Lightships and Lighthouses

The life of the guardian of a blazing signpost of the coast is much the same the whole world over. It is unavoidably monotonous under the best conditions. Each succeeding day an...

While it is the tower that probably creates the deepest impression upon the popular mind, owing to the round of difficulties overcome associated with its erection, yet, after al...

Although by dint of great effort and the expenditure of considerable ingenuity the lighthouse engineer has succeeded in erecting a permanent masonry tower upon a foundation no m...

During the past fifty years engineering science as applied to lighthouses has made remarkable advances. This has been due largely to the indefatigable perseverance and ceaseless...

Obviously, the task of erecting a lighthouse varies considerably with the situation. On the mainland construction is straightforward, and offers little more difficulty than the...

Hand in hand with the development of the unattended light for service on land positions has proceeded the adaptation of the floating light. This may be described briefly as an e...

While the greater number of the most famous sea-lights have been erected upon the solid foundation offered by rock, in one or two instances notable works have been consummated u...

The captain of the lordly liner, as he swings down Channel or approaches the English coast from the broad Atlantic, maintains a vigilant watch until the light or the slender pro...

The phenomenal commercial expansion of the Dominion of Canada, which has brought about an amazing development in the maritime traffic with that country on both its seaboards, na...

Notwithstanding the wonderful ingenuity that is displayed in the concentration of light into powerful beams, these all count for nothing when fog settles upon the sea. The ray o...

Barren ruggedness, ragged reefs, and towering cliffs form an apt description of the north and west coasts of Scotland, and he is a prudent navigator who acknowledges the respect...

While the Northern Pacific Ocean is the loneliest stretch of salt water in the world, yet it possesses one or two busy corners. Prominent among the latter is that where it washe...

In the matter of safeguarding its shores the French nation has displayed considerable enterprise, and its engineers have added some magnificent contributions to this field of en...

Few nations have such a varied coastline to guard as the United States. On the Atlantic seaboard the northern shore is a shaggy bold rampart of lofty cliff, hard and pitiless. F...

At first sight it seems somewhat remarkable--some might feel disposed to challenge the assertion--that so small a country as Scotland should stand pre-eminent among the nations...

Four and a half miles out to sea, separated from Cape Clear, the most south-westerly point of Ireland, by a treacherous channel, rises the jagged, formidable shape of the Fastne...

In a previous chapter I have mentioned that, although oil is the most popular form of illuminant in lighthouse engineering, electricity is maintained to be preferable, but labou...

Although the waters washing the Australian continent are not so thickly intersected with steamship lanes, and the mercantile traffic is not so dense there as in the seas of the...

On the North American continent the efficient lighting of the coasts washed by two salt oceans is only one, although the most important, concern of the United States and Canadia...

The mariner, in pursuit of his daily business, is exposed to dangers innumerable. In mid-ocean, for the most part, he need not fear them particularly, because he has plenty of s...

With the development of commerce between Europe, China, and Japan, following the awakening of the East, it became imperative to render the seas approaching these countries far s...

It is doubtful whether the name of any lighthouse is so familiar throughout the English-speaking world as the “Eddystone.” Certainly no other “pillar of fire by night, of cloud...

Lovers of Longfellow will recall the poet’s song to the lighthouse, but how many of his admirers know to what beacon these stirring lines refer? When they were penned the author...