Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1893 — GUIDING MARINERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GUIDING MARINERS.

The Lighthouses of To-day and of Andes] Times. Lighthouses have their origin in the mists of antiquity. As soon as man began to plow the deep with ships some means of guiding the mariner into port or of warning him off dangerous reefs had to be devised, and tbps we read in ancient works of the erection of Are towers at the entrance to ports to serve the double purpose of defense against invasion and of friendly guidance to safety. In the ancient world there were towers at Ostea, Ravenna, Captase and

Rhodes, the latter of which lives in history as one of the great wonders. In the Island of Pharos, opposite Alexandria, a lighthouse said to have been 500 feet high, was erected which, after standing 1,600 years, was destroyed by earthquake. Caligula, the Roman Emperor, to commemorate his victory over the Britons erected a light tower at Boulogne. After a time it fell into disuse, but in 810 Charlemagne repaired the tower and reignited the fire. In 1540 the English converted the tower into a fortress. Here it stood until 1614, when its foundations caved in and it fell. In England Wolf’s Rock lighthouse, off Land’s End, is said to have been the most difficult erection of any on the British coast. It is built on a rock seventeen feet above low water, but submerged at high tide. The tower is 116 feet high and was erected in 1869. Each face stone is dovetailed vertically and horizontally in the adjoining stones and every stone is bolted to the course below it by bands of metal and steel. The history of lighthouses in this

country previous to the Revolution if involved in obscurity. Before 1789 the expense of keeping up the few then existing was born by the individual States in which they were, but after that year the Federal Government assumed the responsibility of erecting and maintaining lighthouses. Previous to 1852 the lighthouse system was under the control of the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury, but subsequently a Lighthouse Board was organized. The board is attached to the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, who is President of it. The Minot’s Ledge Lighthouse is perhaps the most famous of any on our coast. Minot’s rocks lie southeast of Boston Bay, and for many years has been the terror of mariners and the cause of numerous shipwrecks. On the most seaward rock a tower was erected in 1848, but it was destroyed by storm in 1851. Congress made an appropriation for the erection of a new tower, and in July, 1855, work was commenced. The tower was completed September 15, 1860, at the cost of $300,000. The work of construction was most difficult, aS a good portion of the foundation lay below low water. To enable the workmen to land on the rock at all a perfectly smooth sea and low tides were necessary. There were times, even in summer, when for months a landing was impossible, and although work was prosecuted in cutting the foundation rock in shapes to receive the stones it was three years before the first stone was laid. Tbe tower from the lowest stones to the top of the pinnacle is 114 feet 1 inch. The diameter at the base is 30 feet.

THE PHAROS AT RHODES. [A lighthouse said to have been 500 feet high and to have endured 1.600 years.]

MINOT'S LEDGE LIGHTHOUSE.