Yaquina Head Lighthouse

"Moderate to fresh breezes S. To S.E. these 24 hours last 12 hours some damp fog sea moderately smooth Keeper Capt. S. L. Wass died at 2 P.M."
-February 9, 1886, keeper's log, Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

First things first, and if an assistant made this log entry, the daily weather report apparently had priority over the death of his boss. For all of the isolation of Nineteenth Century keepers at the Yaquina Head Light Station, they seem not to have had the inclination to express themselves a bit more than necessary, at least in their log. The log entries made during the eleven years of Keeper Wass's tenure were equally terse. If brevity truly is the soul of wit, these fellows were a clever lot indeed.