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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



SKETCH MAP SHOWING THE} LOCATION OF NAVASSA LIGHT 

 HOUSE AND THE UNMARKED SHOALS OE THE CARIBBEAN 



Coral reefs and islets above water are shown by solid line, sub- 

 merged rocks and shoals by dotted line 



express and high-class traffic, and sail- 

 ing vessels and tows are not permitted 

 to use it. 



WHERE OCEAN TRAEEIC LINES CONVERGE 



The great increase in the shipping in- 

 terests of this country and the building 

 of the Panama Canal have attracted at- 

 tention to a large area which is poorly 

 provided with safety signals for naviga- 

 tion. The Caribbean Sea, once known 

 to fame mainly by the exploits of the 

 early buccaneers, is now a region where 

 ocean traffic converges from north, east, 

 and south toward the Panama Canal. 



The northwestern part of this sea is 

 strewn with rocks, coral reefs, and sub- 

 merged dangers, unlighted and unmarked, 



a constant menace to 

 shipping from New 

 Orleans and the 

 Gulf, which must 

 pass through lanes 

 between the reefs, 

 and from New York 

 and the North Atlan- 

 tic coast, which must 

 go close to several of 

 these dangers. 



On one of these 

 dangers, Navassa Is- 

 land, 600 miles north 

 of Colon, the first 

 signal for the Pan- 

 ama Canal" has re- 

 cently been placed. 

 On this barren and 

 uninhabited rock the 

 United States Light- 

 house Service has 

 built a lighthouse of 

 unusual type. 



The main route to 

 the canal from our 

 Atlantic seaboard is 

 between Cuba and 

 Haiti, through the 

 Windward Passage, 

 and Navassa Island, 

 lying between Haiti 

 and Jamaica, marks 

 the southern a p- 

 proach to this pas- 

 sage, and is the first 

 landfall for vessels 

 from Panama cross- 

 ing the Caribbean Sea. The importance 

 of its position with respect to shipping 

 to and from the canal caused the United 

 States to undertake the building of a 

 light station of the first class on this in- 

 hospitable rock. 



NEW light 



SWEEPS AN AREA 

 AS DELAWARE 



AS LARGE 



After many difficulties of construction, 

 due to the inaccessibility and character 

 of the island, on October 21, 1917, the 

 light was first shown from the new con- 

 crete tower. Every night since then two 

 beams of 47,000 candlepower have swept 

 around the horizon each 30 seconds with 

 clocklike regularity. Instead of a dark 

 rock, which had loomed in the night in 



