Frank Perry

After World War II, Coast Guard personnel replaced civilian keepers at East Brother. Their duties, though remained much the same as those of their predecessors. They tended the station around the clock, watching over the light each night and, when necessary, operating the diaphone. There was still the work of cleaning the lens, checking the backup systems, doing painting and other routine maintenance work, and regularly ferrying groceries and supplies from shore to the island.

The decade of the 1850s could well be called the"Age of the Clipper." They were the sleekest and swiftest of merchant sailing vessels. The Carrier Pigeon measured 175 feet long and just 34 feet wide. She was rated at about 845 tons burden and had a beautiful gilded pigeon as a figurehead. Launched from the shipyards at Bath, Maine, in the fall of 1852, the Carrier Pigeon departed Boston on her maiden voyage January 28, 1853. The ship took the waves with ease as she rounded Cape Horn and sailed north along the western edge of the Americas toward San Francisco.