THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



539 



Ouaddy Head. From there to the south- 

 ern tip of the Florida coast there are 

 scores of beacons of the sea, some with 

 histories that warm the hearts of those 

 thrilled by deeds of heroism. 



The one at Mt. Desert is on a bold 

 promontory where the pounding waves 

 break high, and have been known to lash 

 so fiercely that they moved a rock, esti- 

 mated to weigh 75 tons, a distance of 60 

 feet during the fury of a single storm. 



The Matinicus Light has a thrilling 

 story to tell. Once the sea made a com- 

 plete breach in the rock. Only the 

 women-folk of the keeper's family were 

 there when the storm broke, but little 

 Abbie Burgess, fourteen, and her sisters 

 stood up bravely against Neptune's out- 

 burst, and for four weeks kept the light 

 aglow, although during that entire time 

 there was not a moment when the gov- 

 ernment keeper, their father, could effect 

 a landing from the near-by mainland. 



The Minot Ledge light, standing far 

 out on a lone rock, where the sea rounds 

 Cohasset and speeds into Massachusetts 

 Bay, has a striking history. For three 

 years men worked like Trojans to build 

 a lighthouse upon a barren rock. Its 

 beacon flared forth for the first time Jan- 

 uary 1, 1850. A little more than a year 

 later, in April, 1851, a great gale swept 

 those seas. On the night of the 16th the 

 light was last seen from Cohasset at 10 

 o'clock, and the bell was last heard an 

 hour after midnight. When morning 

 dawned it was gone. 



But that tragedy only temporarily 

 dimmed the light of Minot Ledge. A few 

 years later the government completed the 

 present massive stone structure, ranking 

 among the greatest of the sea-rock light- 

 houses of the world because of the en- 

 gineering difficulties surrounding its erec- 

 tion. A considerable part of the founda- 

 tion was below low water, and landings 

 could be made only at low spring tides 

 in a smooth sea. Work was prosecuted 

 for three years before one stone could 

 be laid upon another. No man who could 

 not swim was employed, and no landing 

 from a boat was attempted except when 

 convoyed by another boat. A surf boat 

 manned with three lifeguards was kept 

 constantly on duty while the workmen 

 were on the ledge. 



THE NANTUCKET LIGHTSHIP 



It would be interesting to recount the 

 stories of Cape Cod light, and of the light- 

 ships that mark the passage through the 

 shoals off Cape Cod and through the 

 sounds to Buzzards Bay. But whoever 

 thinks of lightships, thinks first of Nan- 

 tucket. Mr. George R. Putnam, chief 

 of the Lighthouse Service, in his excel- 

 lent book, "Lighthouses and Lightships 

 of the United States," tells this story of 

 the Nantucket lightship : 



"On a voyage from Europe the weather 

 had been such that the steamer had 

 crossed the Atlantic without the officers 

 having secured a single observation after 

 leaving the Irish coast. A passenger 

 came on deck on a misty evening and 

 heard first faintly, and then louder, the 

 blasts of a steam whistle at regular inter- 

 vals of half a minute. Then through the 

 thin fog a white light eclipsed every quar- 

 ter of a minute, and there soon loomed 

 out of the mist in the dusk a little vessel 

 at anchor, rolling heavily in the swell, 

 with a red hull, and Nantucket in large 

 white letters on her side. 



"The great liner swept by and on 

 toward her port, for then it was that her 

 master had definite knowledge that he 

 was 200 miles east of New York harbor. 

 This lightship, anchored on one of the 

 most exposed stations in the world, has 

 given this message to many thousands of 

 captains and has been the first signpost 

 of America to millions of passengers." 



WITHSTANDING THE} SlEGF, GUNS OP 

 THE SEA 



The Nantucket lightship is anchored in 

 30 fathoms of water, 41 miles from the 

 nearest land, Nantucket Island. She is 

 135 feet long, with full propelling power 

 should she part her cables. She has a 

 crew of 15, a submarine bell, and a wire- 

 less outfit. 



When the sea brings up its siege guns 

 and heavy artillery is the time of all 

 others for the lightship to be on its sta- 

 tion. It must wallow in the trough of 

 the sea as best it can and ride out the 

 storm at a standstill, lest some hapless 

 master get caught in the drumfire of a 

 terrific offensive. 



