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

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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

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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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work for the mariner and humanity can best be in- dicated by Longfellow: “The rocky ledge runs far into the sea, And on its outer point, some miles away, The Lighthouse lifts its massive masonry, A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day. “And as the evening darkens, lo! how bright, Through the deep purple of the twilight air, Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light With strange, unearthly splendor in the glare! “Not one alone; from each projecting cape And perilous reef along the ocean’s verge, Starts into life a dim, gigantic shape, Holding its lantern o’er the restless surge. “Steadfast, serene, immovable, the same Year after year, through all that silent night Burns on forevermore that quenchless flame, Shines on that inextinguishable light! “The startled waves leap over it; the storm Smites it with all the scourges of the rain, And steadily against its solid form Press the great shoulders of the hurricane. “The sea-bird wheeling round it, with the din Of wings and winds and solitary cries, Blinded and maddened by the light within, Dashes himself against the glare, and dies. “ ‘Sail on!’ it says, ‘sail on, ye stately ships! And with your floating bridge the ocean span; Be mine to guard this light from all eclipse, Be yours to bring man nearer unto man!’ ” MONTAUK LIGHTKEEPERS: Montauk Lightkeepers Coleman and Mason are typical of the highly trained Coast Guard personnel who man many or our light- houses. 17