Scolt D Taylor 



Bodie Island Lighthouse 



vessels entering the Cape Fear River 

 helped pay for the project. Construc- 

 tion began in 1789. That same year, 

 the legislature proposed a second 

 light at Ocracoke to foster foreign 

 trade. 



But the newly formed federal 

 government saw trade as a national 

 priority, and on Aug. 7, 1789, 

 Congress passed its ninth act, one for 

 the authorization and support of 

 lighthouses, beacons, buoys and 

 public piers. A new Lighthouse 

 Service would locate, oversee — and 

 most importantly — pay for new 

 lighthouses and finish those already 

 under construction. 



In North Carolina, that meant 

 completion of the Cape Fear Light. 



Construction proceeded slowly, 

 but by 1795 a tall, brick tower with an 

 iron lantern and Boston glass burned 

 brightly over the lower Cape Fear. 



Congress next moved the site of 

 the state's second lighthouse from 

 Ocracoke to a nearby barren island 

 made of oyster shells. The Shell 

 Castle Island beacon was lit about 

 1800. 



Scolt D. Taylor 



Currituck Lighthouse 



As America flourished, trade, 

 travel and the safety of both became 

 increasingly important to growth of 

 the new nation. The Lighthouse 



Scolt D. Taylor 



Ocracoke Lighth 



Service finally saw the need to build 

 beacons where navigational hazards, 

 not just commerce, demanded them. 



Since before the mid- 1700s, 

 pilots sailing the East Coast begged 

 for aids to help them navigate by 

 North Carolina's shores, especially 

 Cape Hatteras. Shipwrecks off the 

 Outer Banks, like the Tyrrel, told the 

 story too well. 



On June 28, 1759, the New York 

 brig set sail for Antigua. Fifteen 

 crewmen and a cabin boy steered the 

 boat south until angry squalls three 

 days later tossed the Tyrrel upside 

 down. 



With only one biscuit, a few oars 

 and the rudder, the crew boarded a 

 19-foot lifeboat. By nightfall they 

 drifted — lost — off North Carolina's 

 coast. Twenty-three days later, a 

 passing ship found the boat off 

 Marblehead, Mass. Only Thomas 

 Purnell, the brig's first mate, sur- 

 vived. 



A towering light at Cape Hatteras 

 could have changed the Tyrrel' s fate. 

 The crew drifted so close to shore the 

 first night that a beacon could have 



EVEN THE LIGHT OF DAY 

 DIDN'T KEEP SHIP 

 CAPTAINS FROM 

 RUNNING AGROUND 

 ON SHALLOW SHOALS, 

 WHERE THEY WERE AT THE 

 MERCY OF THE OCEAN'S 



POUNDING WAVES. 

 AND NIGHT WAS EVEN 

 MORE PERILOUS; THE 

 ONLY WARNING OF 

 IMPENDING DANGER WAS 

 THE CRASHING BREAKERS. 



4 MAY/JUNE 1993 



