Historically Famous Lighthouses: CG-232 — John Shaqi
Historically Famous Lighthouses: CG-232United States. Coast Guard
History
Historically Famous Lighthouses: CG-232
United States. Coast Guard
Lighthouses -- United States
The lamp was a catadioptric apparatus of the fourth order, commonly
called the Fresnel light. The light was first exhibited December 10,
1856.
In 1900 a fixed red lens-lantern beacon light was installed at the
extremity of Brant Point, 600 feet from the tower, it having been found
necessary to move the light outward, owing to changes in the channel
leading into the harbor of Nantucket. This was the ninth light to be
located on the Brant Point site.
In 1901 a new tower, the tenth light and seventh tower, was built at the
extremity of the point, and the light exhibited there for the first time
on January 31, 1901. This is still in use as a white cylindrical
(wooden) tower, with foot bridge to shore on which is a 1300
candlepower, fourth-order electric light, fixed red, 26 feet above the
water, visible 10 miles. This is the lowest lighthouse in New England.
It is located on the west side of the entrance to Nantucket Harbor. A
fog bell completes the equipment at this station.
A long-standing dispute begun in 1887, over the boundaries of the land
constituting the lighthouse site, which belonged to the United States,
was finally settled in 1901 when five lots, embracing 5.9 acres, on
which three summer dwellings and part of a hotel were located, were
sold, as no longer needed for lighthouse purposes and the proceeds paid
into the Treasury. (5)
_MASSACHUSETTS_
BUZZARDS BAY LIGHTHOUSE
In 1960 the Coast Guard announced that it was replacing certain
lightships with fixed offshore structures. The structures they noted,
would provide more efficient optics and would provide greater luminous
range than was possible with lightships.
The first lightship to be replaced was the Buzzards Bay Lightship
located in Buzzards Bay approximately five miles south of Gooseberry
Neck, Mass., in 61 feet of water. The station was commissioned on
November 1, 1961.
The underwater portion of the structure is a framework consisting of
four 33 inch steel pipe members cross braced with 16 inch and 18 inch
diameter steel pipe horizontally and diagonally. Through each of the 33
inch main pipe members, 30 inch cylindrical steel piles were driven and
seated to bed rock at a depth of 268 feet below mean low water. A
portion of the piles is filled with concrete.
The platform above water rises 66 feet above mean low water. The
platform is two decks high, the lower deck housing fuel and water tanks
and the upper deck consisting of quarters for the five Coast Guardsmen
who man the station. The structure is equipped with a helicopter landing
deck.
The light at the station is 101 feet above water. A light of 5,000,000
candlepower is shown during periods of low visibility while a 400,000
candlepower light is normally in operation. The light can be seen for 16
miles. The station is also equipped with a radiobeacon and a fog horn.
The piles are floodlighted from sunset to sunrise.
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