Book Description

Romances innumerable have been woven around the flaming guardians of the coast, but it is doubtful whether any purely imaginative work is so fascinating and absorbing as the plain unvarnished narrative of how some famous lightship or lighthouse has been brought into existence. And the story of construction is equalled in every way by that relating to the operation and maintenance of the light, against all odds, for the guidance of those who have business upon the ocean. This volume is not a history of lightships and lighthouses; neither is it a technical treatise. Rather my object has been to relate how the difficulties, peculiar and prodigious, have been overcome by the builders in their efforts to mark some terrible danger-spots, both on the mainland and isolated sea-rocks. While the lines of the lightship and lighthouse are familiar to all, popular knowledge concerning the internal apparatus of the building or ship is somewhat hazy. Therefore I have explained, with technicalities simplified as much as possible, the equipment of the tower and vessel, and the methods whereby both visual and audible warnings are given. The very latest developments in this field of engineering and science are incorporated, so as to render the subject as comprehensive as possible within the limits of a single volume. In the compilation of this book I have received the heartiest assistance from those who are prominently associated with the work of providing adequate aids to navigation, and am particularly indebted to the engineers to the Commissioners of Northern Lights, Messrs. D. and C. Stevenson;vi Lieutenant-Colonel William P. Anderson, the Engineer-in-Chief to the Lighthouse Department of the Canadian Government; the various officials of the Lighthouse Board of the United States of America; the Engineer-in-Chief to the French Service des Phares; the lighthouse authorities of New South Wales and New Zealand; Mr. Gustaf Dalén and his assistants; Messrs.