In the days before GPS and electronic navigation systems, lighthouses gleamed brightly across the sea to guide sailors on dangerous coastlines, perilous rocky cliffs and sandy shoals, wave-swept reefs and safe entries to harbors and bays. Today, 48,000 federally maintained buoys, beacons and lighted navigational aids mark 25,000 miles of coastal waters, harbor channels and inland, intracoastal and harbor waterways to keep seafarers safely on course.
The earliest lighthouses were tall masonry structures built to assist ocean crossings. These were later replaced with prefabricated skeletal iron or steel designs, primarily used as harbor lights. The prototypical lighthouse was located on a hill or rock at the end of a long pier or breakwater, where it could be seen from the approaching ship. Smaller, cylindrically shaped lighthouses anchored on the floor of harbor entrances served as a guide to boats entering and leaving.
Lighthouses were tended round the clock by a keeper who performed a variety of tasks. He was expected to observe and report on the weather, maintain a log of daily activities, tend the Fresnel lens apparatus and perform routine cleaning, polishing, maintenance work and house-keeping. In addition, if the lighthouse was equipped with a diaphone fog signal, he had to attend to a large compressor engine that made the compressed air to create the noise.
Keeping a lighthouse was often difficult, especially at isolated stations. Many deaths occurred when keepers, who were usually in a small open vessel when they left the station, ran into sudden storms. Consequently, at most offshore lighthouses relief (replacement) of the keeper was scheduled every six weeks followed by two weeks liberty.
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