Continued from October 5. From the Lighthouse Friends site.
The USS George Mangham was ordered to patrol off this point between Charleston and Georgetown, South Carolina.
There are two lighthouses standing guard at Capr Romain.
Funds for the first Cape Romain Lighthouse were made available through a $10,000 appropriationm passed on March 3, 1823. The first site selected didn't pan out and another was picked. However, work did not begin until 1826 and with the cost of $17,000 more.
It was constructed on Raccoon Key (also known as Lighthouse Island) and is a traditional brick conical tower with a height of 65 feet. It was finished in 1827 and its main function was to warn mariners of some treacherous shoals nine miles southeast of the lighthouse.
However, a weak signal made the light a failure, so a new one was constructed and put into service in 1858. This one stood 150 feet tall with a first order Frensl lens
Three years after the new tower opened, Fort Sumter was fired upon just a few miles south. Confederate forces extinguished the light and even destroyed the lens and lantern room to prevent Union forces from using it.
Following the war, it we reequipped and put back into service.
--Old B-Runner
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