Vol. XXIV, No. 1 



WASHINGTON 



January, 1913 



ft 



THE 



ATHONAIL 



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BEACONS OF THE SEA 



Lighting the Coasts of the United States 

 By George R. Putnam, Commissioner of Lighthouses 



THE sea-coast line under the ju- 

 risdiction of the United States is 

 48,881 statute miles, measured in 

 three-mile steps. The general govern- 

 ment provides lighthouses and other aids 

 to navigation along all this coast, with 

 the exception of the Philippine Islands, 

 11,511 miles, and Panama, where the 

 marking of the coasts is maintained by 

 the local governments. In addition, the 

 L'nited States provides lights along the 

 American shores of the Great Lakes, 

 4,020 miles, and on interior and coastal 

 rivers, 5,478 miles. 



The United States Lighthouse Service 

 thus maintains lights and other aids to 

 navigation along 46.828 miles of coast- 

 line and river channels, a length equal 

 to nearly twice the circumference of the 

 earth. In this distance it has 12,82^ aids 

 to navigation of all classes, sufficient to 

 place one every two miles around the 

 equator. 



In respect to territory covered and 

 aids maintained, it is much the most ex- 

 tensive service of its kind under a single 

 management. There are 1.462 lights 

 above the order of river-post lights, and 

 there are 762 lights having resident 

 keepers. 51 light-vessel stations, and 438 

 lighted buoys. The total lighted aids of 

 all kinds is 4,516. There are in all 933 

 fog signals, of which 510 are fog-signal 

 stations, 43 submarine bells, 124 whist- 



ling buoys, and 256 bell buoys. There 

 are 6,281 unlighted buoys, and 1,474 

 da}marks, or unlighted beacons. There 

 are also 516 private aids to navigation, 

 maintained at private expense, but under 

 government supervision. 



This service is carried on through an 

 organization of 19 districts, under a cen- 

 tral office in Washington. Each district 

 is in charge of a lighthouse inspector 

 and has a local office and one or more 

 supply depots and lighthouse tenders. 

 In all, there are 46 of these small vessels 

 which carry the supplies to the stations 

 and place and maintain the buoys and 

 light vessels. 



About 5,500 men are required for the 

 lighthouse work, of whom 211 are in 

 the executive, engineering, and clerical 

 force, 1.733 ^^'^ keepers of lights and de- 

 l)ots, 1.570 care for ]:)OSt lights, 1,516 are 

 on vessels, and 489 are in the construc- 

 tion and repair force. 



The entire personnel is under the civil- 

 service rules, and appointments and pro- 

 motions are on a strictly merit system. 

 This is of great importance for the main- 

 tenance of good organization and rigid 

 discipline in a purely technical service, 

 on the efficient conduct of which is di- 

 rectly dependent, the safety of p.11 the 

 lives and all the property carried on the 

 seas and the navigable waters of this 

 country. 



