Duty on the lightships wasn't all hardships. 

 "You were able to eat better than any other branch of service," says 

 Floyd. "We ordered food, and a cook prepared it. We had an open galley." 



Some of the lightships, including #115 Frying Pan, have led 

 remarkable lives. 



While docked at an oyster cannery in the Chesapeake Bay, Frying 

 Pan was abandoned and then sunk because of a broken pipe, according 

 to the Lightship Frying Pan Web site. The lightship stayed underwater for 

 three years before being raised by salvors. Instead of going to the scrap 



yard, she was raised, resold 

 and towed to Manhattan's Pier 

 63 within the new Chelsea 

 Waterside Park. Frying Pan is 

 now being used for parties and 

 special events. 



"The owners left a lot of 

 the encrusted interior," says 

 Allen, who toured the boat. "It 

 is kinda spooky to go on it. It is 

 used as a nightclub." 



LIGHT TOWERS 



To save on manpower and construction and maintenance costs, the 

 Coast Guard began replacing the lightships in the 1960s with Texas-style 

 light towers that looked like offshore oil platforms and navigational buoys. 



In 1964, a light tower at Frying Pan Shoals was erected. Two years 

 later, a similar structure was built at Diamond Shoals. 



The Frying Pan light tower — which was automated in 1979 — was 

 erected at the end of the shoals so ships could pick up radio signal and 

 avoid them. 



Allen, along with a crew of five, served on the Frying Pan light tower 

 from 1 977 to 78. They rotated between tower and land duty. 



Crewmen served four weeks on the tower and two weeks off. They 

 rode out to the tower on a 44-foot boat from the Oak Island Coast Guard 

 Station, or on the 82-foot Point Martin out of Wrightsville Beach. On a few 

 occasions, a helicopter would fly them out to the tower. 



Pilings for the tower sank 200 feet through shell and sand to anchor it 

 to the ocean bottom. Its legs extended from a depth of 50 feet underwater to 

 the living deck 80 feet high over the water line. 



"In the summer, you could see the bottom for 50 feet," says Allen. 

 "The Gulf Stream would run under the tower. Every once in a while, you 

 would see a turtle go by." 



Allen also encountered birds that would fly into the tower at night, 

 slamming into the windows. "One night, we found 138 birds that had 

 rammed into the tower, and some had beat the feathers off their heads." 



Allen says the scariest job was cleaning the windows. "You had to 

 stand on a top rail to clean the glass," he says. "It was fine if you didn't look 

 down." 



Life at sea often brought unexpected requests, says Allen. 



One time, he says, a tug with a 1 ,000-foot tow on a barge came by. 

 "The ship was supposed to pull into Savannah, but had to stay out to sea 

 due to adverse weather near the port," adds Allen. "They had elected to 

 head up to the next port in New York. But because of missing the port in 

 Savannah, they had run out of cigarettes and asked for help." 



The light tower crew got together cigarettes that were double wrapped 

 in plastic bags, tied to a couple of empty plastic milk jugs and dropped over 

 the side, says Allen. 



"The tug made three or four figure eights to try and recover the ciga- 

 rettes but never got them," he adds. 



When Allen had nothing to do, he would play with two cats named 

 Bacon and Eggs. 



"One time, I was looking out the engine room during a 45-mile-per- 

 hour squall," he says. "One of the cats had climbed on the inside of the 

 I-beam used for the hoist and was 90 feet over the water. The cat was stand- 

 ing on the narrow 1/2-inch ledge and looking around at the end of the hoist 

 into the wind like a dog sticking his head out of the window of a pickup 

 truck going down the highway." 



To pass the time, Allen also would shoot pool in the small recreation 

 room, watch television, or fish with a piece of hotdog as bait. 



"One time, I caught a 20-pound bluefish and had to pull the fish up 80 

 feet from the water to the living quarters." 



Allen plans to take another trip to the tower before it is demolished. 



"I have a lot of good memories," he says. "I watched the sun come up 

 a lot out here." Q 



To find weather data about Frying Pan Shoals, visit the Web: www. 

 ndbc.noaa.gov. For more infoimation on lightships, click on: www.uscg. 

 mil/hq/g.cp/history. 



TOWER TRIPS 



This summer, Carolina Ocean Studies is offering several 

 "farewell" trips to the Frying Pan Shoals tower aboard the 

 S.S. Winner Queen, an 85-foot, 110-passenger catamaran. 

 The excursion includes deep-sea fishing and discussions on 

 the edge of the Gulf Stream. Tentative dates are: July 25 and 

 Aug. 29. All trips are subject to weather. 



For more information, call 91 0/458-7302. — A.G. 



COASTWATCH 



