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Cape Lookout Light (Cape Lookout National Seashore, North Carolina)
The current Cape Lookout Lighthouse was
built in 1859 and is the second lighthouse to have been built at this location. Cape Lookout is at the lower end of a string of islands referred to as the Outer Banks of North Carolina. There are five lighthouses on the Outer Banks: Currituck Light in Corolla, Bodie Island Light on Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras Light on Hatteras Island, Ocracoke Light on Ocracoke Island, and Cape Lookout light on South Core Banks. All but Ocracoke Light are coastal lights. The Ocracoke Light is a harbor light and has a less powerful beam. Except for the Ocracoke Light, the
lighthouses are stationed approximately 40 miles apart.
This spacing was chosen so that when a ship was beginning to lose sight
of one lighthouse the next lighthouse would be coming into view.
These lighthouses were constructed to help ships navigate around the
treacherous shoals that extend out from the Outer Banks – Diamond Shoals
originates at Cape Hatteras (see write-up on Cape Hatteras Light) and Lookout
Shoals originates at Cape Lookout. Cape Lookout Shoals are 21 miles long. The
area was referred to as the Graveyard of the Atlantic due to the numerous
shipwrecks that occurred there. Congress authorized a light station for Cape
Lookout in 1804. It was the forth lighthouse built in North Carolina – the
first being Bald Head Island Light Station, and next two being the original Cape
Hatteras Light and the Ocracoke Inlet light on Shell Castle Island. The
lighthouse was completed in 1812 just prior to the war of 1812. It was a double walled structure that had a cylindrical brick
tower in the center surrounded by a hexagonal
wooden structure on the outside. The wooden exterior had cedar shingles that
were painted with red and white horizontal stripes. The tower was 96 feet tall. From the beginning, the 1804 lighthouse had
problems. The spider lamps
initially used were too weak. The light was often visible to only nine miles. New Lewis lamps were installed in 1815, but these too proved
to be insufficient. A new lighthouse was needed.
Because the light towers looked so much
alike, the mariners could not tell them apart, so in 1873 the Lighthouse Board
design easily distinguishable paint schemes for the four coastal lights on the
Outer Banks. Currituck Light was not to be painted, but was to be left as red
brick, Bodie Island Light was to have alternating black and white horizontal
bands, Cape Hatteras was to be painted with black and white spiral bands, and
Cape Lookout was to be painted with a black and white checked design. The Cape lookout checkered design (which
actually appear as diamond shapes) had even more significance then just
identifying the light as Cape Lookout. The black diamonds are oriented in a
north-south direction and the white diamonds are oriented in an east-west
direction. The black diamonds face towards the shallow waters surrounding the
headlands and Back Sound and the white diamonds face Onslow Bay to the west and
Raleigh’s Bay to the east where the waters as much deeper. During unfavorable
sailing conditions the ships would anchor offshore. The white diamond side of
the tower showed them were anchoring was safe. There are those who believe the Cape
Hatteras Light and the Cape Lookout Light paint schemes were reversed. This
belief arose since the Cape Hatteras Light protects ships from Diamond Shoals
and should therefore have the diamond pattern.
I suppose an argument can be made on both sides, however, due to the
specific orientation of the Cape Lookout checkered pattern and the usefulness of
this orientation to the Cape Lookout area, it seems to me that the Lighthouse
Board had correctly planned this paint scheme for Cape Lookout.
The lights used in the tower were upgraded
as new technology was introduced. The
Argand parabolic reflector lamps were replaced with a incandescent oil vapor
lamps and then in 1933 the light was electrified.
In 1950 the light was automated.
The 1st-order Fresnel lens was removed in 1972 and two
24-inch diameter 1000-watt aerobeacons (DCB-24) were installed.
Each lamp produces 800,000 candlepower beams that are visible at
distances up to 20 miles. The light appears as a short flashing light at
15-second intervals. The light remains on 24 hours a day. The Fresnel lens was
initially on display at the Coast Guard Support Center in Portsmouth, Virginia,
but in 1994 it was installed in the Block Island South East Lighthouse in Rhode
Island. The Lighthouse is a part of Cape Lookout
National Seashore that official opened on July 4, 1976. It consists of a 56 mile
long string of islands that extend from Beaufort Inlet to Ocracoke. Directions: The
lighthouse can only be reached by boat although it can be seen at a distance
from Harkers Island. There are several private ferries that leave from Harkers
Island that will take you out to the lighthouse and pick you up at a later time. |
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All pictures are the original work of Rick Totton and are protected under copyright laws. Do not reproduce any images from this website without permission of the author. Copyright (c) 2000 Rick Totton.
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In 1857, Congress appropriated $45,000 to
build a new lighthouse that was completed in 1859.
