W.H.C. Whiting Announces Completion of C. Lookout Lighthouse-- Part 3

The color of the tower is red, and the focal plane is 156 feet above the level of the sea.

The keeper's dwelling, which is part of the old tower, is painted red with  white horizontal stripes.

The illuminating apparatus  is a catadioptric Frensel lens of the first order, showing a fixed light of the natural color, which should be visible in ordinary weather a distance of 22 nautical miles.

The position of the light-house, as given by the Coast Survey, is:

Latitude 34 degrees 30 minutes 29 seconds north
Longitude  76 degrees 30 minutes 41 seconds west of Greenwich

The new light-house will be lighted for he first time at sunset  on Tuesday, the first day of November next, and it will be kept burning  during that and every night thereafter until further orders.

By  order of the Light-house Board:

W.R. FRANKLIN, Secretary

Treasury Department
Office Light-house Board, Sept. 19, 1859
Sep 24-3t

Of course, it was turned off less than two years later.  So, the original color was red, instead of the diamonds associated with it today.

--Old B-Runner

W.H.C. Whiting Announces Completion of Cape Lookout Lighthouse-- Part 2: We'll Leave the Light On for You

An announcement about the completion of the North Carolina lighthouse was run in several newspapers.  The one below is from the September 28, 1859, issue of the  the Constitution, a newspaper from the District of Columbia.  It is a notice from W.H.C. Whiting, Corps of Engineers of the United States Army that the lighthouse was fully complete.

OFFICIAL

NOTICE TO MARINERS
________

CAPE LOOKOUT LIGHT-HOUSE, COAST OF NORTH CAROLINA

Fixed Light

Official information has been received at this office from Captain W.H.C. Whiting, corps of engineers United States army, that the new light-house at Cape Lookout has been completed.

The tower is a frustum of a cone.  It is built of brick, and is surmounted by  an iron lantern painted black.

--Old B-Runner

W.H.C. Whiting Announces the Completion of the Cape Lookout Light-House-- Part 1

From NCGENWEB PROJECT  October 10, 2009, "Cape Lookout Lighthouse Anniversary."  By Taneya Koonce.  Family researcher Mark Green posted about this .  His ancestor Joseph Fulford donated the land for the lighthouse back in 1805.

October 10, 2009, marks the 150th anniversary of the second (and still current) lighthouse which was built under the auspices of Captain W.H.C. Whiting, Corps of Engineers of the United States Army.

That would be our W.H.C. Whiting of Wilmington and Fort Fisher fame.

--Old B-Runner

Destruction of the Cape Lookout (NC) Lighthouse-- Part 2:

They failed to bring the light house down, but did significant damage to it.  L.C. Harland's attempt destroyed the light house oil supply and damaged the iron stairs on the interior.  With iron unavailable during the war, the damaged sections of iron were replaced with wooden ones.

The Fresnel lenses from all over North Carolina were found at Raleigh in 1865.    The lenses were shipped back to their original manufacturers to be checked out and repaired.

In 1867, the temporary wooden stairs were replaced with iron ones and the original  first-order Frensel  lens was reinstalled.

In 1873, it was painted in its distinctive black and white diagonal, checkerboard, or diamond, pattern.

--Old B-Runner

Destruction of Cape Lookout (NC) Lighthouse April 2, 1864-- Part 1

I mentioned this in the last post.

This lighthouse was designed and construction overseen by Captain W.H.C. Whiting, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the cost of $45,000 and lit November 1, 1859.  It was the second lighthouse at the site and it still stands.

It had a first-order Fresnel Lens which allowed the light to shine brighter.  On May 20, 1861, North Carolina seceded from the United States.  All lenses were removed from coastal lighthouses as well as navigational beacons to prevent Union forces from using them to navigate southern coasts.

Union forces captured Beaufort and Morehead City, N.C. in  1862 and by the end of the the next year they had a 3rd-order Fresnel Lens installed in the Cape Lookout Lighthouse.

On April 2, 1864, a small group of Confederates under the command of L.C. Harland were able to get out to the lighthouse with intent to destroy it.  They failed.

--Old B-R'er