearing above this deck 
is used for the display of the customary range light, officials' flags, 
and for the support of the antennae yard when the vessel is fitted 
with radio. At the present time three tenders are so equipped, and 
further installations will be made as funds permit. 

In addition to the national ensign, which is displayed at the flag- 
staff while under way in daylight, tenders may fly the Lighthouse 
Service flag. This flag was first used in 1869, and is triangular in 
shape, with a red border, and bears a blue lighthouse on a white field. 
While working on buoys in channels or other frequented waters, 
tenders may display a red flag and a black ball at the foremast head, 
as a warning to other vessels to slow down in passing. 

The largest tender of the Service wiU be the Cedar, now under con- 
struction at Long Beach, Cal., for use in Alaskan waters. This 
vessel will be 200 feet 8 inches over all, 36 feet molded beam, and of 
approximately 1,750 tons displacement at 13 feet draft. The smallest 
regular tenders are the Snowdrop and Waterlily, gasohne-propelled 
vessels about 65 feet long, 1 1 feet beam, and 3 feet 6 inches draft. 

General information concerning tenders in commission during the 
fiscal year 1915 will be foimd in the table on the following page. 



70 



UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SEKVICE, 1915. 



-!|9O0 IVUf^JQ 



un isg §§§ 



t^9C99 



e4d0t«< 



>aO o-i O •-• >0 C9 A f-4 C900Q<-4 
>C4 <-< 9 »-• 04 Q W U3 COAOQO 






•H '«0>0» 



'90UBa»ivLivai ;o isoq 



C9 00 00 ^ t« 0> 0^( 



I CD 
i>0 



iCS»«i 



<p v-t 35 m <o c« I 
«> '<4< ^ C4 r« «D < 



00 00 >o to 
e4 0»e>it* 



gas SoSS *-S8S2SS S« Sg8*<=^§S SgS"^^ 



-8j|«d9J ;o %soj 






»>• ^ «0 SP 1-H O 0» Sl-H^l-H 

O lO CO iQ ^H ^H kH Ot^OacO 



jH-i^M CH'^Oi 



,Hi^v-)*HO^ cQv-t ^4«oeo 



eoi^ 



U5 

pH 
05 

f— t 
H 

< 

09 

M 

» 
o 

5z: 

Q 
o 

•H 

OQ 
OQ 
M 

o 



O 

> 

CQ 

GO 

O 

H 

» 



O 

QQ 

Q 
» 



'8»sodind 
l[c joj penmsaoo i«oo 






^^» »* »» ^ »* ~^ 



t^mt^ eooo^pNCiO !iOO c^eoeo 



wo. I 
U3 < 



SiO- 



IIOC2 



CI 



N 



1^ 1-4 Cl<-H <0 CO 



*peni«e)8 s9uk 



QA ^■^f^ Q 00 90 r> C4 00 CO CO' 
C4M iHtC'<4< fHF.C<4«00 ^ 001 






gO?^!* 



• r^eo _^ _ 

lOftt^ OOf 00 t^ 
leoeo 01-IC40 



coo>c« ^*-<a» okooc^cot^ *o r-twt o)ox<^ 

»M v-t f-4FH »-• 1— • ^H ^H ^H ^H 



CO"* O'<4<a>>o 



as 



'M9J0 



coo>a» coa»c« "4) 1^ «d ci cd t» ^ O' 
C4^4f-4 C4*He<* f-« 1^ c^ 1^ ^^ c* »H 



CD O CO Ud 00 C9 CO C0Me4P« 



-sjaogjo 



cocoio r«ioio M '^ '^ «e '^ '^ t^ '^C9 ^ ud '<t* C9 '<t* <o «o t^coctc* 



'J9M0d9SJ0q p9)«0|pux 



S o u5 1» u5 ( 



I »-t ^ i>- CO ei »H 



IC4CO 

I CO CO 



OS 

i 



en 

I 

K) 

I 



q'pep«0T[ 



oiq3j1 



g» cD n 
••• 


00^ 


^*S*2 


Cj^OkOO 




OCO"* 


s;2«s 


OcOl^ 



OCDOacOO^O <0*-i CO CO fH o '<t* >0 O O^t^oo 
>o CO r« o t^ t» CO mo oo a» 00 >o co a» co coxeoco 



ooco»Ho»tN.o t^e» o^eoco^coo 0'*«-i»h 
'^ CO CO a» CO r« O ao>o t^ t^ t» <«t* co t» o oc^C4C4 





•q^d9a 


•v:coc>i»o 


cocoes 


lOOaOk^A^cO 




ocoooooacico 






•qipwjia 




ncim 


'<4< t^ Q CO 10 Q 


ss 


dww^ciroro 


^§5^^ 




•n« J9A0 q^3a9^ 


Feet. 
190 
161 
155 




Sr-lScoSusS 
^H ^H ^H f-) ^H f-4 


88 







nnqjoiBijg^BH 



Q 






•Sc 




•c 


. 4 


^ 


C 


^ 


a 


Irm.. 
Steel. 
Wood 
Iron.. 




1 


Comp 
Steel. 
Iron.. 
Steel. 
Wood 


1 

• 


: ¥ 


Wood 
...do. 
















heel... 
heel. . . 






heel. . . 
heel. . . 










1 

GO 














side-w 
screw, 
side-w 
screw 




'* 


side-w 
screw, 
side-w 
screw. 










d 


:* 

c 


^ 




•o-c 


1 * * A ^ « ^ 

•S-dSase^ 


^ 


OS ^ S dS* 

5 d S S 

liii 


•s 


c 




4^ 
























: :'a i 


OQ 














OQCCOQQQ 




t- 


QQOQOQOQ 








. 

■ 



ijiraq neqAl 



S • 

.25 8 




OOQCC^ 
OiOOOO 



I 00 00 



04 a» CO CO C4 00 ( 



0»r^i^ _ 

ooocoCoocooc 



t>.co 

So 



1-t ^»ico»oeoi 

00 A 00 OS Oi 00 I 



I 9 0> 0> 

I OOOOOC 



OBCOl 



cocooo 't «2 "^ 95 *© "^ 99 5^ »coi^«Deo»eo cooqi-ia 
u5»-»co oo'^i^ooi^'OO QO A»-tcs^eoA»0 uSco^oo 



aecO'O'^ COOCO »-l !-«. «/3 00 ^O i-H cO A uj »h cO A »0 00 r^ CO COCOOA 



•;ou;sici 



rli^i^ C<IC^C^ CO CO CO CO CO CO CO ■^'* U3 lO >0 U3 lO >0 U) QOCOCOCO 



a 

OS 




a If 

E Mb' O 



illllllillllllll 



ISIIIIilSilliSiJ 



^!l5S|!I^M!S||:|iB| 



i sg s I yiigi 15151115 



tiigiliilliHiiiii 



S2»3 2S s 2 a* 



i |g| 8 S SISS SS B i II S| S| I 



S SS5 s S SSSS SS 2 S Sa SS SS 3 



iii : ; 

► Mi i ■ I ■ 

I H; M liii H| i|i 

Hlliiliillfi 



^.M^ 



i III § i ilii 11 i i 11 11 11 I 



» 58S i S SSSB 1§ 2 3 13 61 Si S 




I! 



72 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

18. PERSONNEL AND CIVIL-SERVICE SYSTEMS. 

All positions in the Lighthouse Service are governed by the civil- 
service rules, which were extended to this Service by President Cleve- 
land, May 6, 1896, and all appointments and promotions are made on 
a strictly merit basis; this is of great importance in maintaining a 
good organization and rigid discipline in a purely technical service, 
on the efficient conduct of which is directly dependent the safety of 
Uves and property. The Service is justly proud of its long and 
honorable record in fulfilling an important pubUc duty, and it is 
only by close adherence to those worthy traditions that its ideals may 
be perpetuated. 

The technical and clerical positions in the Lighthouse Service, such 
as inspectors, superintendents, draftsmen, aids, and clerks of aU 
grades, also cadets on tenders, are in the educational class of classi- 
fied competitive positions; all original appointments are therefore 
made from rosters of ehgibles estabUshed as a result of educational 
examinations conducted by the Civil Service Commission. Regis- 
ters of eligibles for all noneducational positions peculiar to the Light- 
house Service, such as officers of vessels, except cadets, keepers of 
hghts, etc., are estabUshed and maintained by the district civil- 
service boards. Apphcants for such positions are rated by these 
boards from answers made in their application forms, and if an 
eUgible rating is obtained their names are entered on the register 
and they are given due consideration for appointment from time to 
time as vacancies occur, in accordance with civil-service rules. 
Original appointment is usually in the lowest grade, the more responsi- 
ble positions being filled whenever practicable by transfer and 
promotion of employees in less important positions who have earned 
such consideration by reason of efficiency and length of service. 

In the case of officers of vessels, the possession of a proper license 
from the Steamboat-Inspection Service is a condition precedent to 
placing upon an eUgible register the name of an applicant for appoint- 
ment; and in general similar licenses are required on self-propelled 
vessels of the Lighthouse Service to those required in the merchant 
marine for vessels of similar service and tonnage, so far as may be 
practicable. 

The duties of all positions of keepers require that the Ughts be 
given the necessary care and attention in cleaning, filUng, and 
Ughting, and generally that the incumbents possess ability to handle 
a boat; in many cases knowledge of operating machinery is required, 
in view of the fog-signal and revolving-Ught mechanisms at a number 
of stations. The same requirements apply in a less degree to the 
positions of laborers in charge of minor lights, in which the incum- 
bents work but a portion of their time each day. Selection for 



PERSONNEL AND CIVIL-SEEVICE SYSTEMS. 73 

these positions is made with sole reference to the ability and fitness 
of the apphcants, the proximity of the apphcant's home to the 
lights, and facilities possessed by them, such as the ownership of a 
suitable boat when needed, etc. 

Trades and skilled positions, such as machinists, carpenters, black- 
smiths, etc., are also in the classified competitive civil service, and 
employment in such positions is made by selection from registers 
based on the physical abiUty, training, experience, and fitness of the 
appUcants for the employment desired. 

The compensation of all positions in the Service not fixed by law 
is based so far as practicable on similar requirements in the com- 
mercial world; thus, the entrance salary for draftsmen and other 
technical employees is, as a rule, from $100 to $125 per month, for 
clerks $75 per month, for junior officers of vessels from $50 to $80 
per month, for assistant keepers of Ughthouses $35 to $40 per month, 
the latter two grades receiving also a subsistence allowance while 
on duty. It should be observed that these are the average rates 
only and that the compensation varies according to the character 
and location of the work. The pay of laborers in charge of minor 
lights is based upon the number of Ughts cared for-, distance necessary 
to be traveled, and conditions met, averaging roughly about $8 per 
month for each light in the river districts. The pay of trades and 
skilled positions is generally governed by the prevailing rates in the 
locality. 

All appointed employees in offices, at depots, on tenders, and 
in the field force at monthly rates of pay, who have been in the Service 
for a considerable period of time, may be granted leave when properly 
approved, not exceeding 30 days each of annual and sick leave in any 
one calendar year. 

Special rules are in effect regarding leave and shore liberty on light 
vessels and at isolated Ught stations. These rules provide for a 
rotative system, so that all may have an equitable amount, without 
interfering with the proper conduct of work on the station or vessel, 
and fix a maximiun of 90 days per year in the case of Ught vessels 
and 72 days per year at isolated fight stations where families do not 
reside or where the location is unusually remote or unhealthful. 

Careful attention is paid to the weKare of employees in all cases 
in which remedial measiu'ea are authorized by law. All persons in 
hazardous employment in the Service are entitled to the benefits of 
the act of May 30, 1908, providing for compensation for injury or 
death sustained in the line of duty. In addition, expenses of medical 
or surgical attendance, or of burial, are allowed in special cases 
under proper authority and restrictions. The benefits of the Public 
Health Service are extended to various classes of employees, those 
on vessels being cared for without charge, while other employees 



74 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

may receive care and treatment mider the same rates as fixed for 
the Aimy and Navy. The Public Health Service also gives infor- 
mation and advice, when called upon, in regard to medical questions 
and matters of sanitation affecting the Lighthouse Service, and pro- 
vides for the free vaccination of certain classes of employees against 
smallpox and typhoid fever. That Service has also cooperated in 
the preparation of a Medical Handbook for the use of Ughthouse 
vessels and stations on the prevention of disease and care of the sick 
and injured, with special reference to first aid to the injured. Medicine 
chests, containing such articles as may be needed for isolated vessels 
or stations in emergency cases, with directions for use, are also 
furnished by the Lighthouse Service. 

Libraries are furnished all light vessels and inaccessible oflFshore 
light stations, with proper arrangements for their exchange at 
intervals. These Ubraries were first introduced in the Service in 
1876, and are carefully selected from books of a good standard appro- 
priate to the persons who will use them; while largely fiction, other 
classes of hterature are included in reasonable proportions. In the 
matter of educational facihties at stations not accessible to schools 
and where there are children of school age, inquiry is made from time 
to time into the education of the children and any course which 
will lead to their suitable education is encouraged; and, other things 
being equal, preference is given to employees having children between 
the ages of 5 and 16 years in filling vacancies by transfer at stations 
convenient to schools. Consultation is had with State and local 
educational authorities and in some localities, notably in the State 
of Maine, good results have been achieved through travehng teachers 
provided by the State, who are transported by Ughthouse tenders 
in making their visits. 

There is great need for provision by law for the retirement of em- 
ployees of the Lighthouse Service who after long service have lost 
their ability for active duty by reason of age or disability incident 
to their work. This is essential to full efficiency in the administra- 
tion of the Service. A pension system is in force with favorable 
results in the lighthouse services of most of the other important 
maritime countries. 

All male employees on vessels and at light stations are required, 
when on duty, to wear a uniform as prescribed for their respective 
grades. Laborers in charge of minor lights are not required to wear 
uniforms. These uniforms must conform to the regulations issued 
on the subject, which cover all details for each class or rank. Such 
regulations were first issued in 1883. The standard material for the 
clothing is dark navy-blue cloth or serge, except in hot weather, when 
white duck is allowed. The standard cap bears in the middle of the 
front a gold embroidered wreath inclosing a silver embroidered light- 



PERSONNEL AND CIVIL-SERVICE SYSTEMS. 75 

house. Officers of tenders wear a single-breasted coat shaped to the 
figure with a fly front and standing collar, trimmed with braid. 
Other employees wear a double-breasted sack coat with gilt buttons 
embossed with a lighthouse. Deck officers of vessels wear an anchor 
on the collar, while engineer officers wear a propeller. The relative 
rank of such officers is indicated by sleeve stripes of braid near the 
cuflf of the coat. Keepers of lighthouses wear within a loop on the 
collar the letters K, 1, 2, etc., as the case may be, indicating respec- 
tively keeper, first assistant, second assistant, etc., and do not wear 
sleeve ornaments. Petty officers of tenders wear ornaments on the 
sleeves only, midway between the shoulder and elbow; a white steer- 
ing wheel for quartermasters, and a red propeller for machinists. 

In order to insure imiformity in the practical operations of the 
Service, one of the first acts of the Lighthouse Board was to issue a 
a set of rules and regulations for the government of employees, with 
detailed instructions concerning the routine of their duties. Such 
regulations were first issued October 22, 1852, and have been since 
revised and amended from time to time. These regulations are au- 
thorized by the law governing the Lighthouse Service, and the latest 
edition went into eflFect October 1, 1914, comprising a volume of about 
180 pages, with chapters appropriate to the various activities of the 
Service. The Regulations are supplemented by Instructions to Em- 
ployees, the latest edition of which took eflFect July 15, 1915. This 
is a book of about 100 pages, with chapters dealing with the duties 
of diflFerent giades of employees, such as keepers of lighthouses, offi- 
cers of tenders, etc., with general chapters on disciplinary and pro- 
fessional matters applicable to all. All 'employees are required to 
familiarize themselves with the instructions and to be governed 
thereby. The lighthouse is and should be a common synonym for 
absolute reliability. Strict rules for the government of the Service 
must be made and observed, and this has been the policy from its 
earliest days. President Thomas JeflTerson, in approving the dismis- 
sal of a keeper in a case referred to him for decision, made the follow- 
ing remarks in his own handwriting, dated December 31, 1806: '^I 
think the keepers of lighthouses should be dismissed for small degrees 
of remissness, because of the calamities which even these produce." 

On the other hand, devotion to duty is always praised and re- 
warded. Keepers in charge of stations who attain a high efficiency, 
as shown by inspections made during the year, are entitled to wear 
the inspector's efficiency star, and those who win this star for three 
successive years are entitled to wear in lieu thereof the Commission- 
er's star. Whenever employees render service to endangered per- 
sons or property, or otherwise perform their duty under hazardous 
or trying conditions, including any special act of unselfish or unusual 
service of any kind, either in the office or the field, in a manner to 



76 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

merit commendation, a special report is made and a commendatory 
letter, signed by the Secretary of Commerce, is addressed to such 
person and the fact noted on the ofl&cial records of the Service. Also, 
the light station in each district attaining the highest general efficiency 
during the year is entitled to fly the '* efficiency flag,'' being the regu- 
lation service flag, for the succeeding year. 

As a means of attaining the ends sought by the Regulations and 
Instructions, systematic inspections are made of all branches of- the 
Service by its officers. Each light station and depot is inspected at 
least twice a year; each tender and light vessel at least three times 
a year, at such times as will secure the most efficient service, and 
not at regular intervals that may be anticipated. Inspection of non- 
attended lights, buoys, and unlighted beacons is made at least once 
a year. Additional inspections are made whenever rendered neces- 
sary by unusual conditions. Such inspections are made by the district 
officers, who fill out a form provided for the purpose at the time of 
making the inspection, and in case it appears that a bad state of 
repair or other unsatisfactory condition exists, the Commissioner is 
promptly notified. 

Such inspections are supplemented by traveling officers of the Serv- 
ice; a general inspector, who attends particularly to the technical fea- 
tures, such as the condition of vessels and stations from the engi- 
neering standpoint; and an examiner, whose activities are more par- 
ticularly addressed to business methods and fiscal matters, such as 
accounts, reports, etc. The officers pf the Bureau also make inspec- 
tions from time to time, as opportunity permits, in order to obtain 
information at first hand regarding the operations of the Service. 

On June 30, 1915, there were 5,792 authorized positions in the 
Lighthouse Service, divided into the following principal classes: 

Executive and technical employees 123 

Clerical employees 145 

Depot keepers and assistants 71 

Light keepers and assistants 1, 471 

Laborers in charge of minor lights 1, 782 

Custodians of reservations 12 

Officers and crews of vessels 1, 605 

Construction and repair force 583 

Total 5, 792 

19. LIGHT KEEPERS' QUARTERS. 

On account of the comparative isolation of many lighthouses, and 
to insure immediate attention at all times, it is the practice of the 
Service to furnish quarters for keepers at all attended lights. Dwell- 
ings for keepers and their families are provided for nearly all impor- 
tant lights located on shore, while in the case of offshore stations, 



UGHT KEBPEES IJUABTEKS. 



Fort Pfpkerlng, Mass. 



CapeHalleraa, N.C. 



Point Conception. CbI. 




Point. Oahn. Havall. 



Fort Point, Col. Points box Barque, Uich. 

DWELLINGS FOB LIGHT KEEPERS. 



78 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

where women and children are not permitted to reside on account of 
the hazard in making a landing and the restricted space, quarters for 
the keepers only are allowed. Eight hundred and fifty-seven dwell- 
ings are now provided for lighthouse and depot keepers. 

There is no standard type or design of keepers' dwellings, by reason 
of many different local conditions which have to be met, embracing 
all kinds of climate from the exposed coasts of Maine, Alaska, and the 
Great Lakes to the senr tropical conditions of Porto Rico and Hawaii. 
Attempt is made to have such buildings conform to the prevaiUng 
local styles and customs, and at the same time to harmonize them 
architectually so far as practicable with the light station and its 
surroundings. Consideration must also be given to the kind of 
materials most available in the vicinity, for economical reasons, as 
the limit of cost for such dweUings is fixed by law at not to exceed 
$6,500, exclusive of the site. While this is ample under ordinary 
conditions, the great difficulties of transportation frequently make 
the costs much higher than would prevail in localities close to markets 
for materials and sources of skilled labor. Unnecessary or elaborate 
ornamentation is avoided, and care is taken to use simple and sub- 
stantial designs appropriate to the purpose. In recent years prefer- 
ence has been given to fireproof construction, when funds permit, and 
the use of perishable materials has been eliminated when feasible to 
avoid or lessen future repairs. In all new dwellings hot water or 
steam heat is provided in climates requiring it, as well as sanitary 
plumbing with water-supply and sewerage systems; these features 
are also being added to older dwelHngs not so equipped, as circum- 
stances allow. 

In some cases double or triple dwellings have been built at stations 
with more than one keeper, but recent practice favors detached 
houses, as insuring greater privacy, and giving the opportunity for 
individual gardens or yards. Many reservations have areas of tillable 
soil, on which keepers are permitted and encouraged to grow vege- 
tables, etc., for household consumption. 

Where quarters are furnished by the Government, a fuel allowance 
is made for heating and cooking, and each station to which a Govern- 
ment power boat is assigned is also granted an allowance of gasoline 
or other fuel, based on the reasonable official requirements of the 
station. 

In order to avoid any possible interference to the work, persons 
outside the Service are not permitted to occupy any premises belong- 
ing the the Lighthouse Service; no traffic or trade is allowed to be 
carried on within any fighthouse reservation, nor may articles be 
exposed for sale on the premises. Visitors must be received with 
courtesy and may be admitted in Hmited numbers to Ughthouses at 
prescribed hours not conflicting with the regular duties of the -keepers. 



LIGHTING OF BRIDGES. 79 

A placard entitled ''Rules for visitors" is posted in convenient places 
where it may be seen by such, persons. Probably more visitors are 
received at Absecon Light Station, Atlantic City, N. J., than any 
other in the United States, about 10,000 persons visiting this light- 
house in July, August, and September of each year. 

20. SAVING OF LIFE AND PROPERTY. 

While the business of the Service is primarily concerned with the 
maintenance of aids to navigation, it frequently happens that oppor- 
tunity presents itself to give assistance to persons or vessels in dis- 
tress, and in such cases it is the duty of light keepers and their assis- 
tants, and of officers and crews of lighthouse vessels, to give or 
summon aid to vessels in distress, whether public or private, and to 
assist in saving life and property from perils of the sea whenever it is 
practicable to do so. The records of the Service are replete with 
many heroic incidents of this character, and it is customary to 
include a brief statement of this work in the Commissioner's annual 
report, giving the name of the vessel or employee rendering this 
service, the object or person aided, and the nature of the assistance 
performed. Commendatory letters signed by the Secretary of Com- 
merce are addressed to such employees, and in specially meritorious 
cases involving great personal danger recommendation may be made 
to the Secretary of the Treasury for the award of life-saving medals. 

In the annual report for 1914 mention is made of 124 occasions on 
which services in saving of life or property were rendered by em- 
ployees of the Lighthouse Service, and the report of 1915 includes 
143 similar incidents. These latter may be grouped into the follow- 
ing general classes: 

Cases. 

Towing disabled small boats to safety 59 

Towing larger vessels to safety 30 

Furnishing food, clothing, and shelter 24 

Rescuing persons overboard 20 

Recovering property 5 

Recovering bodies 2 

Miscellaneous : 3 

Total 143 

21. LIGHTING OF BRIDGES. 

One of the duties of the Lighthouse Service incidental to its general 
work is the supervision of the lighting of bridges over navigable 
waters of the United States, also of lights on sheer booms, piers, 
dams, and similar obstructions to navigation. All parties owning, 
occupjdng, or operating bridges over any navigable river are required 
by the act of August 7, 1882, to maintain at their own expense, from 
sunset to sunrise, throughout the year, such lights on their bridges 



80 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

as may be required by the Commissioner of Lighthouses; failure to 
do so may subject the offender to a fine of not exceeding $100 for 
each offense, and each day during which such violation continues is 
considered as a new offense. 

Special regulations are issued on the subject, the latest edition 
being dated June 25, 1915, intended for the guidance of shipmasters, 
pilots, and bridge owners. They prescribe standard methods for 
marking the piers and waterways of bridges with various combina- 
tions of red and green hghts for diflFerent classes of bridges, illus- 
trated by diagrams or plates showing the proper arrangements. 
The red lights indicate danger, while the fairway is marked by 
green lights. In the case of draw or swing bridges, mechanism must 
be provided for changing the color from red to green and vice versa 
as the draw is opened or closed. All hghts are required to be securely 
attached and of sufficient intensity to be visible on a dark night with 
a clear atmosphere not less than 1 nautical mile. Provision is made 
for exempting bridges infrequently used from the more detailed re- 
quirements of these regulations, so long as such lights as are necessary 
for the security of navigation are maintained in each case. 

On June 30, 1915, there were 1,183 bridges lighted in accordance 
with the regulations. The bridges are inspected at intervals and any 
deficiency in lights is called to the attention of the owners. 

22. PRIVATE AIDS TO NAVIGATION. 

It is unlawful for anyone to establish or maintain any light or other 
aid to navigation similar to those maintained by the Lighthouse 
Service without first obtaining permission to do so from the Commis- 
sioner of Lighthouses in accordance with regulations established by 
the Secretary of Commerce; violation of these provisions may subject 
the offender to a fine of not exceeding $100 per day. 

In accordance with the law, those desiring to establish a private 
aid may apply for authority, on a blank provided for the purpose, to 
the Commissioner through the proper lighthouse inspector. This 
application must contain the material facts relating to the proposed 
aid, such as whether a light, fog signal, buoy, with its exact location, 
color, and other descriptive items, in order that it may be properly 
ascertained that no conflict will exist between this and any neighbor- 
ing Government aid. An annual report is also required from those 
authorized to maintain a private aid, stating its condition, and inspec- 
tions of such aids are made at intervals by representatives of the 
Service. Private aids authorized under the rules cover a usefid pur- 
pose in marking privately dredged channels or localities where special 
service is required. Such aids are usually under the control of muni- 
cipalities, corporations, yacht clubs, or other organizations. Light 
and fog signals on ferry slips and on piers, used only by certain ves- 



LAWS FOR PROTECTION OF AIDS. 81 

sels, and stakes, bushes, and barrel buoys marking shallow and little- 
used channels, are not affected by these regulations. Information 
regarding lawfully maintained private aids is printed in the customary 
publications of the Service, the same as for Government aids, and they 
are also entitled to the same protection of law as is afforded aids main- 
tained by the Lighthouse Service. On June 30, 1915, there were 660 
authorized private aids in commission, comprising 211 lights, 23 
lighted buoys, 267 unlighted buoys, 134 other unlighted aids, and 25 
fog signals. 

23. LAWS FOR PROTECTION OF AIDS. 

Heavy penalties are prescribed by law for obstruction to or inter- 
ference with any aid to navigation. Exhibiting a false light, or 
extinguishing a true light, with intent to bring any vessel into danger, 
is a felony punishable by imprisonment of not less than 10 years, or 
for life. Any person who obstructs or interferes with any aid to 
navigation maintained by the Lighthouse Service, or who anchors a 
vessel so as to obstruct range lights, may be subject to a fine of $500 
for each offense, and each day during which the violation continues 
may be considered as a separate offense. By a recent act of Congress 
these provisions apply also to any lawfully maintained private aid, 
as noted in the previous chapter. 

In addition to the Federal statutes on the subject, various States 
and Porto Rico have passed laws providing penalties to be imposed 
on persons interfering in any manner with aids to navigation main- 
tained by the Lighthouse Service, as follows: Maine, New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Texas, Porto Rico, Ohio, Michigan, Min- 
nesota, Wisconsin, Washington, Oregon, and California. 

The Lighthouse Service takes the position, inasmuch as the aids to 
navigation are established and maintained at heavy expense for the 
sole purpose of safeguarding maritime interests and the lives and 
property intrusted to their care, that it is therefore the obvious duty 
of masters and pilots, in their own interests, as well as those of the 
public welfare, to exercise special care to avoid collisions with these 
aids to navigation. Failure to do so renders persons in charge and 
the owners of offending vessels liable for the full amount of damages 
to aids and subjects them to the penalties prescribed by law. It is a 
part of the duty of the Lighthouse Service to prosecute all such 
offenders vigorously. 

Making fast any vessel or boat to a buoy or beacon is an interfer- 
ence with an aid to navigation of a serious nature, and any person 
committing this offense is liable to prosecution. 

Masters of towboats should exercise special care to avoid barges in 
tow striking and injuring buoys, beacons, or light vessels. 
18247^—16 6 



82 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SEBVICE, 1915. 

24. PUBLICATIONS. 

The principal publications of the Lighthouse Service are light lists, 
buoy lists, and notices to mariners, all of which are distributed gra- 
tuitously to shipmasters or pilots for their information and guidance. 
There are three important light lists, each revised annually, contain- 
ing information regarding lighthouses, lighted beacons, light vessels, 
lighted buoys, and fog signals, giving in tabular form and in geograph- 
ical sequence the name of each aid, the character and period of the 
light, the location of the structure, with the latitude and longitude of 
more important outside aids, the height in feet of the light above high 
water, the distance in miles at which the light may be seen in clear 
weather, and the approximate candlepower. Other columns give a 
brief description of the structure, vessel, or buoy, with the height of 
towers in feet, the characteristic blasts or strokes of the fog signal, 
if any, and such additional explanatory remarks as may be necessary 
in any case. The three lists mentioned are devoted respectively to 
the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the Great Lakes, and the Pacific coast, 
in separate octavo volumes, with the following number of pages each 
for the 1915 editions: Atlantic list, 357 pages; Lake List, 271 pages; 
and Pacific List, 148 pages. These light lists aim to give all the 
important information as to lights and fog signals in a convenient 
manner for the purpose of mariners engaged in coastwise or trans- 
oceanic navigation. Effort is made to publish the Atlantic and 
Pacific Lists on January 1, or as soon after the first of the calendar 
year as possible, and the Lake List on April 1, immediately prior to 
the opening of the season of navigation. 

In addition, the Service publishes separately for each lighthouse 
district a buoy list, which gives a list of all the buoys in the district, 
both lighted and unlighted, as well as all the other aids. This is 
issued rather for the use of local authorities and pilots and for the 
Lighthouse Service. As far as the location of buoys is concerned, 
the larger scale charts published by the United States Coast and 
Geodetic Survey are preferable sources of information, as such charts 
show at a glance the location and character of all buoys and aids with 
reference to their surroundings, and are, moreover, corrected to the 
date of issue; while the lists can only be brought up to date when a 
new edition is published, about every two years. The present series 
of buoy lists forms a set of 16 octavo volumes, ranging from about 
125 to 20 pages each, depending on the size of the district. 

Announcement of all changes in aids to navigation, information of 
dangers, changes in shoals and channels, facts of interest affecting 
charts and coast pilots, corrections to published lists, and similar 
items affecting navigable waters under the jurisdiction of the United 
States, are published weekly in a Notice to Mariners, prepared jointly 



PUBLICATIONS. 83 

by the Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Lighthouse Service. For 
important changes in seacoast lights and lightships used by vessels in 
foreign trade, a supplementary poster notice is also issued for promi- 
nent display to mariners. A Notice to Mariners covering all navi- 
gable waters of the world is published weekly by the Hydrographic 
Office, Navy Department. 

Light liste are also issued for each of the three river districts, com- 
prising the Mississippi River and its tributaries, covering broadly the 
upper Mississippi, the Ohio, and the lower Mississippi, respectively. 
These are small volumes pubhshed annually in vest-pocket size and 
contain simply the number and name of the aid, the distance from 
some starting point, the side of the channel, and the color of the aid. 

A special pubhcation of the Service is a small quarto pamphlet of 
about 20 pages, including diagrams, containing the Regulations for 
Lighting Bridges, to which reference has already been made on page 
80. This, pubhcation is issued only when a new edition is necessary. 

The Service pubhca-tion of chief interest to the general pubUc is the 
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Lighthouses to the Secretary 
of Commerce, which is available for distribution after the convening 
of Congress in regular session in December of each year, and covers 
the work of the Service for the fiscal year ended on the preceding 
June 30, as required by law. In its present form, this is an octavo 
volume of about 100 pages, and gives a general description of the 
operations and cost of the Service during the year, with recommen- 
dations for new legislation and estimates for appropriations for the 
second next following year, supplemented by detailed statistics of 
various classes of aids to navigation and fuller details of many sub- 
jects mentioned in the report proper, along with brief technical 
descriptions of important works of construction or repair completed 
during the year. 

Other pubhcations of the Service are of a routine character, printed 
in limited editions, and intended more particularly for its internal 
government and administration. A number of these have been re- 
ferred to in the preceding pages. They embrace the Regulations, 
the Listructions to Employees, the Medical Handbook, the Light- 
house Service Bulletin (a monthly leaflet, commenced in January, 
1912, containing items of interest to the Service), the Regulations for 
Uniforms, the Civil-Service Regulations, and the various forms, 
blanks, record books, etc., needed in the work of the Service. 

Mention should also be made of the various printed specifications 
and proposal forms issued by the Service from time to time covering 
new vessels, Hghthouses, annual suppUes, and other large purchases 
for which contract with bond is required. These are distributed to 
prospective bidders in response to their inquiries as a result of pubhc 
advertisements in newspapers and other periodicals. 



84 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915, 

25. ENGINEERING AND FISCAL MATTERS. 

Careful supervision is exercised over all technical and administrative 
work of the Service, the desire being to attain a high professional 
standard in modem methods of design and construction, with due 
regard to the economical expenditure of funds. 

Surveys are made with especial care, with bearings given from the 
true meridian, and the distances well checked, to insure great accu- 
racy. Each comer where practicable is permanently marked by a 
substantial moniunent and at the conclusion of the siffvey maps are 
prepared showing the information obtained. All notebooks and other 
records are preserved, and in connection with each important new 
structure a complete record is kept of the engineering elements, such 
as computations, stress, analyses, weights, and estimated cost. These 
principles apply to the design of vessels as well as shore structures, 
full details of the form characteristics of vessels being worked out by 
curves of displacements, centers of buoyancy, coefl&cients, meta- 
centers, centers of gravity with varying conditions of load, etc., in 
order that complete stabiUty and seaworthiness may be assured. 

Plans and specifications are prepared for all important works. 
Standard sizes of drawings are prescribed, being based on multiples 
of the dimensions of customary letter-size sheets 8 by lOJ inches in 
size. Each drawing bears a standard title giving information regard- 
ing the subject, the scale, date, and the persons responsible for its 
preparation. A standard form of advertisement, proposal, instruc- 
tions to bidders, general conditions, and contract is used throughout 
the Service, and a number of standard plans and specifications cov- 
ering materials, articles, and structures have been prepared for Service 
use, as a guide to designing wherever practicable and economical. 

All works of construction and repair are supervised closely in 
order to make certain that the plans and specifications are followed, 
and persons charged with such duty are required to keep proper con- 
struction records and to make regular reports of progress. In the 
case of work performed by the field forces of the Service, written 
work orders are issued showing the work to be done and the author- 
ized amoxmt of expenditure. When the inspection of supplies or ma- 
terial under purchase can be more conveniently handled by a district 
office near the location of the contractor's shop or plant, inspectors 
cooperate with each other by forwarding the plans, specifications, 
and other necessary information to the office assigned this additional 
duty. 

Progress photographs are also taken from time to time to show the 
development of work xmder way, and record photographs are kept 
of all light stations and vessels, with descriptions of the construction, 
equipment, and similar information. About 8,000 photographs of 



ENGINEERING AND FISCAL MATTERS. 85 

various lighthouse objects are on file in the Commissioner's oflB.ce, 
covering practically every phase of the activities of the Service. 

The administration of fiscal matters pertaining to the Lighthouse 
Service forms one of its most interesting problems. A rigid economy 
is enforced in this direction, and no expenditure is authorized or per- 
mitted which is not necessary to render the aids to navigation eflftcient. 

The appropriations made by Congress for the Lighthouse Service 
may be divided into two broad classes, general and special. General 
appropriations are those providing for the payment of salaries, and 
the other ordinary expenses of maintenance, operation, and better- 
ment, and are limited to the fiscal year for which appropriated, while 
special appropriations are those designated for some specific purpose — 
usually new construction or extensive rebuilding, such as new Ught- 
houses, vessels, etc., and are available imtil expended. The total 
amount of special appropriations varies from time to time with the 
needs of the Service and the action of Congress. The estimates for 
such appropriations usually aggregate about $1,000,000 annually, and 
the average sums so appropriated for the 10 fiscal years 1905 to 1914, 
inclusive, amoimted to $946,247. For the fiscal year 1915 the total 
appropriations for special works were $136,000 and for 1916 the 
amoimt was $250,000. 

The general appropriations for the maintenance of the Service for 
the fiscal year 1916 were $5,164,030, subdivided as follows: 

Salaries, Bureau of Lighthouses |64, 030 

Salaries, lighthouse keepers 940, 000 

Salaries, lighthouse vessels 1, 010, 000 

Salaries, Lighthouse Service 375, 000 

General expenses. Lighthouse Service 2, 775, 000 

Total 5, 164, 030 

The names of the first three of these appropriations indicate their 
respective objects; the appropriation "Salaries, Lighthouse Service," 
is for the compensation of technical and clerical employees in the 
field service, while the appropriation "General expenses'' covers all 
items of supphes, repairs, maintenance, and incidental expenses 
required in the Lighthouse Service, including the wages of laborers 
attending post lights and pay of mechanics and laborers in the field 
force. The law requires that these appropriations shall be so appor- 
tioned by allotments as to prevent expenditures which may neces- 
sitate deficiency or additional appropriations to complete the service 
of the year; careful accoxmts are therefore kept and monthly reports 
made by each district, showing under each appropriation the total 
allotments, deductions, advances, repayments, vouchers paid or for- 
warded for payment, and available balances. On accoiuit of the 
casualties to which the property and equipment of the Service is 
frequently subjected by reason of storm damage and other accidents, 



86 UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 

a close scrutiny of available funds is a highly necessary feature in 
the management of the Service finances. Allotments under the 
various general appropriations are made to the Ughthouse inspectors 
in charge of districts at the beginning of each fiscal year for operation 
of their district during that year; all requisitions for supplies made 
by each district, or other expenses incurred by them, are charged 
against this allotment. This has been found advantageous in placing 
definite responsibUity for the judicious expenditure of funds and 
increasing economy and efl&ciency. It is necessary when making 
allotments to keep a small reserve to provide for storm damage or 
other emergencies. 

All purchases, except in cases of unusual emergency, are required 
to be procured by pubUc contracts after pubhc advertisement for 
proposals with the lowest and best bidder therefor. Every eflFort is 
made to obtain the widest possible competition in all cases. Vouchers 
and pay rolls are required to be checked as to quantities, prices, 
extensions, and totals, and signed certificates of performance are 
required on all bills, covering the receipt of the articles and the cor- 
rectness of the quantity and quality. Payments on approved vouch- 
ers are generally made by checks issued by duly bonded special dis- 
bursing agents; in a few cases cash payments for services are made 
to employees. 

Property records are kept in aU offioes, depots, stations, and ves- 
sels; such lists are verified and audited from time to time by inspec- 
tors or by traveling representatives of the Commissioner, and an 
annual inventory is taken. When changes are made in the personnel 
having custody of property an additional inventory is required. 
Property is divided into seven general classes, as follows: 

Class 1. Issuable or expendable materials or supplies. 

Class 2. Working equipment, fixtures, and fittings. 

Class 3. Working tools for construction and repair. 

Class 4. Buoys and appendages. 

Class 5. Condemned articles. 

Class 6. Shipments in transit. 

Class 7. Office furniture and equipment. 

A stock and stores account is kept of all expendable supphes and 
issue is made only on approved requisitions. An invoice accom- 
panies each shipment, a copy of which must be receipted and returned 
to the issuing office or depot. The information obtained from this 
stock-keeping system forms a basis for keeping an accurate cost of 
every important feature of the work of the Lighthouse Service. The 
results thus obtained are of value in preparing estimates, in planning 
work, and in comparing the efficiency of different districts, vessels, 
apparatus, methods, etc. The system used is made as simple as 
practicable in order to save clerical expense and to avoid obscuring 



ENGINEERING AND FISCAL MATTERS. 87 

the important facts. Separate costs are kept only of the more 
important features and classes of expenditures; general operating 
costs, such as tender service and administration, are not distributed, 
and liabihties are generally not charged. 

Expenditures of materials, supplies, and labor are charged the 
same as expenditures of money. Each principal object in the 
Service is classed as a feature, such as district offices, depots, tenders, 
light vessels, light and fog-signal stations, etc., and a set of accoimt 
numbers, ranging from 10 to 24, assigned to each feature. These 
accoimt numbers are arranged in continuous order, and certain blank 
numbers are allowed each featiu-e to provide for futiu-e extensions; 
thus numbers 1 to 19 are assigned the Commissioner's office, while 
only 15 are in use; numbers 20 to 49 to district offices, while only up 
to No. 34 are live numbers. The numbers are of course purely arbi- 
trary and are used merely for convenience and abbreviation, each 
number referring to some particular item of cost; for example, under 
the Conimissioner's office No. 1 stands for administrative salaries, 
No. 2 for technical salaries, No. 3 for clerical salaries, No. 4 for trans- 
portation of persons, No. 5 for freight, express, and cartage, and so 
on, the intention being to charge each item of expenditure to an 
appropriate number. In all cases the niunbers are so arranged as to 
divide the costs into two main headings — ^maintenance and better- 
ments. The cost of maintenance includes what may be considered 
fixed expenses, such as salaries, rations, fuel, and general expendable 
supplies. The item of betterments includes repairs, improvements, 
and new construction and is fm-ther subdivided to show the cost of 
labor and materials separately for each principal object. Cost 
reports are submitted annually by all the districts, and these are 
consolidated in the Commissioner's office to show the results for the 
entire Service. Such statements are checked with the money 
accounts by taking into consideration the actual cash expenditures 
and the difference in the value of supplies on hand at the beginning 
and end of the year. A generalized summary of costs for the fiscal 
year ended June 30, 1915, as derived from this cost-keeping system 
appears on pages 88 to 90, 



88 



UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 



U3 




iH 




a> 




iH 




0% 




o 




CO 




H 




Z 




D 




•-9 









H 









Z 


• 


W 


OQ 


M 


tf 


-< 


t3 


H 


H 


>^ 


^ 




M 


Hi 


Pm 


•^ 




o 


I-) 


QQ 


^ 


i; 


l-H 




O 


H 


s 




(< 


>: 


Pui 


M 




H 


Fxi 


OQ 


O 


QQ 
t3 


QQ 
CQ 

o 


o 


o 


4 






1-1 


o 


H 


;3 


O 


QQ 




H 




GQ 




O 




o 




PC4 




o 




>* 




Pi 




< 




s 




s 




& 




OQ 











•2 • 



I 



I 



PO 



I 






si"- 






! 







GQ 



S! 



rHCO 









ii 



00 00 



CO 00 n> 

CO ""^ l-H 
1-HN 



•s •% *« 



»OCO 

•s a^ •« 



Q0"<»< 

§8 



Ml 
»0' 



;2S 

I 00-^ 



CO u 

® _ 
bed 

rt > >■ 



8 



CO 



!§ 



o 

^ 



o 



s' 






So 



CO 



N 



CQ 

» 

ft 
O 

CO 

OQ 

o 
1^ 

O 



03 



00 00 



>0( 












o 



a» 

S2 



o 



Q 



t^l-H 






S8 



coa» 
|>.C9 

coo 



53 






r«-oe« 






iOS 



OOOlQ 



ICO 



CO coco 






e4>oe4 



l>0( 



1-1 «o 



Qr^oo 
dSoo 

^ as ^ 



1-ll>.»-t 

•^ •« vv 



"^C0« 

S2§8 



Oi 



I 00 



00 00 e<? 



§§ 



S3 

QQO 
COi-t 



•* •* ws 

i>-i-i35 



^ 



CO 
QC 



CO 



00 



?2 



CO 



CO'-^NC** 



■^1-1 00 r^ 

ON 00 CO 
«COi-H OS 

oOt-H t>. QO 



1-H g»ocQ 
ooo»e<ic« 

^ ^ ^ ^ 



s 

o 



CO 

8^ 



'9 

lUO 

lt>- 






5 



cor»»-H ■* 
CO CO o CO 

9\ m% m^ 9t 



s 



B 



tOCOQCO 
CO CO O CO 

^ PS •% •* 

COO>t«CO 
CO CO 






to 



CO 



;s 



00 



8 



eocb t>.i-H 

*k «^ M a^ 

^0J»O 






5^ 



(oOf^gj 



CO 



?2! 
>o< 



iScO 



Ot"! 

c5»-t 



gipHCO-^ 
%ooo 

•^ as #% «« 

00»O ■^ l-H 



00 
CO 



CO 

»o 



CD 



»o 

CO 



c< t>.co^ 

OS»-tO 

•^ as *• ffs 

1^ CO 0)00 

oo»»oeo 



CO 

00 



C4 

»o 

CO 



05 



ep4 
09 tt 

OP H 



a . 

CO CU ^ 

(m s S d 
® 03 J5 p 

TSI-ISOQ 



O 



09 



S « 08 . 
m o « « ffi 



I 



ENGINEERING AND FISCAL 






iip 



^^sp 



is» 






SiSi^ 



sai la ! 



1 



g 



81 



P 



il 




I 



III 



90 



UNITED STATES LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, 1915. 



Summary op Costs, Lighthousb Service, Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1915— 

Continued. 

average OPERATma COSTS OF SELECTED FEATT7BES. 



Average cost of— 



District office, exclusive of 

third 

District depot, exchisive of 

third 

Large tender, Pacific 

Large tender, Atlantic 

Medium tender 

Exposed light vessel 

Moderately exposed light 

vessel 

Lake light vessel 

First-order light stations 

with iM>werful fog signah. . 
First-order light stations 

without fog signals 

Fourth-order light stations 

with powerful fog signal 

Fourth-order li^t stations 

without fog signal 

Lens lantern : . . . 

Minor li^ht, river districts . . . 
Minor light, other districts... 
Hi^h-pressure acetylene li^t 
Hi?h-pressure acetvlene buoy 
Low-preisure acetylene buoy 
Oil-gas buoy 



Sala- 
ries. 



$12,252 

6,831 
22,612 
18,6:5 
14,740 

8,053 

4,473 
3,323 

2,465 

1,800 

1,430 



Subsist- 
ence. 



S5,945 
5, SCO 
4,604 
1,041 

1,231 
050 

430 

830 

287 



Ulumi- 
nants. 



Fuel. 



Other 
sup- 
plies. 



658 


131 


189 


21 


90 




121 




36 


3 







177 

82 

105 

135 

147 

65 

34 
18 
2 
11 
30 
36 
130 
32 



10,724 
8,025 
4,865 
1,197 

280 
300 

277 

110 

272 

44 

5 



12,025 

2,624 
4,055 
3,063 
2,300 
854 

622 
292 

248 

206 

196 

90 

11 

3 

5 

8 

b£l 

b22 

»21 



Inci- 
den- 
tals. 



1131 

922 
286 
213 
277 
99 

10 
22 

23 

24 

17 

6 



Total 
mainte 
nance. 



1 

4 
1 



$14,408 

10,377 
42,622 
35,846 
26,885 
12,221 

6,698 
4,992 

3,578 

2,619 

2,226 

974 
245 

95 
138 

83 

88 
152 

54 



Re- 
pairs 
md im- 
prove- 
ments. 



S4,6^6 
6,458 
3,740 
3,721 
3,663 

3,784 
1,218 

1,032 

615 

632 

205 
a 31 

al 

a 14 

«157 

a 15 

a22 

a7 



Total 



114,408 

14,993 
48,087 
39,587 
30,606 
15,914 

10,482 
6,210 

4,610 

3,134 

2,898 

1,269 

276 

96 

152 

240 

el03 

el74 

e61 



a Figures do not include cost of establishment of new aids. 

h Figures include transportation charges of all kinds, such as freight on new buoys, etc. 

c Figures do not include renewal of appendages. 

With reference to the cost of establishing new aids, so much depends 
upon the local conditions that little definite information can be given. 
The following approximate statements, however, furnish some idea of 
the prevailing range. Minor lights cost from about $100 to $10,000 
each; lighthouses with quarters, and fog signal where necessary, from 
$40,000 to $200,000 and over per station. The light and fog signal at 
St. George Reef, Cal., the mast expensive lighthouse thus far con- 
structed in this country, cost nearly $800,000; it is on Northwest 
Seal Rock, 6i miles off the northern coast of California, in the Pacific 
Ocean; construction was commenced in 1883, and the light first 
exhibited in October, 1892. Lighthouse tenders cost from $20,000 
to $250,000 each, depending on their size and duty; the average 
medium-sized tender will cost now about $150,000, A first-class 
self-propelling light vessel will cost about $130,000; smaller and less 
powerful vessels may be built for down to about $70,000. Lighted 
buoys cost from about $800 to $5,000 each, the larger and more 
expensive sizes being needed for outside stations. Whistling buoys 
cost about $500 each, and bell buoys about $400 each, cans and nuns, 
including also iron spars, range from about $50 to $300 each, depend- 
ing on size, while first-class wooden spars are about $35 each, with 
corresponding reductions lor smaller classes. The cost of moorings 



EXHIBITS OF THE LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE. 91 

for buoys is not included in any type mentioned; this will vary from 
a few dollars to $500 and over per buoy, depending on the location 
and depth of water. 

26. EXHIBITS OF THE LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE. 

It has been the custom of the Lighthouse Service for many years to 
participate in various national expositions and similar occasions, by 
a display of various articles and equipment used in its work, illus- 
trating some of the progress made, the apparatus or methods 
employed, and the results so obtained. As a part of the collective 
exhibit of the Department of Commerce, similar steps were taken in 
connection with the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, held 
at San Francisco during the current year. 

The Lighthouse Service was allotted approximately 3,300 square 
feet of space in the north end of the Machinery Building, and the 
sum of $4,750 from the appropriation for the Government's exhibit 
as a whole. It was planned to make the exhibit of interest from 
both a historical and practical point of view. 

The historic features included a collection of water colors, painted 
in 1859, of early light stations on the Pacific; the old 10-pounder 
cannon used from 1855 to 1857 at Point Bonita, Cal., being the first 
fog signal on the Pacific coast; the first Fresnel lens imported into 
this country in 1841 for use at Navesink, N. J., as well as the first 
lens used on the Pacific coast at Alcatraz, Cal., in 1854; also a col- 
lection of old lamps used for burning sperm oil, lard oil, and early 
plunger and air-pressure lamps for kerosene. 

From a practical standpoint, the exhibit included 50 enlarged 
photographs of important lighthouse objects, with models to scale of 
a number of important light stations and vessels. A modem flashing 
lens and lantern, also improved forms of fog-bell strikers and a recent 
type of compressed-air fog-signal, using a 6-inch siren were shown. 
An unusual and striking feature was the inclusion of a portion of the 
illuminating and fog-signal apparatus for the new lighthouse now 
under construction at Cape St. Elias, Alaska, embracing, among other 
equipment, the complete parapet deck, watch room, and helical bar 
lantern, a massive metal structure standing 29 feet high above the floor 
level and weighing approximately 44,000 poimds. Present practice 
in lamps was illustrated by incandescent oil-vapor outfits of 35 and 
55 millimeter mantles, along with smaller sizes of lens and post lan- 
terns. Typical sizes and types of buoys, such as whistling, bell, cans, 
and nuns, with ballast balls, sinkers, and anchors were also shown. 

The attendants on duty were experienced lighthouse keepers, 
selected from the Pacific coast districts for details of , about three 
weeks each^ who were present in imiform to care for and explain the 
apparatus. 






PAST AND PRESENT 0FFICEB8* OP • TH2 SERVICE. 



93 



.f 4 * • • 



A medal of honor was awarded"-th6*exmbit"*by*'tnfe* exposition 
authorities, and silver medals were awarded to those officers of the 
Service who collaborated in the preparation of the exhibit. Similar 
awards and tokens have been granted to previous exhibits made by 
the Lighthouse Service in past years at other expositions, among which 
may be mentioned the International Exposition at Vienna in 1873, 
the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, the Third Inter- 
national Geographic Congress at Venice in 1881, the International 
Fisheries Exhibition at London in 1883, the Industrial Exhibition at 
Cincinnati in 1884, the World's Coliunbian Exhibition at Chicago 
in 1893, the Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha in 1898, the 
Pan- American Exposition at Buffalo in 1901, and the Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904. 

27. PAST AND PRESENT OFFICERS OF THE SERVICE. 

The names of officers in direct chaise of the operations of the 
Lighthouse Service, from the time of the establishment of the Federal 
Government to the present, with their respective dates of service, 
are given in the table below. In colonial days the management of 
the lights was in the hands of the local authorities of the various 
colonies and provinces. It should be observed that up to 1820 many- 
matters, involving even routine business, were approved personally 
by the President. 



Name. 



PBIOB TO THE LIGHTHOUSE BOABD. 

Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury 

Tench Coxe, Commissioner of the Revenue 

William Miller, jr., Commissioner of the Revenue 

Albert Oallatin, Secretary of the Treasury 

Samuel H. Smith, Commissioner of the Revenue 

Stephen Pleasonton, Fifth Auditor of the Treasury 

CHAIBMEN OF UOHTHOUSE BOABD. 

William B. Shubrick, captain, U. S. Navy 

Lawrence Kearney, captain, tJ. S. Navy 

William B. Shubrick, rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

Prof. Joseph Henry, LL. D. (Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution) 

John Rodgers, rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

Robert H. Wyman, rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

Stephen C. Rowan, vice admiral. U. S. Navy 

David P. Harmony, rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

James M. Greer, rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

John O. Walker, rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

Winfleld S. Schley, commodore, U. S. Navy 

F. V. McNair. rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

Rush R. Wallace, commoddTe, U. S. Navy 

Francis J. Higginson, commodore, U. S. Navy 

Norman H. Farquhar, rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

George C. Remey, rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

John J. Read, rear admiral, U. S. Naw 

Robley D. Evans, rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

Benjamin P. Lamberton, rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

Georpe C. Reiter, rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

A. Marix, rear admiral, U. S. Navy 

COMinSSIONEB OP TIGHTHOUSES. 

George R. Putnam 



From— 



Aug. 


7,1789 


May 


9,1792 


Jan. 


22,1798 


Apr. 
Ji5y 


7,1802 


31,1813 


Jan. 


7,1820 


Oct. 


9,1852 


Feb. 


7,1859 


June 


6, 1859 


Oct. 


30.1871 


June 23.1878 


June 


5,1882 


Jan. 


18,1883 


Feb. 


27,1889 


June 


1, 1891 


Dec. 


4,1894 


Apr. 


5,1897 


Apr. 


4,1898 


July 


11, 1898 


Oct. 


3,1898 


May 


2,1901 


May 


6,1902 


Aug. 


8,1903 


June 20.1904 


Jan. 


6,1905 


Feb. 


25,1906 


Jan. 


6,1908 


July 


1, 1910 



To- 



May 8,1792 
Jan. 21,1798 
Apr. 6, 1802 
July 24,1813 
Dec. 31,1819 
Oct. 8,1852 



Feb. 

June 

Oct. 

May 

May 

Dec. 

Feb. 

May 

Dec. 

Mar. 

Mar. 

July 

Oct. 

Apr. 

May 

Aug. 

June 

Jan. 

Feb. 

Dec. 

June 



7,1859 

6,1859 

30, 1871 

13,1878 

5,1882 

2,1882 

26,1889 

29, 1891 

1,1894 

23,1897 

25,1898 

5, 1898 

3, 1898 

22, 1901 

6,1902 

8,1903 

17,1904 

5,1905 

25,1906 

31, 1907 

30, 1910 



94 



UinXED- g^ATfe'd lioHTHOirSE SEBVICE, 1915. 



The prfeent principal officers «f the Service are George R. Putnam, 
M. Am. Soc. C. E., Commissioner of Lighthouses; John S. Conway, 
M. Am. Soc. C. E., Deputy Commissioner; H. B. Bowerman, M. Am. 
Soc. C. E., chief constructing engineer; and Edward C, Gillette, 
superintendent of naval construction. 

The lighthouse inspectors, with the duty or district assigned to 
each, were as follows on December 1, 1915: 



District. 


Inspector. 


District. 


Inspector. 


Geaeralduty... 
First 


Everett M. Trott. 
Carl E. Sherman. 
Ralph H. Ooddaid. 
Joseph T. Yates. 
Thomas J. Rout. 
Harold D. King. 
Henry L. Beck. 
Wm. W. Demeritt. 
Benj. B. Dorry. 
Camille A. Lamy. 
Roscoe House. 

Edward L. Woodruff, M. Am. 
Soc. C. E. 


Twelfth 

Thirteenth 

Fourteenth 

Fifteenth 

Sixteenth 

Seventeenth.... 

Sixteenth 

Nineteenth 


Lewis M. Stoddard. 

Haj. George M. Hoffman, Corps of 

Engineers, U. S. Army. 
Col. Lansing H. Bea:;h, Corps of 

Engineers, U. S. Army; M. Am. 

Soc.C. E. 


Soooind 


Third 


Fourfi 

Fifth 


Sixth 


Haj. Wildurr Willing, Corps of 

Engineers, U. S. Army. 
Walter C.DibreU. 
Robert Warrack. 


Seventh 

Eighth. 

Ninth 


Tenth 


Harry W. Rhodes. 


Eleventh 


Arthur E. Arledge, Assoc. M. Am. 
Soc. C. E. 



o 



RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 

TO— ^ 202 Main Library 


LOAN PERIOD 1 

HOME USE 


2 : 


3 


4 


5 ( 


b 


Ml BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 

Rmiawal* oiMl Rachorga* moy b* mod* 4 day* prior to Ih* <lu* doto. 

Books may bo Ronowod by colling 642-340S. 


DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 


NOV 1 7 1Sf9 


\ 




AuroDlSCOECOSW 






sErrr on ill 












jLDn ^ 19% 




ftPR fc 3 *^^^ 






U. V. DCillveLei 






11 AV A A '>nA'l 






MAY 2 8 ^uui 































FORM NO. DD6, 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 
BERKELEY, CA 94720 



m24lsl0)4*6xi 



.'^'"irrnr of ^-a"**"' 



1 



I 



(1124 



VC 62652 



vafi^'*