Florida s Lighthouses: Guardians of Our Shores

Transcription

1 Florida s Lighthouses: Guardians of Our Shores Summary With more than 1,100 miles of coastline, most of Florida was settled from the sea. In 1821, when the territory of Florida was annexed to the United States, its three largest cities Pensacola, St. Augustine and Key West were all coastal. Yet except for an old Spanish watchtower at St. Augustine, no navigational aids protected mariners from the territory's miles of reef-laden shores. Civilian and military seamen began to pressure the government to mark Florida's coast and oust its infamous pirates who preyed on marine commerce along its treacherous shores. In this lesson, students will have an opportunity to explore the history behind twelve of Florida s thirty-one lighthouses. Objectives Students will: 1.) work in groups of 2-3 to research individual Florida lighthouses; 2.) find where each individual lighthouse is located in the state of Florida by using AAA Road Map grid systems and key words; 3.) explore the history and physical structure of the twelve Florida lighthouses through group presentations; 4.) discuss the reasons why lighthouses have been constructed. US History Event or Era This lesson covers maritime history of Florida, as well as the settlement of the state. Grade Level This lesson can be implemented into the elementary school or middle school classroom. Materials AAA Road Maps (can be obtained from AAA AutoClub by calling in the Lakeland area, or in the Winter Haven area), master copy of Florida outline map (included with lesson, but can be found at ), glue sticks or tape, one copy of each Information Sheet on Lighthouses, one copy of Notes on Florida Lighthouses per student, one copy of each lighthouse s Fact Sheet (for group presentation) for each group, and twelve full-color pictures of each lighthouse (provided with the lesson). IMPORTANT!! Fact Sheet and pictures must correlate with each individual group s assigned lighthouse. Lesson Time This lesson could be implemented and discussed in two-to-three days class time, depending on the amount of coverage the classroom teacher wants to focus on.

2 Lesson Procedures 1.) Before students enter the classroom, hang or tape a large piece of white butcher paper from a wall that can be easily faced by all of your students. Make a transparency of the Florida map provided with this lesson and project it onto the white paper. Trace the state s outline onto the paper. 2.) You will then want to print the pictures of the twelve different lighthouses (preferably on a color printer) and cut them out to give to your student groups). 3.) Preview Option #1: As students enter your room, show them the transparency of Picture G-2-16 and G Have them answer the questions below the pictures, then allow several minutes for your class to discuss the questions. Preview Option #2: Place your students into mixed-ability reading pairs and assign Florida Lighthouses: An Introduction, to be read. While reading, have your students answer the following questions: a. How many miles of coastline does Florida have? Is that a lot, in your opinion? b. What dangers encountered Florida s first explorers and settlers? Why do you think lighthouses were built? c. Why do you think that the government ordered the construction of lighthouses with distinctive coloring and unique light sequences? d. What problems did engineers find in building lighthouses in Florida? What did they do to solve the problems? e. How many lighthouses are in Florida, and are they still working? Do you think that they are still needed? -Discuss the answers with your students. Make sure all students realize that lighthouses were originally built in Florida to protect travelers at sea from danger, and to help guide them to their destinations. 4.) After placing students in pairs and completing the Preview activity, assign each pair a number from #1-12 (depending on the number of students in your class, you may wish to put students in groups of three). Each group will receive a copy of their corresponding Lighthouse Information Sheet (for instance, Group #1 will get Information Sheet #1, etc.), a AAA Road Map (see the Lesson Summary for directions in getting these), a Fact Sheet for their assigned lighthouse, a picture of their assigned lighthouse, and a glue stick or tape. Each student in each group will also receive a copy of the Notes on Florida Lighthouses to fill in. 5.) Instruct students that they are to read the Information Sheet assigned to them, fill in the appropriate information on their Fact Sheet, glue or tape their lighthouse s picture onto their Fact Sheet, fill in the appropriate information for their own lighthouse on each group member s copy of Notes on Florida Lighthouses, and get ready to present the information about their lighthouse to the class. 6.) After students have written the pertinent information about their lighthouse on their Fact Sheets, advise them to use the maps provided with each Information Sheet to find the absolute location of each lighthouse. You may need to give them a hint by telling them to search the Information Sheet maps for city and town names, then find those same names on the AAA Road Map indexes. This will provide your students with an opportunity to use mapping and grid system skills. 7.) After minutes, allow your students to present the information about their lighthouses to the class and tape/glue their Fact Sheet to the Florida map hanging from your wall (students should draw large arrows from their Fact Sheets to the location in Florida where one can find their lighthouse). Be sure to tell the class that they are responsible for taking notes on the pertinent information on each lighthouse on their own copy of the Notes on Florida Lighthouses. 8.) (Optional): Assign pairs (or groups of three) a Florida lighthouse not covered in this lesson to research and present to the class at a later date using the resources included with this lesson. Other lighthouses include: Ponce de Leon Inlet, Jupiter Inlet, Hillsboro Inlet, Carysfort Reef, Alligator Reef, Sombrero Key, American Shoal, Sand Key, Garden Key, Dry Tortugas (Loggerhead Key), Sanibel Island, Seahorse Key, St. Marks, Crooked River, Cape St. George, Cape San Blas, and St. Joseph Bay. 9.) (Optional): Assign pairs the reading excerpt about the Lighthouse of Alexandria from (Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) and have them answer the following questions: a. How long ago was the Lighthouse of Alexandria constructed? b. Which do you think was bigger, Florida s lighthouses or the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria?

3 c. From how far out at sea could the Lighthouse at Alexandria be seen? d. What tools did the Lighthouse of Alexandria use to make it visible? e. What became the fate of the Lighthouse of Alexandria? f. How did the Lighthouse of Alexandria influence modern times?

4 Activities Florida Lighthouses: An Introduction, by Kevin M. McCarthy Florida is a peninsula that rose out of the sea eons ago and has depended on the sea for its fishing, commerce, tourism, and very identity. In the state s 1,000-plus miles of coastline one can find beaches for vacationers, inlets and rivers for fishermen, even a launching pad for rockets, but that coastline also holds dangers for the unwary. Two centuries ago pirates could dart out from the many uncharted inlets to wreak havoc on defenseless ships. One hundred fifty years ago Indians massacred white settlers along the eastern coast in their last desperate attempt to drive them out and keep the land for themselves. One hundred years ago ship salvagers, the infamous wreckers in the Florida Keys, preyed on ships in distress, sometimes luring them onto the deadly offshore reef by displaying false lights on the beach. Worse than the pirates, Indians, and wreckers are the gales and hurricanes that have buffeted the Florida coast. In the last 400 years fierce storms have beached or sunk countless ships, from Spanish treasure galleons to luxury liners, from rum-runners to submarines. Even today treasure hunters with metal detectors scouring beaches after a storm may find Spanish doubloons and jewelry from ages past. Two great ocean currents flow in opposite directions off Florida s east coast. The Gulf Stream, bright blue in color and warmer than the surrounding Atlantic, flows north from the Gulf of Mexico, eventually reaching Europe some 5,000 miles to the far northeast. The colder Labrador Current flows south, closer to shore, pushing southbound ships on their way. What lies beneath that calm sea, namely the Florida Reef, has torn out the bottom of many an unsuspecting ship that wandered onto it, with great loss of life and cargo. The Gulf of Mexico off the west coast also has dangers in the form of sandbars, oyster beds, and mud flats, all waiting to catch a ship unawares. To protect ships from the many hazards along the Florida coast and to provide mariners a bearing, the federal government began erecting lighthouses in the 1820 s, giving each structure a distinctive color for daytime reckoning and a unique light sequence for nighttime identification. Florida presented new problems to engineers assigned to build lighthouses along its coast, for they found that they could not simply continue building the traditional New England brick tower. For one thing, Florida s soft coastal sand could not support the great weight of the large brick structures common in Maine and Massachusetts. Engineers had to come up with a new type of foundation, especially in the Florida Keys, where waves washed over the sandbars around the lighthouses, making islands appear, disappear, and reappear over time. Lighthouse builders and keepers also had to contend with human conflicts on land. In the mid-1800 s, Seminole Indians harassed builders, killed one keeper, and tried to burn Cape Florida Lighthouse to the ground. During the Civil War, local southern sympathizers extinguished the lights of the lighthouses so that blockaderunners could move contraband under cover of darkness inland and ashore, but the lack of lights caused much consternation among ordinary sailors looking for familiar landmarks. During World War II, lighthouse keepers faced the dilemma of whether to light their lamps at night for the many Allied ships along the coast, knowing that the light would also provide a clearer view for Nazi submarines lurking nearby with their torpedoes. The fascinating story of the Florida lighthouse is one of great engineering accomplishments and lonely service along isolated coasts. The silent sentinels that remain in the state bear testimony to a job well done. How long they will endure depends to a great extent on their local communities and some quarter of a million annual visitors to the towers still standing. The state s thirty lighthouses and one lightship are, for the most part, still sending their beams out across the sea at night and offering a welcome sight to the weary navigator.

5 Picture G-2-2 Information Sheet #1: Amelia Island Lighthouse Constructed in 1838 using leftover materials from the halted construction of the Cumberland Island Lighthouse three miles north in Georgia, the Amelia Island Lighthouse marks the entrance to the St. Mary's River near Fernandina Beach, just north and east of Jacksonville. Originally built on a natural hill, the 64-foot tower stands over a hundred feet above sea level and sends out a light every ten seconds that sailors 23 miles from land can see. This lighthouse, besides being the oldest surviving lighthouse in Florida, is able to avoid the high tides and dangerous erosion that most other Florida lighthouses must contend with by having been built on a hill. This has allowed the Amelia Island Lighthouse to be recognized as the oldest surviving lighthouse in Florida. The hillside location calls for a shorter tower than most other lighthouses, though; if it were any higher, mist and fog from the Atlantic Ocean would make it useless to sailors, but any lower and it would be blocked by sand dunes and trees. Prior to its construction, Amelia Island and its chief town of Fernandina Beach were on the brink of big development. However, because of a yellow fever outbreak, the migration of several early settlers to find jobs elsewhere, and the rise of Jacksonville as a city of national significance to the south, Amelia Island s planned development never took place. However, because of the many ships that passed by the mouth of the St. Mary s River on their way between Jacksonville and northern cities, the federal government ordered the building of a redbrick lighthouse that would be painted white. The importance of the lighthouse increased during the 1850s when workers were building Florida s first cross-state railroad from Fernandina Beach to Cedar Key. During this time prior to the Civil War, Amelia Island became quite busy as ships used its port for the loading and unloading of lumber, and later military equipment. After the destruction of the railroad line following the war, the Amelia Island port attracted fewer ships. In the early days of the lighthouse, the keeper used whale oil for fuel in order to light the lamp each evening, and extinguished the light every morning. Later, he used kerosene, and then electricity. He also had to wind up the heavy cables that powered the rotating mechanism and clean and polish the light thoroughly each day. Because Amelia Island Lighthouse was smaller than other Florida lights, the keeper there did not usually have an assistant. The light was fully automated in 1956, and is still operational and under Coast Guard management.

6 Information Sheet #2: Lighthouses of the St. Johns River The juncture where the St. Johns River flows into the Atlantic Ocean is a place of uncommonly strong currents, so strong, in fact, that the first Spanish explorers in the area nicknamed the river s mouth Rio de Corrientes, or River of Currents. It is also the scene of some of the nation s heaviest river traffic, with hundreds of barges, luxury liners, ships (including huge aircraft carriers) from the nearby Mayport Naval Air Station, large freighters, and ordinary fishing boats converging daily. Combine these two factors with the strong northeasterly winds that wreak havoc on the channel at the mouth of the river, and it becomes clear why Congress began allocating money to build a lighthouse at the mouth of the St. Johns River in 1828, 17 years before Florida even became a state. Engineers completed the first tower in 1830, but the encroaching ocean weakened its base, causing workers to tear it down and build a second one in 1835 about a mile up the river. Within two decades, shifting sands and the strong river current threatened to undermine that tower as well, and engineers rebuilt the lighthouse for the third time in 1859, across the river from where it had stood before. The new red-brick tower was used for guidance in the changing, narrow channel of the St. Johns River until a Southern supporter shot out the light. During the rest of the war, ship navigators had to rely on lantern s in the area, which was a risky measure that put ships at risk. After the war, engineers repaired the light and raised the tower fifteen feet to its current height. In 1954, a modern-looking beacon named the St. Johns Light Station was constructed on the eastern edge of Mayport Naval Air Station, one mile from the old lighthouse. Afterwards, the Navy considered tearing down the old lighthouse because they deemed it a threat to low-flying military aircraft, but angry residents successfully banded together to prevent it. Many residents felt that the lighthouse actually caused the Navy s planes to fly higher than they might have otherwise, thereby lessening the noise in areas surrounding the base. Whereas the older red-brick lighthouse is more pleasing to the eye, especially for fans of nostalgic-looking lighthouses, the newer tower, made completely of concrete, is much more appealing to the mariner for its dependability and accuracy. With a light that can be seen 22 miles out at sea, the new light station also is fully automated and has an alarm system that alerts the nearby Coast Guard station in the event of a malfunction. Picture G-2-3: St. Johns River Lighthouse and map Picture G-2-4: St. Johns Light Station and map

7 Information Sheet #3: The St. Johns Lightship When mariners complained about the inadequacies of the St. Johns River Lighthouse (not tall enough, light wasn t bright enough) in the 1800 s, city planners interested in the development of Jacksonville as a world-class city urged federal authorities to place a lightship several miles out at sea from the mouth of the river. They argued that a lightship with a double set of lamps, a loud foghorn, and a tolling bell could better guide ships into port, especially during the dreaded fogs that covered the area. At times, when the fog was at its thickest, ships had to pass dangerously close to the ever-shifting shore to see a lighthouse, if they could even see it at all. Proponents of the lightship pointed out that a lightship would enable any vessel to establish its position five miles from the river s mouth, which could be critically important during a storm or fog. Furthermore, nearby cities like Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, had lightships in addition to their lighthouses and prospered commercially. Lightships had a long history of helping navigators find their way past treacherous shores. Historians believe that the first lightships belonged to the Romans. Thousands of years ago, Roman galleys patrolling the coasts placed lighted firebaskets on the masthead to help merchant ships find places of commerce. Closer to our own time, some 18 th -century British ships suspended two lanterns from a crossarm as an aid to ships sailing the Thames River at night. Eventually, nature helped decide the issue. In 1922, two ships ran aground at the mouth of the St. Johns several months apart, both in dense fog. Everyone agreed that it was time for action, but it took another seven years before the Lightship No. 84, which had been built in New Jersey in 1907 and renamed Brunswick, was moved from its position in Brunswick, Georgia, to a site off the St. Johns. In 1929, the ship was renamed the St. Johns, painted yellow, and was anchored seven miles offshore in almost 60 feet of water. The lightship took the place of the St. Johns River Lighthouse, which was shut down. The lightship served a useful purpose, but it did have its disadvantages, too. The crew of 8-10 men living aboard the ship constantly fought seasickness, loneliness, and boredom from living in a confined ship with only the company of an occasional fisherman or yachtsman to break the numbing routine. Even with an increase of 20% sea duty pay in addition to their regular pay and an eight-day leave for every twenty days at sea, many men found the boredom excruciating. Moreover, storms blew the lightship from its moorings twice in 1947, and many ships were in danger of running aground for several hours afterward as the St. Johns struggled to get back in position. There was also the constant danger of collisions with larger ships. Finally in 1954, with the construction of the St. Johns Light Station at Mayport, the lightship was taken out of service. Number 84 then served as a relief lightship in New York before the Coast Guard decommissioned it in By 1985 all lightships around the nation had been deactivated. Ownership of the old lightship changed hands several times before it sank in the Erie Basin, New York City, in Only its two masts are visible. There has been an effort in and around Jacksonville to purchase the old ship, refurbish it, and turn it into a museum anchored in the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, but nothing has happened as of this writing. Picture G-2-5: The St. Johns Lightship Number of Lightships in Service per Year in the USA Year #

8 Information Sheet #4: St. Augustine Lighthouse Picture G-2-6: The St. Augustine Lighthouse The stately, diagonally striped lighthouse on Anastasia Island at the entrance to St. Augustine s inlets probably the most visually striking of Florida s lighthouses. Indeed, many visitors have stated that the tower resembles a huge barber pole. The St. Augustine Lighthouse was also the first built in Florida. A much earlier version of the lighthouse, a lookout tower used by the Spanish in the sixteenth century to warn St. Augustine s residents of approaching danger, attracted the attention of English sea captain Sir Francis Drake, who was heading north along the coast of Florida in May While investigating the tower more closely, his forces discovered the Spanish town across the Matanzas River and burned it to the ground. Almost 200 years later, during the time that England controlled Florida, the English built a tower on the same spot and put a cannon at the top. Sentries fired the cannon to signal to the town when a ship approached, and at night tended a large fire to guide vessels along the coast. Spain regained the territory of Florida from the English in 1783, but finally ceded it to the United States in Three years later, a lighthouse was built on Anastasia Island that was 73 feet above sea level, with an oil lamp that was visible from 14 miles out at sea. When the American Civil War broke out, Confederate supporters put out the light, and it remained out of commission until As the sea crept closer and closer to the original structure much land around the tower was eroded. Authorities obtained five acres of land a half-mile away and began constructing a new tower in The ocean continued to erode the nearby land, eventually coming to within ten feet of the rising brick-and-iron tower. Engineers hurriedly began mining a nearby quarry for soft limestone called coquina, a material made of shell fragments and coral that was also used in the construction of the Castillo de San Marcos, the famous fort in St. Augustine. Workers built a jetty of coquina in time to hold back the ocean and finish the construction of the new tower, finishing it in The new tower had a lamp that could be seen from almost 20 miles out at sea. In addition to the oil lamp, a flashing light every thirty seconds could be seen at 24 miles out at sea. The old 1824 tower finally fell into the sea in The original oil lamps gave way to first kerosene, then electricity. Instead of hauling three gallons of fuel up 227 steps every night at dusk, the keeper only needed to turn on a switch at the base of the tower. While the keeper s logbook seldom mentioned anything more than weather conditions and infrequent visitors, occasionally something unusual would occur, such as on the night of August 31, That evening, the keeper noted, An Earthquake passed through the Station at 9:20PM. The tower swayed in a violent manner. No damage was done to the station. One doesn t usually think of earthquakes as one of Florida s natural disasters, but they have occurred. During World War II, the light was reduced in power in order to keep enemy submarines from spotting ships that passed near the light and torpedo them. Today, the tower has an automatic flashing light that signals every thirty seconds, continuing to guide mariners as it has for almost two centuries.

9 Information Sheet #5: Cape Canaveral Lighthouse The hook of sand fifty miles south of Daytona Beach and midway down the east coast of Florida now known as Cape Canaveral was most likely the part of Florida that Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon first sighted on March 27, 1513, as he sailed from Puerto Rico in search of gold, glory, and the fabled Fountain of Youth. He named the area Cabo de las Corrientes, or Cape of the Currents, after the strong offshore currents. Other Spanish explorers who came to the area later used the name Canaveral, which meant place of reeds or place of canes, possibly referring to the reed arrows that the local Ais Indians used to drive off the Spanish explorers. Over three hundred years later, dozens of shipwrecks in the waters around Cape Canaveral showed the necessity of a permanent lighthouse on the cape. In 1848, a navigational aid was constructed, but many seamen continued to complain because of the inadequacy of the 60-foot tower. One sailor lamented, The lights on Canaveral, if not improved, had better be dispensed with, as the navigator is apt to run ashore looking for them." In 1860, engineers began building a 145-foot tower to replace the first one, but the outbreak of the Civil War halted the work. Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory ordered all lighthouses on southern shores to shut down in order to keep Federal troops from landing in the area at night. Lighthouse keeper Captain Mills Burnham complied, burying vital pieces of the lighthouse in his orange grove near the Banana River. When the war ended in 1865, Burnham dug up the equipment and returned it to the United States government. Workers resumed building the tower, which was finally completed in A new lens and a change from whale oil fuel to kerosene enabled sailors 18 miles out at sea to see the new light. In 1873, the tower was painted with black and white horizontal bands. The sea made steady progress toward the lighthouse in the years after its completion, forcing workers to take the tower down and rebuild it at its present site a mile farther inland in The Coast Guard took over the lighthouse in 1939, as it did throughout the nation. During World War II, German submarines continually torpedoed Allied shipping in the deep waters several miles off Florida s coast. During one period, subs sank 24 ships; though the Coast Guard was able to save the lives of over 500 men, many more died at sea. Lighthouse keepers were usually the first to alert the Coast Guard of explosions at sea, but they soon faced a dilemma; should they keep the lights burning at night, enabling ships to see the shore but endangering them by making them visible to German U-boats, or turn the lights off? Authorities finally diminished the intensity of the light at Cape Canaveral until the war s end. After the war, the Cape was selected as a test site for the nation's missiles. Many of the first rocket tests for NASA were conducted close to the lighthouse. Finally, in 1967 the lighthouse was automated and unmanned. Today, the lighthouse is fully operational (though closed to the public), guiding yachts, freighters, and Polaris submarines as they make their way to Port Canaveral. Picture G-2-7: Cape Canaveral s lighthouse

10 Information Sheet #6: Cape Florida Lighthouse The majestic white tower that stands guard over the southeastern tip of Key Biscayne has seen more drama than any of the Florida s other lighthouses. Built in 1825, the formation marks the reef four miles offshore and guides ships through the Florida Channel to the eastern side of Key Biscayne. The builder was supposed to have constructed a 65-foot tower with solid walls of brick five feet thick at its base, tapering to two feet at the top, but he scrimped on his materials. The outbreak of the Second Seminole War in 1835 brought Indian attacks on white soldiers and settlers in Florida, and lighthouses were not spared from this violence. On July 23, 1836, Seminole Indians overwhelmed the lighthouse. John Thompson, the assistant keeper, and a helper named Aaron Carter fled into the tower as the Indians rushed them, guns blazing (the lighthouse s keeper, James Dubose, was staying in Key West, waiting for the danger to dissolve). Thompson fired his three muskets at the attackers, keeping them at bay until nightfall. The Indians then set fire to the door, which soon ignited a 225-gallon oil tank. Thompson and Henry took a keg of gunpowder, bullets, and a musket to the top of the tower and began cutting away the ladder to prevent the Indians from climbing it. The raging fire forced the two men onto the two-foot wide outside platform. Carter soon died from multiple bullet wounds, and Thompson suffered three bullet wounds in each foot. In an act of desperation, Thompson flung the keg of gunpowder onto the stairs of the lighthouse, hoping to kill himself to avoid further suffering. The blast destroyed the lighthouse's interior wooden stairway, keeping the fire from further injuring Thompson. He then considered killing himself by jumping off the tower but then noticed a shift in the wind and the fire lessening. Thompson feigned death, and the Indians later withdrew. Later, he wrote, I was almost as bad off as before; a burning fever on me, my feet shot to pieces, no clothes to cover me, nothing to eat or drink, a hot sun overhead, a dead man by my side, no friend near or any to expect, and placed between 70 and 80 feet from the earth with no chance of getting down. My situation was truly horrible. The crew of a U.S. Navy schooner, who had heard the explosion of the gunpowder keg from 12 miles away and came to investigate, rescued Thompson the next day. To get Thompson down, the sailors fired a ramrod with a piece of string tied to it over the top of the lighthouse. Thompson caught the string and was able to haul a heavier rope to the tower's top. Two seaman hoisted to the top hauled the injured Thompson down. It was later reported that the top of the lighthouse had more than 200 bullet holes in it. Because of the continued threat of Indian attacks in the area, the lighthouse was not repaired until 1846, after it was discovered that the original builder had built hollow walls for the tower instead of solid ones. Even after rebuilding, the light was still not visible to beam the light above the surrounding reefs, and surveyors warned that ships would run aground looking for the light. Finally, in 1855, the lighthouse was raised from 65 feet to 95 feet. After the light was destroyed in the Civil War in 1861 and repaired five years later, ships could still not see it. When the nearby Fowey Rocks Lighthouse was lit in 1878, the Cape Florida Lighthouse closed down. In June 1978, 100 years after it was turned off, the Coast Guard reinstalled a light that could be seen from seven miles away because many boaters were running aground while looking for the entrance to the Cape Florida Channel at night. Picture G-2-8: Cape Florida Lighthouse

11 Picture G-2-9 Information Sheet #7: Fowey Rocks Lighthouse Florida was the first part of the United States discovered by Europeans but was the last settled and therefore the last on the eastern seaboard to have a series of lighthouses built. The disadvantage of being settled last was that for many years ships traveling up and down the poorly charted and sparsely lit Florida coast ran aground on sandbars or wrecked on coral reefs. The advantage to the late settlement was that, when Congress decided to build lighthouses along the coast, engineers could take advantage of the latest technology in both tower construction and lighting equipment. Designers of lighthouses for the Florida Keys could not build the massive towers used for other locales in peninsular Florida because of the great weight involved, the ever-shifting sands of the islands, and the constant buffeting of sea and wind. Engineers came up with a structure that offered little mass for wind and water to batter, and a foundation that did not settle into sand or dirt. The Fowey Rocks Lighthouse is an example of this type of lighthouse. Named for the British warship HMS Fowey, which was wrecked on the nearby reef in 1748, this lighthouse was finished in 1878, when it took the place of the nearby Cape Florida light. It was not the first lighthouse of the Florida Reef (that would be the tower at Carysfort Reef), but it is a prime example of the kind of ingenuity that went into the construction of all of the Florida Reef beacons. In building the Fowey Rocks tower, workers lived on a platform over the water at the site in order to minimize the danger of transporting them and their supplies out each day from the mainland. Living on the platform provided other dangers: on two separate nights the workers expected to meet their deaths when they saw two large steamers bearing down on them, unaware of the location of the reef. Both times the ships ran aground, further pointing out the necessity for a lighthouse there. The construction of the lighthouse at Fowey Rocks and similar reef towers at Carysfort Reef, Alligator Key, Sombrero Key, American Shoal, and Sand Key required powerful steam engines that lifted a 2,000-pound pile driver 18 feet; each blow of this one-ton hammer drove the iron pilings that make up the tower structure one inch into the coral rock, making a strong foundation that has lasted for over a century. The keepers of these light stations have seen their share of fierce storms. The worst one, the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, had winds in excess of 200 miles an hour, a 20-foot storm wave, and a force that killed more than 400 people in the Keys. It destroyed the Overseas Railroad from Florida s mainland to Key West, but it left the Florida Reef lighthouses virtually intact (the Fowey Rocks tower lost its first deck, which was fifteen feet above normal sea level) due to the spindly nature of the towers and the way that they offered little resistance to the mighty winds and waves, which passed right through the supports. Life for the keeper and his support was lonely before the reef towers were fully automated after World War II [Today, Fowey Rocks continues on as a active Coast Guard (unmanned) aid to navigation. It is closed to the public, but you can visit the lighthouse and see it really up close from a boat (watch out for the rocks if you have a big boat!)]. One keeper of the Fowey Rocks Lighthouse, Jefferson Browne, took advantage of the solitude by reading law books. After fifteen months, he left the lighthouse service and entered law school at the University of Iowa, where he earned a law degree in less than two years, a shorter time than normal because of his prior preparation. After graduating, he became the attorney for Key West and Monroe County, and later served on the Florida Supreme Court.

12 Information Sheet #8: Key West Lighthouse The name Key West comes from the Spanish cayo hueso, which means bone island. The first Spanish explorers on the island in the early sixteenth century found many human bones, either the remains of shipwrecked sailors or victims of Indian raids. After the United States took possession of the island, and the rest of Florida, in 1821, Commodore Matthew Perry stressed the need for lighthouses on the Florida Keys. At the time, wreckers made a living working out of Key West. These men were sailors, immigrants, and local fishermen. Many of them were honest salvagers, but many others were greedy scavengers who would actually lure ships onto the surrounding reefs and make money by then salvaging parts of the ruined boats. These men opposed any construction of a lighthouse. The first lighthouse in Key West was a 65-foot tower built in 1825 on Whitehead Point, and the first keeper was Michael Mabrity. He died in 1832, and his wife Barbara, took his place, partly because she knew the job well and also because it provided her with a means of support for herself and her six fatherless children. She went on to serve as keeper of the Key West lighthouse for almost three decades. This was extraordinary because in the early days of lighthouse service it was highly unusual for women to serve as lighthouse keepers. As male keepers died, though, more and more widows applied to become keepers in part due to Mrs. Mabrity s success. Even the townspeople of Key West praised her for her efforts. By 1861, Mrs. Mabrity s last year as keeper, there were fifteen female lighthouse keepers around the nation. A hurricane in 1846 hit Key West, destroying the lighthouse and killing fourteen people who had sought safety inside of the tower. The storm had previously devastated Havana, Cuba, but no advance warning reached Key West. The U.S.S. Morris survived the storm, but reported three ships had sunk, four capsized and "a white sand beach covers the spot where Key West Lighthouse stood. The next year a new 66-foot tower was constructed on higher ground and further inland to protect it from storms. As the surrounding city grew by the decade, tall buildings and trees partially blocked view of the tower, so in 1894 workers added 20 feet to the top, making it 86 feet tall. Because the base of the tower sits on land that is fifteen feet above sea level, the light is 100 feet above sea level. When the Oversea Railroad to Key West was completed in 1912, the small island was finally connected to mainland Florida. By then, Key West was a thriving town with profitable industries in cigar-making, sponges, and fishing, and Henry Flagler, the man who paid for the Overseas Railroad, hoped to profit on Key West s tropical location by encouraging tourism. However, his hopes never came to realization. In 1935, a disastrous hurricane wiped out most of the railroad. The federal government then bought up the surviving bridges and built an Overseas Highway for cars in 1938, and tourism quickly established itself as Key West s leading industry. The Coast Guard removed the lighthouse from active service in 1969, and it has since been made into a museum. More than 150,000 of the annual million-plus visitors to Key West see the lighthouse each year. In 1989, the lighthouse was restored to its turn-of-the-20 th -century appearance. Picture G-2-10: Key West Lighthouse

13 Information Sheet #9: Lighthouses of Boca Grande Picture G-2-11: Port Boca Grande Lighthouse At the southern tip of Gasparilla Island off the coast of Charlotte County sits a houselike structure called the Port Boca Grande Lighthouse that guards the entrance to Charlotte Harbor and the busy channel and points the way to the 60- foot-deep pass and its famous tarpon fishing. Gasparilla Island took its name, so the legend goes, from a renegade Spanish naval officer, Jose Gaspar (Tampa s annual Gasparilla Festival takes its name from him as well). In 1822, Gaspar and his pirates ran down what appeared to be a large British merchant ship. Just as Gaspar s gang was about to board the captured ship, the British flag was lowered and the U.S. flag was raised. It had been a ruse to capture or kill Gaspar and his gang of buccaneers! The American ship fired its cannons pointblank into the pirate ship. Refusing to be captured, Gaspar wrapped himself in an anchor chain and threw himself overboard to his death. Ten of the crew were captured and hanged, but a few who made it to shore escaped. It is debatable whether or not Jose Gaspar and his band of pirates ever existed. Some say that the source of the name may have come from a Spanish missionary priest in the 1500 s, a Friar Gaspar, but the elegant town of Boca Grande does exist. Meaning large entrance or big mouth in Spanish, Boca Grande has been the site of a wide and easily navigated pass that large freighters have been using for more than a century. When phosphate was discovered near Bartow, Florida, in the 1880 s, and advanced mining techniques led to more production of the mineral, a long pier for phosphate ships was built that extended into the deep water to the east of the tip of Gasparilla Island. Then, this port was dredged deep enough to accommodate large ships. By the 1890 s, barges transferred phosphate from the Peace River area to oceangoing vessels in deep water off of Boca Grande. In 1890, construction was completed on the Port Boca Grande Lighthouse on the southern tip of Gasparilla Island. Built on a pile foundation, it was a one-story, white frame dwelling with a shingled roof. On top was a black lantern that displayed a fixed white light interrupted by a red flash that warned ships of the hazardous Boca Grande Pass. Because the light was to serve the harbor and not the Gulf of Mexico to the west, it could be lower than other towers along the coast. About a mile north-northwest from the Port Boca Grande Lighthouse is a taller, gangly structure with a black lantern 105 feet above sea level. This lighthouse, known as the Entrance Range Rear Lighthouse, was built after phosphate companies, needing a quicker, more efficient way of getting the mineral to Charlotte Harbor than taking it by slow barge down the Peace River, built a direct railroad to Boca Grande. Because the increased demand meant more harbor traffic into and out of the Gulf, another lighthouse was needed to aid ships. When a ship lined up the two lights so that one was directly on top of the other, the ship s captain knew that the ship was in midchannel. Nowadays, Boca Grande is known more for tourism and world-class tarpon fishing than for a major central Florida industry. As a reminder to its former importance to the phosphate industry, though, both lighthouses in Boca Grande are still fully functional. Location of Port Picture G-2-12: Entrance Rear Range Lighthouse Boca Grande Light

14 Information Sheet #10: Egmont Key Lighthouse Egmont Key is a small island, just over one-and-a-half miles long and a half-mile wide. It sits near Egmont Channel, Tampa Bay s main shipping channel that serves several thousand ships a year as they go to and from Tampa and St. Petersburg. Lying only three or four feet above sea level, the island is at the mercy of wind and waves but, because of its lack of human settlement, supports a colony of turtles, large foot-and-a-half-long lizards, and rattlesnakes, not to mention poison ivy. The great Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon may have been the first European to see the island, but it almost certain that later explorers like Panfilo de Narvaez and Hernando de Soto also visited the island. The tiny island received its name during the British territorial period when surveyor George Gauld named it after John Perceval, second Earl of Egmont. During the 1830 s, when the only lighthouses that marked Florida s west coast were Key West and St. Marks (just south of Tallahassee), the citizens of Key West and nearby Sanibel asked the federal government to build a lighthouse marking the entrance to Tampa Bay. In 1848, after an army colonel named Robert E. Lee made a survey of the southern coast and recommended that a lighthouse be placed on the island out of military necessity, the government paid for the construction of the lighthouse on Egmont Key. Later that year, two fierce hurricanes threatened to damage the new tower to the point that it would topple, so engineers later tore the structure down and built a stronger one on the old foundation. That white tower, completed in 1858, is still standing today and fully operational, having withstood several strong hurricanes. If you visit Fort De Soto at Pinellas County Park on Mullet Key and you look south across Tampa Bay at dusk, you can see the lighthouse beacon. Authorities used Egmont Key in the 1850 s as a temporary holding area for Seminole Indians being shipped to the Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. At the beginning of the Civil War, when Union ships blocked the entrance to Tampa Bay, Confederate blockade-runners used the island as a base until Union forces captured it in July Then, federal troops used it as a military base and prisoner-of-war camp for Confederate sailors. Later in the war, the federal government also used the island as a cemetery for Union and Confederate soldiers alike, but when the cemetery was closed in 1909, all of the remains were exhumed and sent the bodies to national cemeteries elsewhere. In the 20 th century, Egmont Key has been used as a military base, an ammunition storage facility, a defensive position guarding Tampa Bay during times of war, and a harbor entrance patrol station. After World War II, the Coast Guard tended the lighthouse. The men stationed there in the 1970 s and 1980 s enjoyed several perks to lessen the boredom of being stationed on an otherwise uninhabited island; air conditioning, TV, VCR, a pool table, dart board, fully-equipped kitchen, washer and dryer, computer, and stereo system. They also snorkeled, fished, and swam often. In 1990, though, the Egmont Key lighthouse became one of the last in the nation to become fully automated. Fort De Soto (3 miles from Egmont) Picture G-2-13: Egmont Key Lighthouse Egmont Key Lighthouse

15 Picture G-2-14: Anclote Key Lighthouse Information Sheet #11: Anclote Keys Lighthouse Anclote Key off the west coast near Tarpon Springs has the distinction of being in two counties: Pasco and Pinellas. The federal government owns the island, which is now a state park and a wildlife refuge. The island is about 2.5 miles long and consists of oaks, pines, and shrubs. The word anclote is Spanish, meaning anchor, and the name of the island and the river that empties into the Gulf of Mexico near the island came from Spanish fishermen who once sailed into the Anclote River to take on fresh water before the long trip back to Cuba. They would anchor in the river near Tarpon Springs and sell some of their catch. Tarpon Springs would later become the center of the American sponge industry and still later, a fishing port. Mullet and grouper ran in the summer and mackerel, trout, and bluefish in the winter. Congress approved the construction of a lighthouse on Anclote Key in The 102-foot Anclote Keys lighthouse was built in 1887, being first lit on September 15 of that year. The island's name is pluralized because several smaller islands are sometimes connected to the northern end of the main island. The southern end of the island was chosen for the lighthouse site because its land appeared to be more stable. Beach erosion was never serious enough to threaten the station and the tower was never rebuilt or removed. Originally two families lived on the island to tend the lighthouse. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, when a Spanish naval attack was feared along Florida s Gulf Coast, the lightkeepers were given a small cannon for selfdefense, but never had a reason to use it. One keeper kept pigs on the island, letting them wander freely until Cuban boat crews came ashore and stole them. Mosquitoes were an even bigger problem than pig-stealing bandits; not even drainage ditches that were dug in the 1930 s did much to alleviate the insect problem. The logbook kept by the keepers mentions several times that the bugs kept the keepers from working outdoors. Because the island was so close to the mainland, the keeper or his assistant often traveled by boat to Tarpon Springs. Several times a week one man went across the water to attend church, get supplies, pick up the mail, or attend a party. The island also enjoyed more visitors than other lighthouse sites, especially on weekends when people sailed over for the day to picnic and swim. Of course, life was not always fun and games for the keepers of the Anclote Keys lighthouse. They were involved in several rescues, saving two people from a capsized boat in 1891 and two more in In 1919, there were three rescues including two sponge divers whose boat had broken down. When rescued, the sponge divers had run out of both food and water. The Coast Guard automated the light in 1952, but discontinued its use in 1985 as other, smaller lights surrounding the island provided sufficient navigational aid. Vandalism posed recurring problems after 1952, when no keepers lived at the lighthouse. Recently, on September 13, 2003, the lighthouse was reactivated as part of a restoration of the entire island. A new dock was completed, a boardwalk was constructed, and one of the lighthouse keeper s dwellings was restored.

16 Picture G-2-15: Pensacola Lighthouse Information Sheet #12: Pensacola Lighthouse Pensacola is the second oldest city in Florida. Originally founded by Spanish explorer Don Tristan de Luna in 1559 (six years before Florida s oldest city, St. Augustine, was founded), the early settlers of Pensacola abandoned the site two years later. In 1698, the Spanish successfully settled the city and named it for a nearby Indian tribe, the Pansfalaya, which meant long-haired people and referred to the way the tribe s members wore their hair. In 1821, the United States accepted the transfer of Florida from Spain, and Pensacola became the first capital of the Territory of West Florida. Soon after, the federal government became interested in constructing a naval storage base in the area; Pensacola s port was the deepest port on the northern Gulf of Mexico, and the young American government felt it practical to use that port to protect commerce in the Gulf and Caribbean regions. At that point, the United States did not have a naval base in the Gulf of Mexico. The need for a lighthouse was also seen. Before a lighthouse could be built, a lightship, the Aurora Borealis, was sent from New Orleans to serve the harbor when a newly-constructed lighthouse had made it obsolete. Maintaining a lightship was an expensive proposition. Early lightships provided a weak light, and they were unreliable during storms; sea conditions were too rough at Pensacola and so the lightship was moored just inside the bay, even during good weather. That diminished the lightship s effectiveness even more because ships at sea could not see it. Furthermore, the lightship was unavailable when under repair. For these reasons, the lightship was a temporary measure in place only until a lighthouse could be built. Congress approved the funding for the construction of a lighthouse in It took only two months to build the tower. An adjacent keeper's dwelling was completed only a few days later. It was located on a 40-foot hill just west of the old Spanish fort named Fort San Carlos de Barrancas in an area that had been the fort's cemetery years before. It was the fourth lighthouse erected in Florida. The tower was only 40 feet tall (making the light 8o feet above sea level) and was first lit on December 20, Complaints about the lighthouse started early. The workmanship and quality of material used for the tower left much to be desired. Its low height and nearby trees blocked the light from view from some directions to seaward. Improvements to the reflector lenses and windows in 1847 failed to improve the quality of the light sufficiently. Because of complaints about the old tower, the present tower was authorized in It was first lit on January 1, It was located on the same ridge as the original lighthouse, but another 1,600 feet further west where it could be used to establish a range for crossing the bay's entrance bar. The present lighthouse is 160 feet tall, making it the fourth tallest brick lighthouse in the nation. During the Civil War, the tower was completely white, but today the lower third is white and the upper part is black. In 1914, the federal government established the first training base for navy pilots in Pensacola, making the city the cradle of naval aviation. Though the Navy has viewed the lighthouse as a hazard to its planes, public sentiment has prevented its destruction. Operated by the Coast Guard since 1939, today the lighthouse holds four 1,000-watt bulbs in the light, though only one is used at a time. When the bulb in use burns out, the next one rotates into place. The beacon s light can be seen 27 miles out to sea.

17 Overhead Transparency G-2-1

18 Preview Assignment #1 Picture G-2-16: Alligator Reef Light Picture G-2-17: Jupiter Inlet Light 1. What are these buildings? 2. Write down at least three differences between these two buildings, then write down at least one similarity. 3. Why do you think the building on the left was built over water? Why do you think the building on the right was built on a hill, above the trees? 4. Which one, do you think, would have a better chance of outlasting a hurricane? Which one is built on more solid ground?

19 Notes on Florida Lighthouses Directions: Fill in the corresponding boxes with the appropriate information from your lighthouse information sheets. After you have completed filling in the boxes for the appropriate lighthouse, take the info to your teacher to be checked. If the information is correct, you will then be given another information sheet. #1 Amelia Island Lighthouse Year it was built? Three interesting facts: Still operational? (if yes, what year did it become fully automated?) #2 #3 Lighthouses of the St. Johns River St. Johns Lightship Year it was built? Three interesting facts: Still operational? (if yes, what year did it become fully automated?) Year it was built? Three interesting facts: Still operational? (if yes, what year did it become fully automated?) #4 St. Augustine Lighthouse Year it was built? Three interesting facts: Still operational? (if yes, what year did it become fully automated?) #5 Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Year it was built? Three interesting facts: Still operational? (if yes, what year did it become fully automated?) #6 Cape Florida Lighthouse Year it was built? Three interesting facts: Still operational? (if yes, what year did it become fully automated?)

20 #7 Fowey Rocks Lighthouse Year it was built? Three interesting facts: Still operational? (if yes, what year did it become fully automated?) #8 Key West Lighthouse Year it was built? Three interesting facts: Still operational? (if yes, what year did it become fully automated?) #9 Lighthouses of Boca Grande Year it was built? Three interesting facts: Still operational? (if yes, what year did it become fully automated?) #10 Egmont Key Lighthouse Year it was built? Three interesting facts: Still operational? (if yes, what year did it become fully automated?) #11 Anclote Keys Lighthouse Year it was built? Three interesting facts: Still operational? (if yes, what year did it become fully automated?) #12 Pensacola Lighthouse Year it was built? Three interesting facts: Still operational? (if yes, what year did it become fully automated?)

21 Amelia Island Lighthouse Fact Sheet 3 Interesting Facts 1.) Place picture of Amelia Island Lighthouse Here 2.) 3.) Year constructed/implemented: Group Members:

22 Lighthouses of the St. Johns River Fact Sheet 3 Interesting Facts 1.) Place pictures of Lighthouses of the St. Johns River Here 2.) 3.) Year constructed/implemented: Group Members:

23 The St. Johns Lightship Fact Sheet 3 Interesting Facts 1.) Place picture of The St. Johns Lightship Here 2.) 3.) Year constructed/implemented: Group Members:

24 St. Augustine Lighthouse Fact Sheet 3 Interesting Facts 1.) Place picture of the St. Augustine Lighthouse Here 2.) 3.) Year constructed/implemented: Group Members:

25 Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Fact Sheet 3 Interesting Facts 1.) Place picture of the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Here 2.) 3.) Year constructed/implemented: Group Members:

26 Cape Florida Lighthouse Fact Sheet 3 Interesting Facts 1.) Place picture of the Cape Florida Lighthouse Here 2.) 3.) Year constructed/implemented: Group Members:

27 Fowey Rocks Lighthouse Fact Sheet 3 Interesting Facts 1.) Place picture of the Fowey Rocks Lighthouse Here 2.) 3.) Year constructed/implemented: Group Members:

28 Key West Lighthouse Fact Sheet 3 Interesting Facts 1.) Place picture of the Key West Lighthouse Here 2.) 3.) Year constructed/implemented: Group Members:

29 Lighthouses of Boca Grande Fact Sheet 3 Interesting Facts 1.) Place pictures of the Lighthouses of Boca Grande Here 2.) 3.) Year constructed/implemented: Group Members:

30 Egmont Key Lighthouse Fact Sheet 3 Interesting Facts 1.) Place picture of the Egmont Key Lighthouse Here 2.) 3.) Year constructed/implemented: Group Members:

31 Anclote Keys Lighthouse Fact Sheet 3 Interesting Facts 1.) Place picture of the Anclote Keys Lighthouse Here 2.) 3.) Year constructed/implemented: Group Members:

32 Pensacola Lighthouse Fact Sheet 3 Interesting Facts 1.) Place picture of the Pensacola Lighthouse Here 2.) 3.) Year constructed/implemented: Group Members:

33 Amelia Island Lighthouse Lighthouses of the St. Johns River St. Johns Lightship St. Augustine Lighthouse