PHAROLOGY is the accepted word that means "the study of lighthouses." Coming from the word "Pharos" and hese are some of my experiences in Pharology.
Pharos the world's first lighthouse, was built to warn sailors of the treacherous sandbars off Alexandria, Egypt, one of the busiest ports of the ancient world. It consisted of a three-stage tower, decorated with sculptures of Greek deities and mythical creatures. On top was a platform with a giant bonfire whose light may have been focused by mirrors, perhaps made of polished bronze, into a beam visible up to 35 miles out to sea. More than 300 feet tall, it was among the tallest man-made structures until the completion of the 1,050-foot Eiffel Tower in 1889. The Pharos Light was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The first permanent U.S. lighthouse was established 1716 in Boston Harbor on Little Brewster Island. In fact the Boston Light, is still operated by U.S. Coast Guard personnel and will not be automated. The ninth law enacted by the U.S. Congress transferred control of aids to navigation maintenance from states to the federal government in 1789. The first lightship was established in 1820 and metal buoys came along in 1845.
Lightships were floating lighthouses, anchored in waters too deep, too treacherous, or too remote, to allow construction of fixed beacons. From the stationing of the first American lightship in 1820 until the last one was replaced by a large automated buoy in 1983, these vessels marked the coastline of the United States. They safely guided ships of all flags to and from, and along, our shores for one hundred and sixty-three years. Out of over one hundred and eighty American lightships built between 1820 and 1952 only fifteen now survive. The rest have been lost at sea, scrapped, gutted or sunk.
Unlike lighthouses which have long been admired and romanticized, even by non-seafaring enthusiasts, lightships were stationed at sea, out of sight and out of mind except to those who's lives depended upon their beacons. Over the past several decades since their retirement, they have become the lost orphans of the maritime community, and have been disappearing at an alarming rate.
The introduction of the Fresnel lens in lighthouse design and function raised this important maritime service to a truly useful and visible aid to navigation.
There are seven orders of Fresnel lens used in major lights with the most powerful being the 1st Order lens. This lens has a range of 18 to 20 miles, stands more than eight feet tall, and weighs in excess of 5 tons. The smallest lens, the 6th order lens stands only 17 inches tall and weighs about 200 lbs. The 1st Order lens is 17 times brighter than the 6th order. These lens were made of hand lapped and polished leaded crystal. Few of these great lens have survived automation intact.
Later the Fresnel lens were made of pressed glass in varies sizes ranging from 90mm in diameter to 375mm. With the development of the acrylic lens, the 200mm was replaced by a 155mm and the 375mm was replaced by a 250mm making these two (2) lens the new standard.
The Lighthouse Automation and Modernization Program better known as (LAMP) began in the mid-60's. The first offshore "Texas Tower" was built in Buzzard's Bay in 1961. These structures are called "Texas Towers" because they are of the same design as the offshore oil platforms used in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast. In 1983, the Coast Guard began modifying the U.S. Lateral Aids to Navigation System in accordance with the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) Maritime Buoyage System, Region B. Basically this consisted of changing the black buoys and markers to Green. Also in 1983, the Coast Guard began placement of solar power packages on aids to navigation. Over 15,600 federal aids to navigation are now solar powered with approximately 1,100 remaining on commercial or battery power.
One interesting point worth noting is that when the sun goes down electricity would flow from the batteries to the solar panel if it were not for the installation of a small diode. This would make the solar panel act as a hot plate and drain the batteries.
Marine Aids to Navigation are categorized as Major Lights, (Lighthouses & Lightships) Minor Lights (Buoys & Marker Beacons) and Electronic Aids to Navigation. Electronic aids to navigation consist of Radio Beacons and LORAN (Long Range Aids to Navigation).
LORAN was one of the best kept secrets of WW II. The development of Loran-A provided U.S. Armed Forces with the most reliable long-range aid to navigation available. However, accuracy varied according to location, time of day, weather and relative geometry of the transmitting stations. Loran-A was phased out by 1980.
My Experiences in Pharology began in 1961 when I joined the U.S. Coast Guard. My first duty station was the Relief Lightship (WAL-515) stationed in Portsmouth, Virginia. (Little did I know this would be the beginning of an exciting and interesting career)
Lightships like all other ships need to go to the shipyards for regular repair and maintenance. Our duty as a Relief Lightship was to relieve the Savanna, Diamond Shoals, Frying Pan Shoals and the Chesapeake Lightships when they needed to go to the shipyard.
After a short stay on the Relief my next duty station was the CGC Mistletoe (WAGL-237). The Mistletoe was steam powered and had been commissioned under the U.S. Light House Service as a Buoy & Light House Tender. Buoy Tenders are the vessels that service Lighthouses, Lightships, Buoys and Minor Aids, they are the workhorses of the aids to navigation service. The U.S. Lighthouse Service was incorporated into U.S. Coast Guard on July 1, 1939. The total Aids to Navigation at that time were 29,606.
Light was often not enough to serve as a guide and warning to mariners. Fog as well as intense rain and snow storms could easily reduce the lighthouse's effectiveness at a time when warnings of shoals, or dangerous shorelines were critical. Auditory warnings in the form of the fog bell and ultimately the fog horn were essential components of the lighthouse's inventory of aids to navigation.
One of my first duties on board the CGC Mistletoe was to upgrade the CO2 powered bell striker on the Hoopers Strait Lighthouse to an electric one.
During my tour of duty on board the Mistletoe we serviced varies Lighthouses in the Chesapeake Bay. Most notability Wolf Trap, Piney Point, Point No Point, Newport News Middleground, Cedar Point, Old Point Comfort, Smith Point, Thimble Shoals and many others.
In addition to Lighthouses we were responsible for the routine maintenance of the buoys and minor lights of the lower Chesapeake Bay, James and other rivers. In 1961 buoys were lit by acetylene gas and required extensive service. However, since then batteries have replaced the acetylene gas. All lighted buoys were to be electrified and by the mid-60's, acetylene was phased out. Today most minor lights are powered by batteries that are recharged by Solar Powered battery chargers.
In 1962 I was transferred from the CGC Mistletoe to the U.S. Coast Guard's LORAN-C station at Simeri Crichi, Italy on the Mediterranean Sea. Primarily our mission was to provide the U.S. Navy's 6th fleet with a means of knowing where they were and keeping them from getting lost.
The need for a system providing greater accuracy had led to the development of LORAN-C, which provided maritime position-fixing capability within 1/4 nautical mile. This system is also used for other applications such as air navigation, mass transit systems, as well as mineral and oil exploration. In the early 60's, LORAN-C was deployed in selected areas of the Northern Hemisphere to support the Department of Defense (DOD) navigation requirements.
Back then LORAN-C receiving equipment cost in excess of $100,000 and was only used by the military. Today a LORAN-C receiver can be purchased for as little as $25.
Loran-C was selected as a government-provided radio navigation system for coastal areas of the continental U.S. In 1991, Loran-C coverage across the continental United States was completed and included for use in the National Air Space by the FAA. With development the Global Positioning System (GPS), present plans suggest closing down LORAN-C sometime shortly after the year 2000.
GPS is a U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) worldwide satellite-based navigation system, originally intended for military use only. However, GPS is available worldwide to civil users without charge.
After a year at LORSTA Simeri Crichi (Later renamed Sellia Marina) I reported on board another Buoy Tender the CGC Iris (WAGL-495 a WHITE Buoy Tender) where I would spend the next two (2) years. Based in Galveston, Texas. The Iris was responsible for the aids to navigation offshore Texas from the Mexican Border to the Louisiana Border and the entire Houston Ship Channel.
While offshore Texas looking at the lights of the oil platforms one night a fellow crew member said, "I'll bet there is some good money to be made servicing those lights".
In 1965 I was discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard, experienced in the service and maintenance of marine aids to navigation. I Had learned a trade but didn't know it at the time.
After my discharge and as a newly wed of a little over a year I needed a job. However all I knew was the service and maintenance of aids to navigation and the Coast Guard took care of all of them, or so I thought. Then I remembered what my fellow crew member had said about those lights on the oil platforms.
I knew there were over 49,900 federally maintained aids to navigation. However, what I did not know was that in addition, there were in excess of 49,700 private aids, of which over 28,000 are located in the Gulf of Mexico alone. These private aids to navigation are primarily located on the offshore oil platforms. This is where I would continue my career in aids to navigation.
I went to work for the Automatic Power division of Wallace & Tiernan in Houston, Texas whom was the largest manufacture of aids to navigation in the World. I knew their equipment because they were the primary supplier for the U.S. Coast Guard. At first I started out on their company boat servicing the navigation lights and fog horns on the offshore oil platforms. We would go out for fourteen (14) days and then we would have fourteen (14) days off.
Then in 1967 I was transferred to Corpus Christi, Texas where I was to head up their South Texas Sales and Service Branch. For the next two (2) years I was personally responsible for the maintenance of over 2,500 private aids to navigation. Then in 1969 they transferred me back to Houston and a new assignment.
For the next nine (9) years I traveled extensively throughout the United States, Arctic, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East and Caribbean and North Seas in the sales and service of aids to navigation. During this time I went to such exotic places as Bermuda where I sold all the lights to upgrade Hamilton Harbor from acetylene gas to electric, St. Croix in the U. S. Virgin Islands where I sold and supervised the installation of the aids to navigation for the Hess Oil Company's first terminal for Super Tankers, The Bahamas where I made routine lighthouse inspections. In fact I almost became the Director of Lighthouses for the Government of the Bahamas. However it was Alexandria, Egypt where the "Pharos Light" had been and the nearby "Great Pyramid" that impressed me the most.
I worked with the Canadian Coast Guard and Trinity House; they are the folks responsible for the lighthouses in the United Kingdom as well as other governments and oil companies world wide
Likewise I often found myself in places that were not so exotic such as Lagos, Nigeria, Bombay, India and Tehran, Iran to mention a few. It was here in Tehran on February 6, 1977 that some radical began shooting people across the street from me, less then 100 feet away. While he was changing the clip in his machine gun I took off running for my hotel where I quickly checked out and got a taxi to the airport. Upon my arrival at the airport a ticket agent asked me. "Sir where are you going?" I replied by saying when is the next plane out. He said "there is a plane to Istanbul, Turkey in about two (2) hours". My reply to him was "Istanbul well be fine"; From Istanbul I quickly got a plane to Rome, Italy. Upon arrival in Rome, there was a hijacking taking place on airport tarmac and the Carabiniere (the Italian State Police) was running around with their little machine guns. It was at this point after having traveled in fifty-three (53) different countries over the past fifteen (15) years as a Pharologist, I said, enough is enough. I was going home as the fun was over.
