Lighthouse News

Another Lighthouse Threatened

From the pages of The Daily in Australia comes a little story about the Bribie Island Lighthouse (front range), Queensland, being another threatened by erosion. Unusually violent storms, winds, flooding are taking their toll on this and other lighthouses from Canada to the US; to Europe to Australia. According to the story, massive sand losses due to the tides and weather have pushed the ocean’s edge up to the base of the lighthouse. Fears are that Pumicestone Passage will be sealed off with a sandbar. The Australian Environmental Protection Agency claims that because this is a “natural occurrence” it will not step in to help. What?

Erosion Threatening New Point Comfort Lighthouse

Sitting on a quarter acre pile of rocks in Chesapeake Bay, the New Point Comfort Lighthouse is precariously perched as the winter storms will toss them around. Abandoned by the Coast Guard in 1963 and left to weather the storms, waves and vandalism, this once proud beacon’s land is washing away. Storms such as Hurricane Isabel in 2003 have washed away much of what used to be an island. When it was built in 1805, it could be accessed on foot at low tide. Now it’s inaccessible and sits only 8 to 9 feet above mean sea level on its own island.

Another Loss To Erosion

Sand Island Lighthouse, Alabama, sitting on what was once an island but is now just a little pile of leftover granite boulders, is the latest in a long list of lighthouses threatened by erosion. Built on wooden pilings sunk deep into the sand, rot has eaten away its foundation. And the island it once sat on is no longer, thanks to wind, waves and storms, leaving the lighthouse, decommissioned and abandoned by the government in 1933, on the verge of collapsing into the Atlantic.

An Ounce of Prevention

Climate change, aka Global Warming, is being blamed for the erosion of dunes at the West Point Lighthouse on Prince Edward Island. The site it has guarded mariners against since 1876 now threatens to approach the light, bringing it down. Although it’s not in any present danger, a call to action was issued by Norm Catto, a geography professor at Memorial University in St. John’s, according to a story at Canada.Com.

Plum, Pilot Islands Transferred

These two Door County (Wisconsin) lighthouses and their respective islands were finally transferred from the US Coast Guard to the US Fish and Wildlife Service this past October, after decades of bureaucratic red tape and legal wrangling over environmental cleanup issues. Terms of the conveyance required the Service to partner with a nonprofit organization to renovate the buildings on Plum Island that were abandoned when the Coast Guard deserted the century-old life-saving station in 1991. That role has been taken on by the Friends of Plum and Pilot Islands, a newly formed organization just now finishing nonprofit filings (No website yet).

Ironwork Rusting; Mortar Crumbling

Although the peeling paint slams the eyes of visitors to Assateague Island’s lighthouse, far more dangerous problems might await the unwary visitor. Rusting ironwork along the catwalk around the lantern room has led to its being encased in mesh to prevent further chunks falling off, as happened in the summer of 2006. Mortar is literally popping out from between the bricks, which can eventually lead to a building collapse. It’s estimated that it will take over one million dollars to restore this gem of Virginia, but only $200,000 dollars has been raised so far.

“You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back” was the motto of the United States Lifesaving Service. A lot of people think of lighthouse keepers as lifesavers, and while I can’t say they haven’t performed their fair share of rescues, the real heroes of shipwreck rescues were the US Lifesaving Service. And now one more station is in danger of being lost forever. The Portsmouth Lifesaving Station, built in 1908 on Wood Island in Maine to replace the original from 1888 on Jerry’s Point in New Hampshire, has been subject to the weather, vandalism and the lack of interest of the group formed to preserve and protect it, the Wood Island Preservation Group.

Two recent news stories caught my eye, about two different lighthouses threatened by erosion and shipworms. Shipworms? Don’t those usually attack ships at sea? Well, when continuing erosion destroys the land the lighthouse sits on, it leaves the wooden base subject to the damage by these mollusks. Because although they look like worms, they are actually bivalves that enter wood in their larval stage and act as the termites of the sea.

After sixteen years of planning and fundraising to the tune of $4 million dollars, Sankaty Lighthouse, Nantucket, MA, is up on jacks and ready to roll into the future. Expert House Movers of Virginia Beach, VA, subcontractors for International Chimney, raised the 157 year old, 450 ton lighthouse over one foot in the air on September 18 while preparing for the historic move, set to begin October 1. Security will be tight around the lighthouse, which will be dimmed as it’s being moved. The Nantucket Independent Online will have a front row seat as the official photographer of the event, and has been running a fascinating series of articles on the historic move.

A lighthouse that has survived machine gun fire, air strafings, raids by French privateers (they damaged the lantern and stole the keepers’ beds!) and storms is now threatened by the same erosion that many lighthouses are now facing. Orfordness Lighthouse, where a light has stood since 1634, is now only 50 yards from the beach. Accelerated erosion and coastal changes over the past decade have brought it to a near critical mass, and may necessitate it being demolished, according to a story from the Evening Star.