Marilyn Turk's Blog, page 9

Happy 300th Anniversary to Boston Light!

Boston Light on Little Brewster Island, MA, photo by Chuck Turk

300 is a big number. And it’s worth celebrating,

Since this is my 300th post on this blog, it is a special anniversary for me. And fittingly, I get to share it with a lighthouse. Not just any lighthouse, but the first light station ever built on America’s soil – Boston Light.

In colonial America, Boston’s natural harbor was one of the country’s busiest.  Responding to a plea by Boston merchants, Boston’s first lighthouse was built on Little Brewster Island to guide ships going to the harbor. The lighthouse was first lit on September 14, 1716, and three years later, John Hayes, the third keeper of the lighthouse requested “some sort of gun” with which to communicate to ships in the fog.  Consequently, in 1719, a cannon was added to the property, becoming the country’s first fog signal. In 1851, the cannon was replaced by a 1375-pound fog bell.

Boston Light keeper’s House, photo by Chuck Turk

Boston Light with Fog Bell, photo by Logan Lyttle

 

Because of its importance to the harbor, the lighthouse became contested property between the British and the colonists during the Revolutionary War As a result, the tower was blown up by the British as they left the area.

 

In 1780, Massachusetts Governor John Hancock requested funding for a replacement, and the new tower was built, then lit in 1783.

 

By 1989, every lighthouse in America had been automated except Boston Light.  Preservationists convinced the state to maintain the lighthouse property as a living museum of lighthouse history.  Even though the light was eventually automated in 1998, the Coast Guard Stipulation Act of 1989 required that the light be operated and manned by the Coast Guard on a permanent basis.

Boston Light Station still has many of its original buildings – the keeper’s house, oil house, fog signal house, and cistern building, as well as the tower itself, and has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Little Brewster Island is now part of the Boston Islands National Recreation Area and has national park rangers on duty during the summer months.

Keeper Sally Snowman waving a welcome at Boston Light, MA, photo by Chuck Turk

 

The first lighthouse station in America, Boston Light is also the last one to have a keeper. In 2003, Sally Snowman was appointed by the Coast Guard to be a civilian keeper at the light, a position she still holds, serving as a tour guide while the Coast Guard maintains the mechanics of the light.  Sally, a native of Boston, is the 70th keeper of the light and the first female appointed to the position.

You can see Sally today when you visit the light waving her handkerchief as you approach, just as women at light stations have done for centuries as they welcomed mariners back home.

Sally and Me at Boston Light, MA, photo by Chuck Turk

 

 

I had the honor of meeting Sally and visiting Boston Light this year, and now feel a deeper connection to the lighthouse history of this nation. If you have the opportunity to be in the Boston area, please schedule a trip to the lighthouse. If you can’t, you might want to get the book Sally and her husband wrote about the lighthouse, Boston Light, A Historical Perspective.

 

 

“Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past.” Deut. 32:7

 

Bsston Lights, MA, photo by Chuck Turk

 

 

In Honor of Lighthouses on National Lighthouse Day

Portland Head Light, ME, photo by Chuck Turk

August 7 is National Lighthouse Day, the day on which we honor those majestic towers that were built to protect and guide mariners. Today, those lighthouses are historic symbols of man’s effort to help their fellowman. Many are still active aids to navigation despite modern technology, still standing guard at their assigned posts. Although many more have been deemed “excess” and have been extinguished, some of those have been saved from eventual deterioration, thanks to preservation-minded citizens.

This weekend, many of our national lighthouses will be open for this special observance. Please take advantage of the opportunity to visit them and help support the efforts to keep this heritage alive.

In honor of National Lighthouse Day, here is the first part of a poem written by America’s most famous poet of the mid-19th century, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A frequent visitor to Portland Head Lighthouse, Longfellow penned the poem in 1849 when lighthouses were a necessary part of coastal life.

Beavertail Lighthouse, RI, photo by Chuck Turk

The Lighthouse

The rocky ledge runs far into the sea,

And on its outer point, some miles away,

The Lighthouse lifts its massive masonry,

A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day.

Even at this distance I can see the tides,

Upheaving, break unheard along its base,

A speechless wrath, that rises and subsides

In the white lip and tremor of the face.

 

 

Montauk Lighthouse, NY, Photo by Chuck Turk

And as the evening darkens, lo! how bright,

Through the deep purple of the twilight air,

Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light

With strange, unearthly splendor in the glare!

Not one alone; from each projecting cape

And perilous reef along the ocean’s verge,

Starts into life a dim, gigantic shape,

Holding its lantern o’er the restless surge.

Like the great giant Christopher it stands

Upon the brink of the tempestuous wave,

Wading far out among the rocks and sands,

The night-o’ertaken mariner to save.

Barnegat Lighthouse, NJ, photo by Chuck Turk

 

And the great ships sail outward and return,

Bending and bowing o’er the billowy swells,

And ever joyful, as they see it burn,

They wave their silent welcomes and farewells.

They come forth from the darkness, and their sails

Gleam for a moment only in the blaze,

And eager faces, as the light unveils,

Gaze at the tower, and vanish while they gaze.

The mariner remembers when a child,

On his first voyage, he saw it fade and sink;

And when, returning from adventures wild,

He saw it rise again o’er ocean’s brink.

Steadfast, serene, immovable, the same

Year after year, through all the silent night

Burns on forevermore that quenchless flame,

Shines on that inextinguishable light! 

 

 

You might recognize the line in the first stanza that came from the Bible: “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.” Exodus 13:21. Apparently, Longfellow saw how lighthouses mirror God’s guidance. You can celebrate that light everyday.

Navesink Twin Towers, NJ, photo by Chuck Turk

 

A “Stay Away” Lighthouse or a “Come Here” Lighthouse?

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

 

The Outer Banks, a string of islands off the coast of North Carolina, boasts a chain of lighthouses from the northernmost tip to the farthest south.

The purpose of these lighthouses is to warn mariners of shifting shoals that are hazardous to ships. In fact, thousands of ships and unknown numbers of lives have met their demise in the area, giving it the name, “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” More than 5,000 ships have sunk in these waters since record keeping began in 1526.

Currituck Lighthouse

 

 

Some of the tallest lighthouses along the east coast are located on the Outer Banks – Currituck, Bodie Island, Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras (tallest on the east coast). Still active aids to navigation, their light beams extend over eighteen miles  into the Atlantic. Their message, “Stay away!”

 

Bodie Island Light, photo by Chuck Turk

 

 

Cape Lookout, photo courtesy lighthousefriends.com

But just a short distance to the southwest of Cape Hatteras is another lighthouse, much shorter than its peers. The Ocracoke Island Light, only 65 feet tall, is also the oldest of the Outer Banks lighthouses, first lit in 1823. It is also the second oldest continually operating lighthouse in the United States.

 

Ocracoke Lighthouse, photo by Chuck Turk

 

Unique in its size, the Ocracoke Light is also unique in its purpose, built to guide ships into the Ocracoke Inlet, once a busy shipping area when it was the most navigable channel into Pamlico Sound and several important ports on the North Carolina coast.

Built on the highest part of the island, its stationary beam is visible 14 miles and 360 degrees. It’s message, “Here’s the channel. Come here!”

These lighthouses share an important common purpose – to guide – either away or to. Mariners learned to appreciate this guidance, knowing it was for their benefit the lights were built.

 

In the same way, God’s Word guides us – either away from danger or to safety. Shouldn’t we appreciate that guidance as well?

“Your Word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”  Psalm 119:105

 

Preserving Lighthouse Memories – The Lighthouse People

Bob and Sandra Shanklin, The Lighthouse People

If you like lighthouses, you enjoy looking at them. If you have the opportunity, you visit them in person. However, very few people ever get to visit all of them. But thanks to lighthouse photographers, we can still look at pictures of lighthouses in places we’ll never go.

This blog post is about two people who are responsible for many of those pictures. They are “The Lighthouse People.”

In 1987, Bob and Sandra Shanklin began their quest to photograph every lighthouse in the United States. In February, 1999, they reached their goal with a trip to Hawaii. In 2001, they added to their list by photographing the lighthouses of Puerto Rico.

Their mission was exciting, challenging and sometimes dangerous. Operating with a shoestring budget and sometimes sleeping in their car, the Shanklins roamed from the east coast to the west, from the most northern lighthouse in Alaska to the tip of the Florida Keys.

In their own words,

The Lighthouse People at Portland Head, Maine

We’ve trudged down many a trail, high winds blowing, slogged through sand carrying camera bags in hundred-degree temperatures, with bugs biting, Nikons slung around our necks. We’ve waded knee deep on a trail flooded with water from the Hudson River. We’ve gone out on the water in sport boats, crabber’s boats, lobsterman’s boats, rowboats and inflatables. We don’t know how many ferries we have taken.

We’ve flown in twin engine planes, single engine planes, seaplanes and helicopters. We’ve climbed over boulders, hung from tree branches over a cliff and rolled in a mud puddle under a fence.

Why? To photograph a lighthouse.

They’ve visited lighthouses that are no longer standing, and they’ve photographed lighthouses that have been relocated. Their determination brought them to lighthouses they were told were impossible for them to reach. Off the coast of California, they climbed a rocky, guano-covered cliff trying to avoid the nests and overprotective attacks of terns to reach a deteriorating lighthouse at the top.

They flew out several times to photograph a lone lighthouse in the Great Lakes that had been enshrouded with fog for days, making it impossible to photograph. But on their last try, God opened the clouds and let the sun shine down on the lighthouse, giving them a perfect shot.

The Lighthouse People at Kalaupapa Lighthouse, Hawaii

 

Bob and Sandra are no longer photographing lighthouses, but thanks to them, we can see the lighthouses ourselves and we can have our own copies of their pictures. Check out their photos at www.thelighthousepeople.com.

Thanks, Bob and Sandra, for photographing the lights for us!

 

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” Proverbs 16:3

 

 

 

 

The Lighthouse – A Reminder of Freedom’s Victory

 

Sandy Hook Lighthouse, NJ

When the American Revolution began in 1775, there were eleven lighthouses on the coasts of the original thirteen colonies. These lighthouses became targets of control for both armies in order to control the shipping lanes.

The very first lighthouse in the country while under British control was Boston Light, built in 1716 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Other colonies followed suit and also built and operated lighthouses as aids to navigation and commerce.

In 1764, at the entrance to New York Harbor, the 103-foot Sandy Hook lighthouse was built.

But in March of 1776, fear of a British invasion of New York City spurred the Congress of New York to order the Continental Army to extinguish the Sandy Hook beacon and remove its lens. Major William Malcolm and his troops succeeded in making the light inoperable, thus thwarting the tower’s use for the enemy.

However, three months later, British troops had regained control of the tower, rigging a replacement lens to project a beacon for British ships. U.S. sailors retaliated by bombarding the tower in an attempt to extinguish the light again.

Although the light remained in British hands, the tower survived the bombardment and still stands today, bearing evidence of its injuries during the onslaught.

The Boston Light, however, didn’t survive the Revolution. The same month of the Sandy Hook battle, British troops blew up Boston Light. In fact, none of the other remaining nine lighthouses still survive.

Boston Light, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont

 

Of the eleven original colonial lighthouses, only Sandy Hook has survived, making it the oldest lighthouse in America.

Like the country it protects, the lighthouse still stands, proudly showing the scars of battle, yet remaining a historic reminder of freedom’s victory.

Freedom isn’t free. There’s a cost involved, and it is proudly paid by our servicemen and women. Let us never take for granted the freedoms we have that others have paid for.

 

Christ also offers us freedom. Spiritual freedom that He paid for with His own sacrifice. Although we too, face spiritual enemies, none of them can take away the freedom Christ has given us. Let us be forever grateful for his gift of freedom.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Galatians 5:1

A Welcome Sound at the Lighthouse

American Shoal Lighthouse, Florida, photo courtesy lighthousefriends.com

 

Lighthouses were not always the idyllic, romantic locations many have imagined them to be.

Although some of us would welcome the peace and quiet of an isolated lighthouse, to many lighthouse keepers the solitude was depressing, boring and monotonous. Even when the keeper had a spouse or assistant keeper to keep him company, the days could grow long and dreary.

Imagine being on an island so far from the mainland you can’t see it. And what if the only news comes by way of a supply boat every two weeks or a month? Not only are you alone, but you’re also disconnected to what is going on in the rest of the world.

Boon Island Lighthouse, Maine, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont

The lighthouse service tried to alleviate the problem with its traveling libraries of books that passed from one remote lighthouse to another. But the greatest relief against boredom and isolation came in the 1920’s with the introduction of radios, bringing the outside world into the lives of these keepers.

Struggling with a tight budget, the lighthouse service spent its funds on upgrading and maintaining the navigational equipment, so radios were not a priority purchase. But in 1925, a woman in New York heard about the loneliness of light keepers and donated 25 radios to various lighthouses.

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, inspired by the woman’s generosity and a strong believer in personal charity versus government spending, issued an appeal for the public to donate radios to the service. As Hoover wrote, “I don’t know of any other class of shut-ins who are more entitled to such aid.”

The response to Hoover’s plea was outstanding, as nearly 300 radios were donated and distributed to the country’s lighthouses. Now the keepers could be entertained, informed, and even forewarned of impending weather conditions.

A former keeper at American Shoal Lighthouse in Florida wrote that it used to take a month after a presidential election before they knew who had won when they didn’t have a radio. Now, not only could they listen to live events, but they could also listen to ministers preaching and hear the singing. “It’s almost the same as being in church.”

What a comfort it is to know you’re not alone.

“I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20b

Halfway Rock, Maine, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont

The Brightest Lighthouse

Victory Lighthouse, Italy

 

Towering above the city of Trieste, Italy, stands the Faro della Vittoria, the Victory Lighthouse.

The lighthouse was built as a monument to celebrate Italian victory and honor the country’s soldiers who died at sea in World War I. One of the world’s tallest lighthouses, the structure stands 223-foot high. Perched above the bronze cage that houses the light is a copper statue of the winged statue of Victory.

 

Victory Lighthouse, Italy

Claiming to be the most powerful light beam in the world, the light is visible for more than 35 miles across the Gulf of Trieste. Planes have reported seeing its beam 100 miles away.

So what produces such a huge, far-reaching stream of light? A tremendous lantern?

On the contrary, the light is produced by a tiny, four-centimeter light bulb. Yet this 1000-watt halogen bulb is placed inside a reflecting, rotating optic, magnifying its intensity tenfold.

 

The performance of the tiny halogen light bulb brings to mind the childhood song, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.”

As with lighthouses, we should also let our lights shine. It doesn’t matter how large the light is, it can still shine when we let it. How can you let your light shine today?

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

Shine on!

Victory Lighthouse, Italy

A Lighthouse Keeper’s Faithful Companion

Libby Island Lighthouse, Maine

Flash followed Keeper Gleason Colbeth everywhere.

Keeper at Libby Island Light, Maine, Colbeth said his medium brown Irish setter was so intelligent she could almost talk. And being the devoted pet that she was, Flash never let her master out of her sight. If Colbeth went to the 1823 stone lighthouse, Flash was at his side. If the keeper went to the fog signal house, Flash walked behind, trained so her master wouldn’t trip over her in the dark.

True to her breed, Flash was a great retriever. When Keeper Colbeth went bird hunting, Flash fetched the fowl that fell in the water, no matter how rough the sea was. The dog was the keeper’s best friend, and he said his fifty-pound companion served with him at the light, like a canine assistant.

Flash’s loyalty went above and beyond duty, as Colbeth found out one day. The keeper had to go ashore to get the mail and supplies. Colbeth told his assistant keeper to keep Flash in her quarters until enough time had passed for him to reach the mainland, three miles away. While onshore, the keeper spent about three hours running errands before returning to his boat.

What a surprise he had when he saw the boat! Flash was sitting in it, wet and tired, waiting for her master. Obviously, his faithful companion was willing to make great effort to stay with him and be at his side.

Keeper Colbreth later wrote “The old saying is that ‘A dog is man’s best friend,’ but I would rather put it this way – God first, then the wife, then the dog.”

The Bible says there is another who stays by our side. Jesus said, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20 (KJV)

 

 

Isn’t it nice to know we have such a faithful companion?

1960’s postcard of Libby Island Lighthouse

 

This story was found in the book Lighthouses of the Sunrise County, by Timothy Harrison.

Seals and Lighthouses

Angels Gate Lighthouse, CA, photo courtesy lighthousefriends.com

Lighthouse keepers develop a relationship with the sea and learn to appreciate its personality. They also acquire an understanding of the creatures that live within it.

Marine animals can provide food for the keepers, but they can also provide company.

Along the west coast of the United States, lighthouse keepers are very familiar with seals and sea lions.

At Angel’s Gate Lighthouse in California, also known as Los Angeles Harbor Light, the three male keepers welcomed the visit of a seal pup that brought entertainment and delight to their mundane duties. “Charlie,” as they named him, appeared in the engine room of the lighthouse one day, apparently attracted by the refuse the keepers tossed out.

Charlie the Seal and his friends, photo courtesy USCG

Since the Coast Guard allowed pets at lighthouses, the men fed Charlie table scraps and even caught fish for him. Eventually, the little seal followed them everywhere, even into the tower itself.

 

On the remote Farallon Islands some twenty miles from the coast of San Francisco, there are few inhabitants, except when the migrating seal herds appear for their annual visit. During that time, thousands of seals line the shore where they have their young before traveling on.

 

When Keeper Max Schlederer was assigned to the Southeast Farallon Island Lighthouse, he could only communicate with his girlfriend Jackie by writing letters. One night while on duty, Max heard the voice of a crying seal pup. When he found the pup, he realized it had been left behind by the herd because it was blind.

Max took the little seal into the lighthouse and put it into a tub of water. He began to apply poultices and boric acid solutions to the seal’s eyes. The medication worked and the seal regained its eyesight. The baby seal was too young to feed on its own, so the keepers started feeding it, first with bread and milk, then fish and abalone as it grew larger. Oscar must have thought Max was his mother, following him around and even sleeping under the bed in his tub.

Farallon Islands, photo courtesy USCG

Max’s letters to Jackie were filled with stories about Oscar. In one, Max described how he ended up teaching the seal to swim. When Max first put Oscar back into the sea, the seal sank, and Max had to dive in to save it. Thus began swimming lessons as Max showed Oscar what its mother would have taught him.

When Max proposed to Jackie, she eagerly accepted, having been impressed by his kindness and gentleness by the way he cared for Oscar. They married and Jackie moved to the lighthouse with Max. Each spring they watched the seals return and hoped that Oscar, now grown and reunited with the herd, was one of them.

 

 

“The righteous care for the needs of their animals,” Proverbs 12:10

 

 

 

*For more information on this story, see ahttp://www.lighthousedigest.com/Diges...

 

A Lighthouse Mother and Her Castle on the Water

Rondout Creek Lighthouse, NY, courtesy lighthousefriends.com.

Hudson River, NY, 1857

When George Murdock, the keeper at Rondout Creek lighthouse, didn’t return with the supplies, his wife Catherine knew something had happened. Her worries were confirmed when officials from the mainland arrived to tell her he had drowned on his way back to the lighthouse. With a new baby and two small children, Catherine’s life was turned upside down. There was no time to mourn – her children’s survival was her priority.

As Catherine said later, “It was a sore time for me – no one to help, but the light – taking care of that as I had to—did help me bear up. I kept on for a month after the funeral cleaning and tending the lights, and in the winter, after navigation had stopped, some good friends gave me letters and on I went to Washington with this big boy here (pointing to her son James) just a baby in my arms. I wanted to be made lighthouse keeper of Rondout. At first the gentlemen at Washington told me it was impossible, the board didn’t employ women, and besides there was my infant. But I said, ‘Gentlemen, I’m a-going to bring him up to be a lighthouse keeper, and where could he learn it so well as in a lighthouse, and who could teach him better, d’ya think, than his own mother who knows well how to care for the light.’”

Rondout Creek Lighthouse, 1943, photo courtesy USCG

Her persuasive logic won her the post, and she became the lighthouse keeper. Not only did she gain the position, she received a new kitchen range because she told the men in Washington that she needed one.

The wooden lighthouse situated on the Hudson River at the entrance to Rondout Creek, a busy harbor for the export of coal, weathered many severe storms and spring flooding. One storm was so fierce that Catherine said “the house rocked to and fro like a church steeple.” She told of a terrifying night in 1878 when a heavy snowstorm turned to rain, and friends urged her to abandon the lighthouse and go to the mainland, but Catherine wouldn’t leave. “The safety of the lives of many boatmen depend upon the lights being lit in the tower. I will never desert my post of duty.”

Rondout Creek Lighthouse

When the Eddyville dam ruptured upstream, the resulting flood carried away houses, barns, barges, and boats. In the darkness, Catherine heard the sound of rushing water and crash of debris as it went downriver, but she continued to keep the light beaming all night. The next morning she surveyed the disastrous scene, amazed that the lighthouse had sustained little damage. The local newspaper called her home a “waterborne castle,” and so it was, withstanding the onslaught of the flood.

Catherine kept the Rondout Creek Light, both the old wooden one and its stone replacement, for fifty years, the only female keeper at the light. True to her word, her son James became assistant keeper, then principle keeper when she retired.

Who, indeed, could teach him better than his own mother?

Catherine taught her children by her example of hard work and commitment. Instead of giving up, she pursued her position. Instead of accepting the status quo and “no” for an answer, she persuaded the lighthouse authorities to see her value. And instead of permitting fear to weaken her resolve, she persisted in her duty.

Her life illustrated Proverbs 22:6 in the Bible: “Train up a child in the way he should go,

And when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 (NKJV)

She also lived Proverbs 31: 27-28: “She watches over the ways of her household,

And does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed;” (NKJV)

May God shower His blessings on our mothers.

 

For more on this story, see http://lighthousedigest.com/Digest/St....