Absecon Lighthouse: Atlantic City's First Landmark

Atlantic City, New Jersey has changed a lot since I was girl and drove there every few weeks in summer to swim, sun, and walk up and down its famous boardwalk. Back then, the big casinos and mega-hotels were yet to be built. The steel pier was known for Dick Clark and his "American Bandstand," and the Miss America Pageant was held in the city. Driving down Pacific Avenue, you could easily see Absecon Lighthouse, a landmark in the city since the 1850s.

Today, Atlantic City looks more like a mini-Las Vegas. You'll need a GPS to find the Absecon Lighthouse near the intersection of Pacific Avenue and Rhode Island Avenue, and it doesn't come into view until your car is almost upon it. But I'm glad to report the lighthouse looks much better than it did years ago, even in the 1960s when I first saw it. It's loved and protected today and venerated for its beauty and its long history as a beacon for the city.

 

Atlantic City as seen at night, by Ron Miguel for Wikimedia Commons. No wonder Absecon Lighthouse was deactivated! How would a mariner find it in this glare of lights?

The Atlantic City Coastal Museum opened the lighthouse as a museum in 1979, after it was deactivated. The Coast Guard was looking to close budget loopholes, and a lighthouse beacon upstaged by the bright lights of casinos and hotels was of little use to the mariner. Ships easily recognized Atlantic City from sea as first a loom and then a glare of light! Hidden in all the glitzy glare was Absecon Lighthouse.

So the light station was closed and given to the city. Volunteers got to work refurbishing the place. The tower was spruced up and painted, and a brand new replica of the keepers' quarters was almost ready to be opened as a museum when disaster struck. It happened on July 6, 1998--seventeen years ago today. A police officer patrolling the city in the early morning hours noticed flames coming from the new keepers' dwelling. He reacted immediately, but not before the fire raged through the dwelling and destroyed it.

An investigation pointed to arson. The Absecon Lighthouse Committee, in charge of the project, mourned the loss the new dwelling...but not for long. An insurance settlement allowed them to start over again, and the dwelling was rebuilt and finished in 2001. In the meantime, the tower (it escaped fire damage) was opened for tours. The grand opening of the rebuilt dwelling took place in October 2001.

A bit of history--
Absecon Lighthouse takes it name from the island hunting grounds of Absegami, as the present-day area around Atlantic City was called by the Lenni-Lenape when Henry Hudson passed by in 1609. The name means little water.

Absecon had a busy seaport by 1776. When Dr. Jonathan Pitney arrived and made his home on the island in the 1820s, he began touting the place as healthful and encouraged people to come for vacations and recuperation from illness. Tourists began flocking to Absecon. Pitney urged Congress to approve funding to build a lighthouse at Absecon, but it wasn't until the Camden-Atlantic Railroad connected the island with Philadelphia that the government got serious about a lighthouse.

Absecon Lighthouse was completed in 1856 and lighted on January 15, 1857. It was the first lighthouse completed by the new U.S. Lighthouse Board. Several noted engineers worked on the handsome brick lighthouse, including George G. Meade (he later led Union forces at Gettysburg). When inaugurated it was the tallest lighthouse in New Jersey. It still is.

At 178-feet tall, it's stately indeed, and certainly majestic for its time. Composed of over 500,000 bricks it has a 228-step spiral staircase and for all of its active career exhibited a first-order lens made in Paris. Two homes for the keepers stood beside the tower. They were later expanded to allow a third keeper to reside on the site and help with the work.

But nature, in the unpredictable way she works, soon began changing the shoreline. The tower stood 1,400-feet back from sea when it was built. Slowly, sand was stolen away by the waves until high tides encroached on the lighthouse property. To remedy the situation, several short jetties and one long jetty were constructed. These not only slowed the erosion, they eventually reversed it! Sand piled up and enlarged the island, leaving the lighthouse a considerable distance from the tideline.

In the meantime, the U.S. Lighthouse Board wavered on what the tower's daymark should be. Over the years, it has worn bands of yellow, orange, and blue. Today it sports a dark blue and white banded pattern.

As throngs of beachgoers invaded Atlantic City every summer, visitors began coming to the lighthouse asking for tours. In 1922, for example, 117 people climbed the tower in a single day. The lighthouse became somewhat of a showplace, with pretty gardens and everything kept shipshape by its three keepers. There was no fog signal to tend, but there was plenty of work to do maintaining the place for the public and guiding visitors up and down the tower. The lighthouse earned the nickname "Eiffel Tower of the Atlantic."

 

Absecon Lighthouse keeper Frank Adams on the lantern gallery with a guest, possibly the district inspector. The photo is dated September 1914 and is courtesy of Jim Claflin.

Today the lighthouse is owned by the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection Division of Parks & Forestry. It is open to the public 10:00-5:00 daily in July and August (until 8:00 pm on Thursdays) and 11:00-4:00 Thursday through Monday the rest of the year.

Lots of fun events are held throughout the year, including weddings, full moon tours, and holiday fun. Check with www.abseconlighthouse.org for more information.

I especially love this part of the website: http://www.abseconlighthouse.org/members/. It honors all the hard workers who keep this lighthouse in good shape and open to the public!

Photo at the beginning is from Wikimedia Commons.

The Lighthouse Keeper and the Mermaid

 

 



One stormy, starless, Stygian night,

The lightkeeper sat beneath his light

Reading a tale in the warm watch-room,

Safe from wind and waves and gloom.

 

T'was a story of sailors long at sea,

Of fishwives, sirens, and green Selkies;

As the pages turned and the hours passed,

He heard the ocean tempest crash!

 

 

But with the dawn the wind died down,

The sea grass stilled, waves ceased to pound;

The keeper extinguished his yellow beam—

He fell asleep and dreamed a dream…

 

Into his slumbers swam a plump seal

With the face of a woman that looked so real,

He could not resist that briny coquette;

He tried to snare her in his net!

 

But she was slick and slipped away

To her home in the coral of a lonely cay;

The keeper followed her down, down, deep,

To her quiet, pelagic palace keep.

 

 

 

 

She fed him sandwiches of kelp and clams,

She offered him squid-cakes and seaweed jams!

She combed his beard with a coral sprig,

And then she danced a fishy jig!

 

"I'll marry you!" the lightkeeper said,

"To a pretty fishwife I shall be wed!"

The mermaid nodded, gave her tail a swish:

"Dear husband to be, then give me a kiss!"

 

But as they kissed at the bottom of the sea,

The keeper awoke from his reverie;

And found in his arms a less tempting pearl—

His big fat dog instead of the girl!

 

 

By Elinor DeWire

 

Excerpted from Lighthouse Victuals & Verse, 1996

 

 



New Jersey Lighthouse Society Celebrates 25 Years!

There are so many lighthouse groups around the United States and the world, and all of them do good work. One of the earliest groups in the United States was the New Jersey Lighthouse Society, which formed on June 24, 1990 as a chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society. The group is 25 years old today, June 24, 2015, and now operates as an independent 501c3 organization.

The first meeting of the NJLHS (New Jersey Lighthouse Society) was held at the Atlantic County Library in Mays Landing. There were nineteen members in the original group. Today, there are many, many more. This active society has accomplished a great deal in its 25 years, educating the public and fostering preservation efforts at Garden State lighthouses.

The society's original logo featured Sandy Hook Lighthouse, the oldest standing, operative lighthouse in the United States. The Sandy Hook Lighthouse was commissioned in 1764. (Note the postcard below says 1762. The lighthouse was still not illuminated at that time.) Last June 2014 it celebrated 250 years of service to mariners. The society's current logo, shown above, still features the historic Sandy Hook Lighthouse.

There are about a dozen lighthouses in New Jersey. You'll find a variety of architectural styles, from the old octagonal stone tower at Sandy Hook to the twin lighthouses at Navesink. Hereford Inlet Lighthouse is a handsome carpenter gothic lighthouse; only a few of this style were built in the United States, most in California. Barnegat, Absecon, and Cape May lighthouses are tall conical brick towers, fun to climb and with fabulous views from the top. Sea Girt and East Point lighthouses are both house-top towers. (Who wouldn't like a lighthouse on top of their house?) The Finn's Point and Tinicum lights are iron-pile towers with central stair cylinders and tubular legs.

 Above--Absecon Lighthouse

Below--Navesink Twin Lights

 

 

 

Above--Tinicum Rear Range Lighthouse

Below--East Point Lighthouse

 

 

 

Above--Hereford Inlet Lighthouse

 

Below--Cape May Lighthouse

 

 



The society produces a newsletter and holds regular meetings around the state. Most New Jersey lighthouses are easily accessible, and many operate as museums. The society website offers much information for travelers and people interested in history and lore. I visited the website today and was glad to find some trivia questions and a matching game. There are special tours to lighthouses outside New Jersey. This month, for example, the group is going to Michigan. Also, you can get a souvenir postal cover of the Sandy Hook Lighthouse's 250th celebration for a mere $2.00! Go to the website (address below) and find out how to get one.

 

From www.njlhs.org

I think the most notable accomplishment of the New Jersey Lighthouse Society was the creation of the first "lighthouse challenge," an autumn weekend of fun for the public visiting New Jersey's lighthouses. Many other groups have copied this event, which seems fine with the NJLHS. They're simply glad to share a good idea!

I was a special guest at one of the challenges. Hereford Inlet Lighthouse invited me to sit at a table on their back porch, meet challenge participants, and sign my books. It was a glorious day, the gardens at the lighthouse were still in bloom, and many people came to share in the fun. I enjoyed meeting all of them! Here are some images taken that day--

Lighthouse fan, Tom Bodall, bought a book and asked me to sign it, then asked my husband to take our picture. Tom posted this image online. It remains one of my favorite fan photos.

 

Another visitor showed me her fancy lighthouse fingernails!

 

NJLHS is a terrific organization. If you'd like to learn more, join the group, attend a meeting or trip, or volunteer to help out with the society's work, go to their website at www.njlhs.org or email them at njlhs@njlhs.org. The next society meeting is this Saturday, June 27th at 10:00 a.m. at Maurice River Township Elementary School, 3593 Route 47, Port Elizabeth, NJ 08348. The public is always welcome at meetings, which usually include a speaker, refreshments, displays, and souvenirs to purchase. This Saturday's meeting includes a talk on East Point Lighthouse and a silent auction, followed by a tour of East Point Lighthouse. What fun! I used to attend the meetings regularly when I lived in Connecticut, just a few hours drive from my home. (It's a bit more difficult to go now that I live in the Pacific NW.)

 

Sandy Hook on its 250th birthday! From www.njlhs.org

If you haven't yet visited the Garden State lighthouses, plan to go. The NJLHS has done a fabulous job saving their lighthouses and educating us about them. Congratulations to these hardworking people on 25 years of service!

Lighthouse Blunders

Do you notice anything unusual about the card above? If you know a little about lighthouses, then you'll quickly see the lighthouse pictured is not on Cape Cod; rather, it's Portland Head Lighthouse in Maine. This is typical of the blunders made by advertisers, giftware makers, and public affairs people when it comes to images of lighthouses.

If they only knew how "bright" we lighthouse folks are, they'd be more careful in choosing what they print or make!

Here's a lighthouse blunder on a souvenir plate from Bermuda. There isn't a lighthouse in the Bermuda Islands that looks like this one. Giftware companies are so enamored of that Cape Hatteras, North Carolina look! I have to admit, it is prettier than the plain white Gibbs Hill Lighthouse in Bermuda. But St. Davids Lighthouse, Bermuda is quite fetching, with its red and white bands. I think I would have featured that one.

 

 

This one is downright amusing. The Nubble Light at Cape Neddick, Maine is one of the most famous lighthouses in the United States and a favorite with photographers. You'd think the Hassan Cigarette Company could have gotten it right in 1910 when they made a set of collectors' card for cigarette packs. Compare the card with the snowy image below it, and you'll wonder how the artist came up with such a rendering.

 

 

 

 

The postcard printer who made the c1900 card of St. Augustine Lighthouse below was a bit off-color, no pun intended. The spiral stripes should be black and white, not brown-red and white. And the lantern should be bright red. I also believe the proper name is St. Augustine Lighthouse, not Anastasia Lighthouse (Anastasia Island is where it stands), but now I'm nitpicking.

 

 

 

These campaign buttons for George Bush feature Portland Head Lighthouse, Maine--a popular image, despite the victory city of Austin, Texas and three counties in Ohio printed on the buttons. Both Texas and Ohio have plenty of lighthouses of their own.

 

 

 

The postcard below, touting a good time on Martha's Vineyard, features the iconic shark of the "Jaws" movies....and a red and white spiral striped lighthouses. I've seen lighthouses kind of like this one in the Netherlands and also in Lake Michigan....kinda. There's no lighthouse like this anywhere on Martha's Vineyard. Hmmmm.



 



I know of no lighthouse in New York that looks like the one pictured below. It's a little like Fire Island Lighthouse on Long Island, without black and white bands and standing in the sea, not on land. I think someone at this postcard company needed a quick reference and used an image of England's Eddystone Lighthouse.

And then there are Hollywood lighthouse images! Check out the three lighthouses used for posters of the movie "Captain January," starring the late Shirley Temple. The Captain, played by Guy Kibbee, must have had frequent transfers with the lighthouse service. He started at a generic lighthouse modeled after Minot's Ledge, then moved to the West Coast to Old Point Loma Lighthouse in California, and finally, he was transferred to Portland Head Lighthouse, Maine. So which one did little Star visit? All three? (I have an original copy of the 1890 book Captain January by Laura E. Richards, and she says he was keeper of Light Island Lighthouse in Maine. It's a fictional lighthouse Down East.)

 

 

 

A final faux pas I'll share goes to the Canadian postal service. In 2008 they produced a stamp featuring Pachena Point Lighthouse on Vancouver Island. When Canadian lighthouse fans and the Pachena Point lightkeepers saw it, they gasped. The lighthouse scene was backwards! Below you see the original stamp on the left. The orientation of the tower and house is correct on the right. I'm told a red-faced Canadian postal service artist quickly fixed the error, and the stamps were reprinted. But....if you happened to have purchased some of the original Pachena Point Lighthouse stamps, with the scene shown backwards, they're worth some money!

 



 



Do you have any lighthouse blunders to share?

A Lighthouse for the Rats!

The first lighthouse built in Western Australia was illuminated on this day, June 1. The year was 1851, and the lighthouse was on Rottnest Island, about 11 miles west of the mainland city of Freemantle. The island was both a hazard and a seamark for ships bound for Fremantle and the Swan River Colony, now known as Perth.

Rottnest was the name given to the island by Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh in 1696 when he stopped there and found a large population of rat-like creatures. He called the place Rottnest, which means "Rats-Nest." The animals actually were native marsupials called Quokkas. They are, as evidenced by the Wikimedia Commons photo below by Sean Mack, much cuter than rats!

 

A 15-foot-tall white obelisk served as a daymark on Rottnest Island before a lighthouse was built. The first lighthouse was begun in the early 1840s, built of stone, quarried locally from Nancy Cove. A prison for Aborigines, mainly the Nyoongar people, had been established on the island a few years earlier, and convict labor was used in the construction of the lighthouse. It was built on Wadjemup Hill, the highest elevation on the island. Many old sources refer to it as Wadjemup Lighthouse. Wadjemup translates to "place across the water." Today, it goes by Rottnest Lighthouse or the Rottnest Main Light.

 

Although completed in 1849, the lighthouse was not illuminated for almost two years because not all of the equipment for the light had been delivered. In the meantime, a keeper was hired to look after the place and operate a set of signal flags that announced the impending arrival of ships in Freemantle. A series of observers relayed the flag information ashore to Arthur Head at Fremantle, and a pilot was dispatched to help the ship get into the port. There was quite a lot of competition in town waiting to provision the ships, unload cargo, and entertain sailors, so early notification was important for businesses as well.

 

In 1851, the clockworks for the revolving light finally arrived and the illuminating apparatus went into service on the night of June 1. Coconut oil was used as fuel for the lamps. It produced a beam visible 16 miles.

 

A Notice to Mariners was issued shortly before the lighthouse was inaugurated: "...a light has been established on Rottnest Island---a revolving estopric [sic] light will be exhibited from a tower near the center of Rottnest Island after June 1, 1851 [anniversary of the colony on Rottnest] from sunset to sunrise---white stone tower 53 feet high with lantern 11 foot high superimposed, 2 groups of 3 powerful lamps, the whole apparatus revolving once in 2 minutes and showing a flash of light 5 seconds in duration once a minute...center of light 197 feet above high water mark seen in clear weather 7 leagues."

 

A first-order lens was installed in 1881. But the Government of the colony at the time felt the lighthouse was outdated. Plans and funding were secured for a new lighthouse. Another lighthouse was in the works at Cape Leeuwin, where the Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean converge off Western Australia. Its engineers, William Douglas and C.Y. O'Connor, also designed and built the new Wadjemup Lighthouse. It stood 127-feet tall and had a first-order flashing Chance Brothers lens. The photo below, from the Rottnest Island Authority, shows the old lighthouse and new lighthouse on dedication day March 17, 1896.

 

 

 

 

The 1896 lighthouse is the one that stands at Rottnest Island's Wadjemup Hill today. (Photo above by Djanga for Wikimedia Commons.) The original tower and keeper's dwelling are gone, replaced by the newer ones. The tower has been updated several times and is electrified, but the first-order lens remains in place. The buildings have been repurposed for research and exhibits.

 

Another younger lighthouse stands guard on Bathurst Point on the east end of Rottnest Island. It's keepers' quarters are rented to vacationers.

 

I visited Rottnest Island in 2000 and was fortunate to have a private tour of the island, courtesy of the one of the reserve rangers, Peggy Webb. (The island is now a public reserve for wildlife and culture and there is no vehicular traffic permitted, except by bicycle, park shuttle-bus, or the on-duty ranger's jeep. I got a ride with her--thanks Peggy!!) Western Australians affectionately call the island Rotto. It is one of the most popular tourists spots in Western Australia.

 

On my tour of the island, I met some Quokkas, who were eating potato chips from a visitors hand. (Bad idea to make them moochers. Peggy scolded him!) I photographed and climbed both lighthouses, and I enjoyed a glorious day of sunshine and cool breezes. Ranger  Peggy warned me about poisonous snakes on the island called dugites. Thank goodness I didn't meet any of those!

 

To end the visit, I had a late lunch at the visitor center café with Peggy Webb and the others in my party, including my husband, Jon.  The day was clear enough that I could see the taller buildings of Fremantle in the distance, namely the Dingo Feed silo at the shipping terminal, and beyond that I could just barely make out the hazy outline of the skyscrapers of Perth.

 

Below is a shot of me looking up at the beautiful Bathurst lens. (Photo by Jonathan DeWire) Unfortunately, this is one of the few print photos from my trip that got scanned, else I'd have more in this blog entry.

 

 

Back in Fremantle, my friend Pauline O'Brien (an Aussie lighthouse expert) took me to several places where I found additional information on the history of the lighthouses. She also took to me to the town cemetery where I photographed one of the graves of a Wadjemup Lighthouse keeper. The highlight of that jaunt were the pink and white parrots in the trees of the cemetery!

 

After returning home to the United States, I gathered together my research and pictures on the Rottnest Island lighthouses and wrote an article for the U.S. Lighthouse Society's Keepers Log. It appeared in the Summer 2002 issue and then was reprinted by the World Lighthouse Society in one of their newsletters. It is a much longer, more in-depth look at Rottnest Island's history and its lighthouses. I have plans to put it in an eBook soon. I'll post the cover when it becomes available.

 

 

 



 

 

 



Counting Lighthouse Coups

"How many lighthouses have you seen/visited/photographed/climbed?"

It's a question I often get at book signings and talks, from interviewers, and from friends who visit my house and see the endless profusion of lighthouse stuff in my office. I have a penchant for babbling on and on about lighthouses in my PowerPoint programs and delivering information in an authoritative manner (though I would never claim to be an authority on anything). People feel I must keep count of all the lighthouses I've seen. How else could I talk nonstop?

My answer to the "how many?" question is simple. I don't know how many lighthouses I have seen/visited/photographed/climbed. I stopped counting shortly after 500.

I used to keep a notebook of my lighthouse trips and a list of the lighthouses I saw on those travels. That was back in my scrapbooking days in the 1970s, when lighthouse hunting was more of a hobby and not part of my occupation. Then, I began adding notes to the list. The scrapbooks quickly became an unruly collection of sticky notes of every color, photos, slides, and postcards, brochures, and handouts picked up at lighthouses. At some point, probably around 1985, I stopped keeping scrapbooks of lighthouse travel and transferred the materials into file folders in a file cabinet. Scrapbooking had evolved into researching and writing. Today, I have multiple cabinets and crates full of files on individual lighthouses and lighthouse topics. If my house caught fire, there's plenty of paper in those cabinets and crates to fuel the blaze!

But back to that "how many?" question--
I have friends who keep count of the lighthouses they've seen. They'll gladly respond to the question at the beginning of this blog. They'll tell you exactly: "I've visited 489" or "922" or "1,067." "I've seen every lighthouse in Florida!" "I've photographed all the lighthouses in New Jersey!" "I've seen more lighthouses than Carters has liver pills!" And on and on it goes.

I call this pharologic tracking "Counting Lighthouse Coups." It can get obsessive, sometimes comically so. It can get competitive, as in who has seen he most? We love to claim a superlative. It's a human thing to do.

The proof is in the selfie!! Yes, I've visited both lighthouses at Cape Henry, VA.

There are a number of ways to count lighthouse coups. Just deciding what a lighthouse is factors into the process.
I have some friends who claim they've visited every lighthouse in the United States. Of course a declaration like this spurs much discussion about what, exactly, qualifies as a lighthouse. Did they visit that fiberglass pole on a concrete base with a solar-powered, automatic beacon on top? How about the steel framework light tower that gets confused with one handling big power lines? Then there are tripod lights on rivers and Texas Towers standing in the sea and foundations of defunct lighthouses with pole beacons mounted on them. And there are faux lighthouses, built for decoration. Did they visit those too? Is a lighthouse defined by function or appearance?

Another friend says a lighthouse visit is not a visit unless you get close enough to touch the lighthouse. Mega-zoom lenses that resemble Daboll trumpet foghorns can capture a lighthouse a few miles away, but does that count for a visit?

 

Another says you have to climb a lighthouse to say you've truly visited it. She'll bargain, beg, and sell off all her possessions to get inside a lighthouse and climb to the top. And, she's managed to climb MANY. Go Lighthouse Pixie!

In my experience, counting lighthouse coups began as a hobby and evolved by necessity. I have quite a large collection of lighthouse models--Scassis, Harbour Lights, Goebel, Danbury Mint, Spoontique, Lefton, you-name-it. I have plates, mugs, magnets, jigsaw puzzles, posters, postcards, snow globes, blankets, pillows, greeting cards, paintings, and more....too much more! At first I only collected these items if they featured lighthouses I had visited. Soon, gifts came my way at talks, book signings, at Christmas, Mother's Day, and on my birthday, all in the form of lighthouses. Many of these I had not visited; my collection of lighthouse memorabilia ballooned. (In fact, I had to give away much of it in 2002 when I moved from Connecticut to Washington. Otherwise, the relocation would have required several moving trucks! My lighthouse book collection? I never give any of it away unless I have multiple copies of titles.)

Collections can get out hand. They cost money, need organization, need space, need storage, need dusting. When they grow large, we must inventory; otherwise, we end up duplicating. "Oh, I already had six of that postcard!" I've confined my lighthouse collection to my office and storage spaces around my house. There's a large, heavy box in my crawlspace with about 300 lighthouse mugs in it. Another has a large plate collection. A third is full of lighthouse Christmas ornaments. It's all rather silly, I think these days, now that I'm officially a senior citizen---a latent expression of primeval hunting and gathering urges gone wild!

At some point I decided that if I wrote about a lighthouse (more than just a short anecdote in a book or article) then I should have a model or nice memento of it. Then, I got sassy and told my husband I should visit every lighthouse I write about.

Negril Point Lighthouse, Jamaica. I saw, I visited, I touched, I climbed, I photographed.       Hey mon, I even interviewed the keeper!

"How can I write about a place I've never been?" I asked.

He grimaced. Already, we design many of our vacations and trips around lighthouse visits.

"No," he replied firmly. "We are not going to the Seychelles anytime soon. Be satisfied with a byline."

And those trips, those lighthouse excursions--so many people love them! The tour industry knows this.  The U.S. Lighthouse Society does fantastic lighthouse tours, as do other nonprofits and tour companies.  Lighthouse people love to get the itineraries and see all the lighthouses on them. Some arrive with maps all marked up with lighthouse locations, and some bring more cameras and lenses than clothing. This excited lighthouse-ilk know there are rules about the tour stops. Everyone gets off the bus and queues up for photos before anyone can walk toward the lighthouse. No one wants Joe's backside in a photo or Mary's bright chartreuse shirt. "Would someone move that hose laying on the lawn please?  I don't want that in my photo."

Lighthouse photos must be pure...except for the group photo before we leave.

 

State lighthouse societies know about lighthouse hunting folk. These nonprofits design "Lighthouse Challenges" and special "I've Seen the Lights" patches to encourage lighthouse bucket listers to visit! Then there are people who bring mascots--stuffed bears and bunnies and doggies and such--and must photograph these silent buddies at every lighthouse they visit. "What lighthouse is Waldo visiting now?"

Me? I prefer to bring Santa Claus. Here he is at Point Robinson Lighthouse, Washington, visible in the background on the right.

While on such tours, or at lighthouse meetings and conferences, lighthouse fanciers love to compare notes about lighthouses they've seen/visited/photographed/climbed. I always enjoy the lively conversation at these affairs because it's rife with superlatives and fun lighthouse bravado.  It's also informative. You gets good contacts and tips:

"Go in the morning and shoot photos from the southeast side!"

"Don't pick the cow parsnip flowers; you'll get a nasty rash."

"If you climb down the rocks by the public beach and then walk along the tideline, the mean lade with the broom won't come out and yell at you." (Did I mention lighthouse enthusiasts often trespass to count coups?)

"Tell the sentry at the gate you are a member of the American Lighthouse Foundation."

"Show them one of Elinor's books and say you're helping her with research for a new one!"

"Better yet, tell them she's your mother!" (You're laughing now, but this has worked many times for my kids.) 

So...what's in your lighthouse bucket? How many have you seen/visited/photographed/climbed? Maybe it doesn't matter. It's just a lot of fun to "Count Lighthouse Coups" and compare notes.

To end this fun romp through lighthouse mania, I'll mention that I have begun collecting lighthouses on a Pinterest Board. It's called "The Lighthouse Hunter." https://www.pinterest.com/fineshine/

I'm not the only one collecting images of lighthouses on Pinterest. Go see; type "lighthouse" in the Pinterest search bar...and then stand back as an explosion of amazing stuff is unveiled!

Pinterest piques my interest and obsession every time I pin a photo. They'll ask which board I want---chickens? pine cones? ravens? owls? donkeys? lighthouses?---and then tickle my fancy with: "Start a new board?"

Maybe I will start a new board. I'll call it "Counting Lighthouse Coups." To make it tougher, I'll insist on proof, like the photo below. That tortoise can tell you I really did visit Vrysaki Lighthouse in Greece! (Photo by Derith Bennett)

Dancing Fire on the Lighthouse

 

I love all things nautical, including nautical weather and nautical astronomy. One of the most mysterious phenomena of the ocean skies (and sometimes inland too) is St. Elmo's Fire. Yes, you've probably seen the movie with Rob Lowe, but that isn't the subject here. This post is about the real thing--tiny snippets of lightning seen during storm conditions that seem to dance atop tall buildings and the masts of ships. These also can appear on trees, airplanes, and volcanoes. For example, during the eruption of Krakatoa in Java in the 1880s, St. Elmo's Fire was seen over the volcano and dancing atop buildings and trees in nearby villages and towns. (Image below from The British Library.)

 

 

The most common sightings of St. Elmo's Fire occur on ships, old sailing rigs with masts rising high over them and plenty of rigging. Charles Darwin mentioned seeing St. Elmo's Fire on the Beagle, during the revolutionary voyage that took him to the Galapagos and set him to thinking about how life changes due to natural selection and evolution. Antonio Pigafetta, who sailed around the world with Magellan, saw St. Elmo's Fire on the ship's masts off the West Coast of Africa. Coleridge mentions them as "death-fires" in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and Starbuck of Moby Dick (and coffee) fame, shouted: "Look! Aloft! St. Elmo's Lights! Corposants!"

 

 

That's another name for the phenomenon--corposants, meaning the bodies of saints. Why? Read on--

 

The name St. Elmo's Fire derives from Erasmus, or St. Elmo, who was the patron saint of Mediterranean sailors. His image or an icon of him was carried to sea to ashore a safe voyage. Erasmus is said to have died on a ship at sea, but moments before his death he promised his shipmates he would return in a nonphysical form. Hours later, when wisps of lightning were seen on the ship's masts and in its rigging, the crew thought Erasmus had returned. The lights, or corposants, came from the resurrected and saintly Erasmus. (Below, a sailor's medallion.)

 

 

 

Erasmus was shortened to Elmo, probably in that predictable manner in which nautical language evolves when the roar of wind and waves at sea steals away part of a word---boatsman became bo'sun, forecastle became foc'sul, and Erasmus became Elmo.

 

Sailors of antiquity, especially the Greeks and Romans, were known to be superstitious and believed the dancing St. Elmo fires were the appearance of Castor and Pollux, the twin gods thought to protect ships and seamen. (These gods are known as the Gemini and have their own constellation in the night sky.) It was considered a blessing to have them aboard! The eyes of Castor and Pollux were often painted on the bow of a ship with the idea that they might help the vessel see in the darkness, or in a fog or storm.

 

Thus, old salts could refer to this ethereal phenomenon as Castor and Pollux, St. Elmo's Fire, or the corposants.

 

Scientifically speaking, these tiny discharges of electricity are produced during stormy weather when the atmosphere is highly agitated. You might think of them as glorified static electricity--way exaggerated that is! They are actually small, somewhat harmless bolts of lightning that appear reddish or blue-green. They are usually seen near the end of a storm and are attracted to tall objects in the same manner as serious lightning strikes are. They crackle and have an eerie, glowing appearance that is both frightening and awe-inspiring.

 

St. Elmo's Fire can be seen on lighthouses too and was reported by lightkeepers years ago when lighthouses were staffed 24/7. Lightship sailors also saw it. You might see it too if live near or spend any time at a tall lighthouse. Of course, getting a picture of this elusive phantom of storm conditions is difficult. Hence, you'll see no actual photos here of St. Elmo's Fire on lighthouses. Instead, I've opted above for JM's manipulated photo on Flicker that gives a sense of what St. Elmo's Fire might do to a lighthouse.

 

Of course, I had to have some fun myself with a photo. This is my version of the worst possible day at Point No Point Lighthouse in Hansville, Washington! It's stormy, lightning bolts are streaking downward, and the corposants are dancing on anything and everything--the lighthouse, the roof eaves, the sea oats, even that nutty gal standing in this bad weather scene. St. Elmo, please protect her!

 

 

The typical lightkeeper of yesterday was nothing short of a sailor or fisherman who came ashore for a quieter, less dangerous job. Thus, he probably understood and respected St. Elmo's Fire when storm conditions prevailed and the atmosphere with rife with electricity. Seaman, as we know, often have trouble "swallowing the anchor" when they retire ashore. That's why lighthouse history and lore is embroidered with so many colorful nautical threads!