United States Merchant Marine Academy - Midships Yearbook (Kings Point, NY)

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ICE COVERED LIGHT: One of the many problems of a Lightkceper! in the light. Do you know what I mean? Can you possibly know—you, born in a city not knowing what it is to be in a ship, in peril?” He protested, without avail. “I’ll wait,” Johnny promised. “All my life I’ll wait for you, Grace.” Time slipped away after Johnny left, and it was on the afternoon tide, Wednesday, September 5, 1838, that the sidewheeler FORFARSHIRE left her pier bound for Dundee. Nearing the Farne Islands, the FORFARSHIRE began to experience bad weather. It was not long before the vessel lay helplessly tattered and torn, wallowing in the storm-tossed sea, bound for destruction. It was just about dawn when Keeper Darling was roused and, dazed, looked into the agonized eyes of his twenty-two year old daughter. She said, “I haven’t slept all night. I couldn’t. I felt something was wrong out there, so I took your telescope ... I saw a ship, broken into two parts and people clinging to wreckage . . .” Her voice stifled; the shrieking winds and roaring seas, pounding the rocks, created an inferno of wild nightmare noise. “But there’s nothing we can do, Grace,” her father told her. “In this weather it would be crazy even to try to help. We can’t get our boat away, not in this!” “Can’t? We’ve got to. Can we leave those stricken people out there without help?” famed, devoted Lightkeeper. The reliance seafarers place upon the precise functioning of a lighthouse demands this. The life of the Lightkeeper is one of hard work, tireless devotion, just rewards, and often unjust punishments. Confined to a small area for long periods of time, fighting the agonies of loneliness and the wrath of the wind and sea with no more solace than a fleeting prayer, the Lightkeeper copes every day with problems many of us never truly experience. Often one may pick up the papers and read about the heroic and tragic death of the Lightkeepers, perform- ing their duty against overwhelming odds. One such incident is the “Legend of Longstone Light.” For years the Longstone Light stood upon the outermost main rock of the Farne Islands, five miles from North Sunderland, England. William Darling, its keeper, had raised nine children within the confiines of the small four-room living quarters of the tower. Grace, his sixth child, had spent her entire life on the tiny island and was well accustomed to the rigors of tending the light. It was a choppy day when a small stocky Trinity House supply ship arrived at the island. A man and a boy rowed ashore, careful not to break the new lens the}’ were bringing to Longstone. The boy was Johnny Wheldon. The meeting of Johnny and Grace was one of affection at first sight, and before he left. Johnny told her, “You know what I mean to do? I’m going to earn enough money to set up a home of my own . . . and there’s nobody I’d ever want to share it with more than you.” Timidly Grace replied, “Johnny, I like you, a lot, nearly as much as I like anything that really matters in life. But I could never leave here; never leave the Longstone Light, for it means everything to every ship and every seaman passing the island. They depend on us, and I can’t fail the trust those men put

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TRANSMITTING GEAR: The increasing dependence upon electronics as an aid to navigation has added a new vitality to the lighthouse. Radio Direction Finding signals are transmitted at specific times by this actuating cam device. The lower cam is used to actuate the fog signal. AUXILIARY GEAR: Lighthouses must be ready to function in spite of every emergency. This auxiliary rotating device rotates the lens as a weight slowly falls within the tower, unwinding the cables as it does. KEEPER AND KEROSENE LANTERN: In an emer- gency, a kerosene lantern may be substituted for an electric bulb. emergency occurs that the beacon cannot be rotated by the electric motor provided, the wire is wound upon the drum raising the weight to the top of the tower. Once released the weight descends to- ward the base of the tower, turning the lens as it progresses downward on its sustained four-hour jour- ney. A small kerosene lantern, substituted for the electric bulb, is then all that is needed to make the lighthouse useful once more. In recent years, the lighthouse has assumed an even greater role than it has held before. Electronics has created a new life for the lighthouse. Electronic navigation is no longer a thing of the future, but a reality of the present. Strategically located light- stations throughout the coasts of the free world transmit electronic data enabling vessels to take radio directional bearings on them. Such signals are actu- ated at certain specified intervals by a complex timing device regulated by one of three IBM clocks, the other two acting as a spare and a check on the clock in use. The actual signals transmitted are produced by a cam device whose axis rotates as a speed regulated by the timing mechanism. Thus, through the marvels of electronics, continuous overlapping radio signals be- tween beacons aid the mariner in coastal and offshore navigation. The world has reached a stage where there is a great deal of emphasis placed on automated instruments and machinery, much of it performing jobs once held by men. Nevertheless, it has become apparent that even with all the advantages machines may have over man, they will never replace him. No matter how complex or useful a machine may be, there must be a man’s skill, ingenuity, and constant care behind its operation. It is for this reason that a vast majority of lighthouses throughout the world still employ the 14

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MAKAPUU LIGHT: The austere life of many Lightkeepers is typified by the location of Makapuu Point Light high above the eastern tip of Oahu Island. WOMAN LIGHTKEEPER: Contrary to popular opin- ion, women play an integral role in the maintenance of many lighthouses. “We’d be mad to try.” “Then let’s try, and, if we must, die mad!” They unshipped their small boat and, braving the mountainous seas, managed to rescue four men and a woman from the stricken vessel. News of the heroic rescue against all odds spread throughout Britain. But the battle Grace Darling fought took its toll. Catching a severe cold as a result of the rescue experience, Grace died on the mainland soon after. To this day a framed oak plaque is affixed to the bulkhead of Longstone Light: GRACE HORSLEY DARLING, DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM DARLING, THE LIGHT- KEEPER, ON THE 7th. SEPTEMBER 183S ASSISTED HER FATHER AT GREAT PER- SONAL RISK TO RESCUE THE SURVIVORS OF THE CREW OF THE FORFARSHIRE WHICH HAD STRUCK ON THE ADJOINING ISLAND. And what of Johnny Yheldon? Maybe in memory of the laughing girl he fell in love with at their first meeting, he established a well-known publishing com- pany in London and printed books on the wildlife of the northeast coast of Britain. But Johnny never married. Perhaps the true spirit of the lighthouse and its 16