Elinor's Lighthouse Curiosities

Below are a few curious images related to lighthouses. Enjoy!

Aerial Lighthouse

On a recent trip to Dayton, Ohio, my friend Bruce Robie visited the Air Force Museum and found this unusual bit of trivia—-
Caravans were used in the United Kingdom in the past to help pilots and navigators find their positions. The roof of each caravan had a glass enclosure that held a beacon. It flashed a single-letter Morse signal visible for sixty miles. Caravans were mobile units. Pilots and navigators had to be briefed as to where the beacons were and what signals they emitted. If espionage was suspected, the codes were changed.
The museum noted: “Except for the fact that they changed locations, they were not unlike the light beacons used in the United States in the early days of aviation.”
In fact, the Lighthouse Service established an Airways Division in 1926 to assist “ships of the air.” It was transferred to another agency in the early 1930s.
With a little imagination, we can even say GPS is a modern-day collection of aerial lighthouses….with invisible beacons.

Dutch Lighthouse Sculpture

On a visit to Den Helder, Holland in 2000 I photographed this interesting artwork of a lighthouse and a boat on the dike surrounding the city. It was only a few hundred feet from my hotel. The Dutch Navy is headquartered in Den Helder. There's also a beautiful lighthouse along the dike, and a maritime museum and the Texel Lightship in town. It's no wonder the artist chose a nautical theme for the sculpture.

Rest in Peace

I photographed this gravestone in a churchyard in Lewes, Delaware. Sure looks like a lighthouse to me! It also resembles certain Christian symbols, but then lighthouses are religiously symbolic too. You decide.

Man Holds up Lighthouse with Bare Hands!

Or so it seems! Actually, this guy is my husband, Jonathan, having a little fun for the camera in front of New Brunswick's Mullholland Lighthouse. Jon has had a lot on his shoulders over the years, including a long career in the U.S. Navy, a wife who always takes "the path less traveled," two zany kids, and now...this lighthouse. He's smiled through it all.

A Lighthouse Doghouse

I've seen a number of lighthouse doghouses in my travels, but this one takes the dog bone! It belongs to Wiggins, the handsome Golden retriever at Rose Island Light, Rhode Island. Wiggins' poochy palace doubles as a teaching tool and is designed to demonstrate how water is caught on the roof of Rose Island Light and fed into the cistern. Wiggins was kind enough to donate his dog bowl to serve as a cistern. His special doghouse gets carted around to schools and youth groups. Kids love learning about water conservation from Wiggins' doghouse. Cheers to the Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation and Charlotte Johnson for designing such a clever educational tool!

Peculiar Daymark

We all know St. Augustine Lighthouse has black and white spiral stripes and a red hat. This postcard designer took serious artistic license and gave the lighthouse red stripes. (Red Stripe--I thought that was a brand of Jamaican beer!) The only top to bottom red-striped lighthouses I know in the United States are West Quoddy Light and White Shoals Light. Can anyone add to that list? Email me if you know any other red-striped U.S. lights.

Christmas Seal

Christmas Seals have been around a long time. They raise money to fight lung disease. I always donate to the American Lung Association at Christmas, hoping they'll find a cure for emphysema. (It took my father in 1992.) In 1941, the ALA seals featured a snowy lighthouse scene. The tower looks a lot like Highland Light on Cape Cod.

Cape Meares Cap

Nice hat! My daughter Jessica stepped in front of Cape Meares Lighthouse to wear its cupola as a hat.

Fancy Fingernails

I met this gal at Hereford Inlet Lighthouse in 2000 during the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge. She had a set of gorgeous lighthouse fingernails made, just for the challenge. Neat! I don't recall her name, but I remember she was from Massachusetts. She had made the trip to New Jersey to visit all of the Garden State Lighthouses during the challenge. My husband snapped a picture of her hands on mine.

Lighthouse Tiara

My nickname among friends is the "Lighthouse Queen," and here you see the proof. I'm wearing Concord Point Lighthouse, in Maryland, as a tiara with a white veil. (Too bad a tree got into the picture on the left.) My family loves taking fun pictures. Here's another one below.

Incredible Giant Woman Saves Lighthouse from Falling Over!

Holding up a lighthouse takes lots of muscle. It's a job for the "Fifty-foot Woman!" My daughter, Jessica, snapped this photo of me at Fisgard Lighthouse, British Columbia, in 1998. A little camera work made me look like a giant holding up the lighthouse.

Don't Drink and Shine!

This is a colorful cartoon in my collection. The message is--Lightkeepers should not drink, or they might imagine seeing sea monsters. In nautical parlance, a Jonah is a crewman who jinxes a ship. Sailors were superstitious about many things. Having a Jonah on board might bring on a storm or some other catastrophe. Jonah, of course, refers to the Biblical Jonah who was swallowed by a whale.

Check back occasionally. I'll add more curiosities over the coming months.