Roosevelt High School - Bwana Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

Page 28 text:

my-.f is VSCKN e SENTINELS OF THE SEA BOARD our Vessel all is confusion. The captain, the mate, all of the crew are running wildly from deck to deck, no one knowing just what to do. Upon inquiry we find that we are nearing the dreaded Shinnecock Shoals. The second mate knows the approxi- mate position of the ship, but an error of even one degree is sufficient to send us to destruction on those rocks, and now, to top it all, this fog has settled down on us. Life-preservers are distributed. Anxious fathers and half-crazed mothers dash to and fro gathering their family. Little children and babies, frightened by this unnatural bustle, cry-they know not just why they should, but they do. Suddenly there is a grating, scraping noise, a terrific bolt-the ship has gone aground. ln the sudden, momentary silence that hangs like a pall over the boat, we can hear the crash of waves as they break on the rocks, and we begin to wonder if life-boats can be of any use on such a sea: the answer is: they can't. Tomorrow on the second page we will at last make the headlines: St. Louisans Lost as Ship Grounds on Shoal. That might well be a true picture but for one thing-it wouldn't happen. lnstead, as we neared the shoals, we should see a light seemingly floating in space, blink, blink, blinking assuredly as we calmly and safely sailed on. The lighthouse would prevent any such catastrophe. Lighthouses have prevented such occurrences for thousands of years, until now we take them as a mere matter of course. Guiding lights for ships at sea have been known ever since the discovery of ships, it is even possible that Noah saw a lighthouse or two on his noted voyage. The ancestor of all modern lighthouses, however, is the Egyptian lighthouse at Pharos. This was a 460 foot pyramid constructed about 250 B. C. its illumination was furnished by an oak-log bonfire at the peak, and its light is reported to have been visible forty miles at sea. Because of this first great beacon, the science of lighthouses is today known as pharology, and a light is known as a pharos. Another old lighthouse was the world- famed Colossus of Rhodes, a huge, IO5-foot high representation of Apollo holding aloft a brazier in which the light for the beacon was kept burning. Colossus is reported to have stood with one foot on one side of the harbor and the other on the opposite side, and, although many doubt the story, it is known that this was a huge and unique lighthouse. Down through the ages man has constructed lighthouses, always on the tower motif, but it was not until the construction of the Eddystone light that modern lighthouses came into existence. Perhaps it would be well to recount the building of this house, for the construction demonstrates the perseverance necessary to construct a tower. ln I695 the first lighthouse was built of stone on Edclystone point off the coast of England, but this was destroyed by a gale. ln 1706 a second tower of oak timbers was constructed, and, just to show Twenty-four

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kt is 2 'Feed Plane. '+ Service. Room 'TZ' -Bed R..,,. Living Roof: 'Stow-gin, Bo.,-,, - ' ' Room 'S C oncrmu. HelYfIvxZ THE INTERIOR OF A LIGHTHOUSE. ly-five