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When the Boston Lighthouse was first lit 300 years ago today,
sailors called on New England ports in wooden ships, pirates roamed
the Atlantic Coast and the 13 colonies were under the British crown.
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Aerial view of the Boston Light Station on Little Brewster Island,
Massachusetts. America's oldest aid to navigation was first lit on
Sept. 14, 1716 and is nine nautical miles from Boston. (Photo
courtesy of the National Park Service, 2016)
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The light, which still guides mariners around Boston
Harbor's shoals, was the first of thousands of American Aids
to Navigation (ATON) that have saved lives, protected
property and enabled prosperity for the last three
centuries.
Located on Little Brewster Island,
Massachusetts, nine nautical miles from Boston, the
lighthouse was first lit on Sept. 14, 1716, using tallow
candles. Today, the Boston Light has two 2 million
candlepower lights that can be seen from 27 nautical miles
away.
Sally Snowman is the U.S. Coast Guard's only
remaining assigned lighthouse keeper. In 2003, she became
the 70th Boston Lighthouse keeper and the first female to
hold the position.
Snowman said the city and the
region have grown because of the light.
“Massachusetts prospered with Boston Harbor emerging as an
international port in the 19th century,” said Snowman. “For
this to have occurred, the entrance to Boston Harbor needed
to be properly marked to reduce the significant loss of life
and cargo due to shipwrecks occurring on the ominous
ledges.”
“Boston Light was built as the first major
Aid to Navigation in Colonial America to the mark the
entrance and continues to provide this service today,” said
the Weymouth, Massachusetts, native who earned doctorates in
Education and Metaphysical Science.
Snowman said the
Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park offers weekend
tours of the Boston Lighthouse in the summer.
During
tours, Snowman dresses in formal clothes from 1783, the year
that the Boston Lighthouse was rebuilt. British forces
destroyed original structure during the Revolutionary War.
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August 8, 2016 - Sally Snowman, keeper of Boston Lighthouse,
observes the rotation of lighthouse's 1859 Fresnel lens on Little Brewster Island in Boston Harbor. Boston Light is the last permanently staffed Coast Guard lighthouse in the country.
(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Andrew Barresi)
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As a part of her duties, Snowman manages more than 70
volunteers and maintains the lighthouse, keeper's cottage
and other buildings on the three-acre island.
“My
favorite thing about working as the lighthouse keeper is the
diversity of the job, which is also its uniqueness,
requiring the ability to multitask and changing the
scheduled agenda as quickly as the New England weather,”
said Snowman.
Designated as a National Historic
Landmark in 1964, the Boston Light is one of nine
lighthouses honored in the Coast Guard Headquarters in
Washington, D.C. Lighthouses from the Coast Guard's nine
districts have elevators named after them in the
headquarters.
The storied landmark is located in the
1st Coast Guard District, the Boston-based command that
covers northeast waterways from New Jersey to Maine.
On August 7, 1789, with the ninth law it passed, Congress
created the U.S. Lighthouse Establishment to provide
“support, maintenance and repairs of all lighthouses,
beacons, (and) buoys.” The service would later be called the
U.S. Lighthouse Service or Bureau of Lighthouses.
After 150 years of keeping the lights shining, the
Lighthouse Service was incorporated into the U.S. Coast
Guard in 1939. August 7 is designated as National Lighthouse
Day in the United States.
Managed by the U.S. Coast
Guard Office of Navigation Systems and maintained by Coast
Guard cutters and ATON teams around the nation, Aids to
Navigation enable navigators to determine their position,
chart a safe course and steer clear of hazards.
From
the lone Boston Light, the Coast Guard Aids to Navigation
system has grown to include more than 48,000 Federal buoys,
beacons, and electronic aids that mark the more than 25,000
miles of waterways that make up the U.S. Marine
Transportation System or MTS.
In addition to
protecting mariners and the waters they traverse, the U.S.
Coast Guard also keeps America's economy on course.
With the majority of trade flowing into the U.S. from the
sea, the Coast Guard ATON system safeguards the marine cargo
transportation that generated $4.6 trillion of economic
activity and accounted for more than a quarter of the U.S.
Gross Domestic Product in 2015.
“More than 73 million
Americans are involved in maritime commerce, commercial
fishing and recreational boating on our waterways, and we
help them to get home safely,” said Capt. Scott J. Smith,
the chief of the U.S. Coast Guard Office of Navigation
Systems.
“Our vast Aids to Navigation system started
with the Boston Lighthouse and we celebrate its enduring
contribution to our nation, our economy and our maritime
heritage,” said Smith.
By Walter Ham, U.S. Coast Guard HQ
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2016
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