^i«KOs' 



& 

 ^ 



posed of two stations of historic 

 interest, the front-range hght be- 

 ing on Kort Sumter and the rear 

 light in the beautiful spire of St. 

 Philips Church (see page 30). 



LIGHTHOUSE DISASTERS AND 

 PERILS 



Many are the vicissitudes and 

 tragedies that are connected with 

 lighthouse history. Mention has 

 been made of the destruction by 

 storm of the first Eddy stone and 

 the first Minots Ledge lights, with 

 the loss of all the keepers, and of 

 the fact that the first Boston light 

 was burned and finally blown up, 

 incident to the operations of war 

 (see pages 4 and 7). 



The danger of , fire is great. 

 There is a quaint report by Jesse 

 Tay, inspector of customs, of the 

 burning on November 7, 1792, of 

 Tybee lighthouse, the first built in 

 Georgia : "About 2 o'clock in the 

 morning the negro that trimed the 

 lites went up to trim them and he 

 discovered the lanthorn in flames 

 he cry'd out the litehouse was on 

 fier i jump'd up and run up Stairs 

 . . . the glass and sinders was 

 fawling so thick and it was so 

 very hot i was not able to tarry 

 half a moment and i saw it was in 

 vain to attempt to save it." 



Lighthouses are sometimes un- 

 dermined by the encroachment of 

 the sea. From this cause three 

 successive towers have been built 

 at Cape Charles, Virginia. The 

 first was constructed in 1827, 700 

 feet from the then shoreline ; this 

 was abandoned in 1863, and the 

 whole site has now been washed 

 into the sea. 



The second was built in 1864, 

 also about 700 feet from the 

 shore, but the sea continued to 

 encroach until this now stands on 

 the edge of the water. 



The present lighthouse was built 

 in 1895, about 3,600 feet from the 

 shore, and is an iron cylinder 9 

 feet in diameter, surrounded and 

 braced by an iron framework. 

 This light flashes "45" every min- 

 ute, four flashes in succession, fol- 



28 



