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Hope Town Lighthouse HistoryThe Elbow Reef Lighthouse at Hope TownA
brief history and how it works.
As
wrecks abounded throughout the Bahamas in the early nineteenth century,
concerned shipping interests implored the British Imperial Lighthouse
Service, London, to increase their navigational aids in their colonies.
Starting in 1836, they built eleven major lighthouses in the Bahamas
Islands. With wrecks on the increase in the Hope Town area, the Imperial Lighthouse Service built the Elbow Reef Lighthouse in 1864, but not without some sabotage from the locals whose major source of income was from wrecking and salvaging. When first built, the lighthouse showed a standing light: that is, it did not flash. In 1936 the Imperial Lighthouse Service saw the need for a light which could be more easily identified by ships at sea. Thus, the Elbow Reef Lighthouse was given a major refit using the lenses and turning equipment which had been at the Gun Cay Lighthouse since 1929. The rotating Fresnel lenses have a unique character described on the nautical charts as, "GP FL W(5) EV 15 SEC 120 FT 15M." - a group of five white flashes every fifteen seconds at 120 feet above sea level with a visibility of fifteen nautical miles. The tower is 89 feet high with 101 step to the lantern room. In 1954 cracks in the tower caused by lightning precipitated another major rebuilding process. Engineers from England poured concentric rings of concrete in steps around the previously smooth tapering brick tower. The lighting and turning equipment was made by the Chance Brothers of England. The light source is a 325,000 candlepower "Hood" petroleum vapour burner. A hand pump is used to pressurize the kerosene in iron containers below the lantern room and travels up a tube to a vaporizer which sprays into a pre-heated mantle. The beautiful Fresno lenses called "bull's-eyes" concentrate the mantle's light into a piercing beam straight out towards the horizon. The eight thousand pound Fresnel lenses float in a circular tub of lubricant thereby reducing friction. Every two hours the keeper on duty has to wind, to the top of the tower, seven hundred pounds of weight by means of a hand winch. The descending weights, through a series of bronze gears, rotate the four-ton apparatus once around every 15 seconds -- and very smoothly, at that. The smooth sweep of the turning lenses with their five swords of light cutting the darkness over the sea while the light constantly glows between those beams is known as the "soul" of a lighthouse. Once seen and compared to an electric flashing light, it is not soon forgotten and the use of the word "soul" is more easily understood. In 1995 a non-profit historical and educational society was formed dedicated to the preservation of these lighthouses. |
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