Many people are amazed when they learn lighthouses exist on the Great Lakes. Geography lessons taught in our nationa's schools appear to have failed to impress upon the students the vast size of the Great Lakes and their importance in the development of our nation. The five major Great Lakes are inland seas, hundreds of miles long, studded with major cities and lined with lighthouses (both Canadian and American).
Columbus visited Puerto Rico during his second voyage to the New World (17 to 22 November, 1493) and dubbed it San Juan Bautista (although it was called Borinquin by the natives). In 1508 the Governor of Haiti rewarded the services of Juan Ponce de Leon, who had accompanied Columbus during his 2nd voyage, by permitting him to explore the island in search of gold.
Looking seaward from Western Australia's largest port at Fremantle, Rottnest Island rises from the cerulean swells of the Indian Ocean like a sea serpent basking in the sun. Though 17 miles from shore, its gray-green hills cut a sharp profile against the bright sky and deep blue water. All ships arriving from the west and bound for ports in western and southern Australia make landfall here, laden with cargoes of automobiles, electronics, heavy equipment, and exotic goods from the Orient.
In 1861 Italy was finally unified and Tuscany became part of the Kingdom of Italy, ruled by King Emanuele II of Savoia. In 1863 the situation of the harbor-channel of Viareggio became of primary relevance again. There was still the problem of the sand shoals always moving; a sea storm was enough to close the entrance of the channel and of the harbor.
The Tuscan Archipelago is formed by a group of seven major islands, the largest of which is Elba. The other islands are Gorgona, Capraia, Pianosa, Montecristo, Giglio and Giannutri, plus some minor shallows and rocks located between the mainland of Tuscany and Corsica. All these islands are part of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park. The archipelago is washed by four seas: the Ligurian Sea in the north, Piombino Channel to the east, the Tyrrhenian Sea to the south and the Corsica Channel at the west.
For 163 years, between, 1820 and 1983, our government employed lightships to mark dangerous shoals and harbor entrances. They were placed in locations where was impractical to construct a lighthouse. The first three lightships, more boats ships, were established in the lower Chesapeake Bay in 1820. Over the years more more lightship stations were established. The heyday of lightships in this country was 1915, when 76 vessels were designated to mark 55 stations.
Scotland's coastline is mostly rock and crag, ideal for the siting of lighthouses. The need for lightships was therefore minimal and, except for special situations such as during World War II, there were only three manned light vessel stations, all in the same general area.
The opening of the Erie Canal in 1822 brought the outside world to the Great Lakes. The huge increase in vessel traffic dictated the establishment of lighthouses and other aids to navigation. But in that era, with Stephen Pleasonton in charge of our aids to navigation system, the placement of aids was not always done in a logical manner. Some were established for political reasons, others in response to a "squeaky wheel."
It was 1888, when as a youth, I hewed out a cedar canoe on Black Lake, near Olympia, Washington, and shoved thru the brush down the Black and Chehalis Rivers. This canoe went over the ancient voyagers route to a new beginning in the remote area known as Grays Harbor. The saw mills and logging were new then and jobs were hard to find. I picked up a notice at the Hoquiam Post Office stating a channel lamp keeper was needed paying $12 per month. I found the proper authority, met the qualifications, and was hired at once.
Huge gray waves still swept out of the darkness to meet the long steel hull of the ore freighter Champlain, but the worst was over now. Snow and spray no longer rattled like buckshot off the pilot house windows, and the scream of the winds had died almost to a whisper. First Mate Herbert Dupuie had the watch, thankful that the November gale had almost blown itself out. Lake Erie was still a wild expanse of churning waters, but the 80-mile-an-hour winds that had blown the tops off mountainous seas had died away and the heavy snows were past.