In the Spotlight: Lighthouses of the OBX

April 2011

We love to visit lighthouses. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, we seek out these beacons that are designed to guide seafarers safely through treacherous waters. We may not always climb to the top, but we certainly always enjoy them from the ground.

During this trip, we had the opportunity to see not one, but four lighthouses. Actually, we saw five, but I posted about the one in Manteo in a separate post already. (See the map to the right for the locations of the four lighthouses of the OBX.)

I could use my own words to summarize the information I gleaned from guidebooks and pamphlets we picked up during our week-long stay in the OBX. But why? The Insiders’ Guide: North Carolina’s Outer Banks has already done the job for me, so I’ll quote from the guide instead. (Let’s face it, I can use all the help I can get. I’m way behind on these posts and I need to get them done before our upcoming non-motorhome vacation in July.)

More than a dozen ships a day carried cargo and crew along Outer Banks waterways by the dawn of the 19th century. Schooners, sloops, sailboats, and new steamers all journeyed around the sounds and across the oceans, often dangerously close to the coast, in search of the ever-shifting and shoaling inlets.

At that time waterways were the country’s primary highways, and North Carolina’s barrier islands were part of most eastern routes.

The lighthouse at Cape Hatteras was one of the first OBX Beacons to be authorized.
today’s lighthouse is the third one to be illuminated on the original site;
more than 1,000,000 bricks were used in its construction.

Hurricanes and nor’easters took many boats by surprise, ending their voyages and hundreds of lives. Alexander Hamilton dubbed the ocean off the barrier islands “the Graveyard of the Atlantic” because its shoals became the burying grounds for so many ships. In an attempt to help seamen navigate the treacherous shoals, the federal government authorized the Banks’ first lighthouses in 1794: one at Cape Hatteras in the fishing village of Buxton and the other in Ocracoke’s harbor, on a half-mile-long, 60-mile wide pile of oyster shells dubbed Shell Castle Island. Shell Castle Lighthouse first illuminated the Atlantic in 1798. The Cape Hatteras beacon was finally erected in 1802. Two subsequent structures have sat on the same Buxton spot, but the Shell Castle beacon has long since succumbed to the sea.

The historic double keeper's quarters (assistant keepers' house; on the left) and the
principal keeper's house (on the right) were moved when the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
was moved inland to its present-day location.

Ship captains complained that the early lighthouses were unreliable and too dim. Vessels continued to smash into the shoals. So in 1823 the federal government financed a 65-foot-high lighthouse on Ocracoke Island. Whitewashed with a glass tower set slightly askew on its top, it is the oldest (**) lighthouse still standing in North Carolina.

[** Signage at the lighthouse identified it as the second oldest in the state.]

Ocracoke lighthouse survived the Civil War with minimal damage. Confederate troops dismantled
the fourth-order Fresnel lens early on, but in 1864 Union forces re-installed it.
According to the recently uncovered original directive, the lighthouse was to have been painted
in alternating bands of red and white. The keeper's house is now a private residence

Officials raised the Cape Hatteras tower to 150 feet in 1854. Five years later two new Outer Banks beacons were built, at Cape Lookout and on Bodie Island, both of which were improved and rebuilt in later years.

On December 16, 1870 the third lighthouse at Cape Hatteras was illuminated. Standing 208 feet tall and using a multifaceted lens to refract its beam across miles of sea, this spiral striped structure is the tallest brick lighthouse in the world.

Pronounced “body,” bodie island lighthouse is closed for restoration.
Unfortunately all work has come to a screeching halt, we were told, due to lack of funds.
Whether funding will be provided in the 2012 fiscal year budget for the National Park Service is TBD.

the Lighthouse is more than ½-mile from the sea; it sits in the middle of a marsh teeming with birdlife.

Currituck Beach’s red brick beacon was the last major lighthouse to be built on the barrier island beaches. The 150-foot tower was completed in 1875. It watches over the Whalehead Club, near the western shores of Corolla. It is the only unpainted lighthouse on the Outer Banks.

Currituck Beach Lighthouse is the northernmost beacon on the OBX.

Glimpse of the lighthouse from the Whalehead Club (on the grounds of Currituck Heritage Park).

You might have noticed that each of the lighthouses featured here have a different paint scheme. This was done to help seafarers identify the beacons as they sailed along the coast. Another means for identifying the lighthouses was the cycle of the light — some were steady, others blinked on and off at different, pre-specified intervals.

Our intent on this trip was to climb the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Bad planning on our part. We should have climbed Currituck when we had the chance; it was the first one we visited and there was no waiting to climb the 214 steps to the top. It turns out that Ocracoke was not open for climbing; the lines at Cape Hatteras were way too long (busloads of school kids on spring break); and of course, Bodie was closed for renovations. Oh well; we’ll have other opportunities to get up close and personal with the guiding lights that shine out into the inky darkness of night.

Before I end this post … an interesting aspect of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (aka America’s Lighthouse) is that it no longer stands where it was built. In 1999, to save the lighthouse from the encroaching sea, the beacon was moved 1,600 feet (488 m) inland to a position that puts it at the same distance it was to the sea when it was built in 1870. While at the lighthouse, we watched an interesting video documenting the move. What an achievement. A job well done.

The old sea wall near the original site of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse.

The original location, now 120 feet (37 m) from the water, is marked by a ring of granite foundation
blocks. the names of the 83 keepers who served at the lighthouse are engraved on the blocks.

From here to there … and a B&W look at today's lighthouse from where it once stood on the beach
(the historic photo inset was downloaded from the NPS website).

For more photographs of the lighthouses of the OBX, visit my online gallery here.

In the Spotlight: Ocracoke Village

19 April 2011

After stopping off at the Ocracoke Pony Pasture (post here), we continued on to Ocracoke Village, located at the southern tip of Ocracoke Island. A brochure we had picked up when we first arrived in the OBX provided us with all the guidance we needed to explore the area, starting with a stop at the US Navy Beach Jumper Marker on Loop Shack Hill.

Ocracoke Village map showing points of interest; the areas we visited are marked.
[scanned from brochure]

The marker is right on Route 12, just before you enter the village proper. But it’s easy to miss if you’re not looking for it. I’m glad we stopped here as we learned about the top-secret WW II US Navy project called the Beach Jumpers, the precursor, if you will, to today’s elite Navy Seals.

In 1943, Ocracoke hosted an advanced amphibious training base where tactical cover and deception units were organized and trained. These units also monitored German u-boat activity off the coast during the war. This undercover military project apparently existed in other prime locations along the eastern seaboard as well.

And here’s a bit of Jeopardy-worthy trivia. This project was developed as a result of the efforts of a Hollywood star who gave up his acting career when the war started and joined the US Navy — Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Who knew! (More information about the Beach Jumpers is here.)

The Beach Jumpers’ motto can be loosely translated as "confuse your enemy."

From this first stop, we drove to the far side of the village where we knew there was public parking near the NPS Visitor Center. A surprise find there — only because we weren’t really looking for it — was the Ocracoke Civil War Memorial.

Fort Ocracoke was one of four fortifications on nearby Beacon Island. It was built in 1861 by Confederate volunteers from the mainland after North Carolina seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy.

Following Union victories on Hatteras Island the summer of the same year, the Confederates partially destroyed the fort and abandoned it without fight. Union forces later completed the destruction. The remnants of the fort, discovered in 1998, are submerged in Ocracoke Inlet.

The image etched into the marker was inspired by a sketch that appeared in The Illustrated London Times, a copy of which I saw later when I visited the museum. The scene is said to be that of the Union forces completing the destruction as the crew of the USS Fanny looks on.

The final destruction of Fort Ocracoke.

A meandering walk next took us to the British Cemetery where we paid our respects to the four men whose bodies were recovered after the sinking of the HMT Bedfordshire in May 1942. The culprit — U-558, a German u-boat that was patrolling the east coast of the US.

These crosses were cast in 1942 to mark the graves; they have since been replaced by
regulation British grave markers.

The HMT Bedfordshire was an Arctic trawler built in 1935 in England. Four years later, it was sold to the Admiralty and converted to an armed vessel in the British Trawler force. It was one of 24 antisubmarine ships loaned to the US Navy for coastal patrols. When it was torpedoed by U-558, it sank with the loss of all hands — 4 officers and 33 crewmen. Only four of the bodies washed ashore; they were recovered and given a military burial.

The graves, with the regulation British markers, are maintained by the US Coast Guard;
a British flag flies above the site.

Another meandering walk led us back to the parking lot. We took our snacks to a picnic table overlooking Pamlico Sound for lunch. Away from the hustle and bustle of the village, which was overrun with school groups on Spring Break trips, we enjoyed a quiet rest. I’m really amazed that we didn’t encounter any crowds at the stops we made, but I guess that was because we got such an early start.

Next, while Mui participated in a work-related conference call, I checked out the Ocracoke Preservation Society Museum, located in the David Williams House (ca. 1900).

The house belonged to Captain David Williams, the first chief of the US Lifesaving
Station on the island.

The small museum is free (donations gratefully accepted). Some of the rooms house exhibits fitting to a seafaring community; others are decorated with 19th century furnishings. Original photographs and artifacts give visitors a glimpse into life as it was back in the time. I easily whiled away an hour, and by the time I came out, Mui was off the phone and ready to do some more sightseeing.

Our last stop before heading to the ferry landing was the Ocracoke Lighthouse. I covered that portion of our day in an earlier post about the lighthouses of the OBX (found here), so I won’t revisit it again.

When we arrived at the ferry landing, there was already a long line forming for the return trip to Hatteras Island, including three busses filled with Spring Breakers. We lucked out and squeezed onto the next ferry, but only because there wasn’t enough room for the third bus in the queue.

The scene that greeted us when we arrived at the Hatteras ferry terminal can only be described as jaw-dropping — and not in a good way. Remember the empty lot that greeted us when we showed up shortly before 7:30a? Well, not anymore. At 1:00p, the line of vehicles was four deep and running all the way out of the parking lot and up the main road a good ways. So glad we got our Ocracoke visit in early!

Before we left Hatteras Village, we made a quick stop at the relatively new Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum near the ferry landing — mostly to check out the infamous Enigma cypher machine of WWII that was recovered from U-85, a German u-boat that was sunk with the loss of all hands off the coast of North Carolina in April 1942, just about 69 years ago.

An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher
machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was
invented by a German engineer.

I believe this painting is intended to depict the recovery of the Enigma machine after
U-85 was sunk.

After seeing all those vehicles lined up at the ferry terminal, we were a bit concerned about the crowds we might find at our next stop and on the way home. Well, there was quite a crowd at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and the lines were long enough that we decided not to climb to the top of the beacon. But we did have a nice wander around the new and old locations of this historic lighthouse. (Post here.) As for the drive back to the campground — that was a piece of cake.

I used quite a few collages in this post, so if you’d like to see full-size versions of the pictures from our visit to Ocracoke Island, visit my online gallery.

In the Spotlight: Ocracoke’s Banker Ponies

19 April 2011

Ocracoke Island (circled on the map below) is at the southern end of the Outer Banks.  The only way to get there from Hatteras Island is to take the free, state-run ferry.  So, we were up early to make the 35-mile (56 km) drive from the campground to the ferry terminal in Hatteras Village.

The early morning temps were downright chilly, but the forecast was for a warm day with plenty of sunshine … and that’s what we got — a perfect day to explore another part of the OBX.  In fact, by the time we were aboard the 7:30a ferry, Mui was already in short-sleeves and shorts; it took me another hour to get that comfortable with the temps.

Unlike the ferry that came in from Ocracoke packed with vehicles, there are only four
making the trip in reverse.  Too early for most, I guess!

The 40-minute ferry ride was uneventful.  We had calm seas all the way to Ocracoke; a considerable ‘gull-following’ in our wake to make things interesting; and sandbars dotted with terns and gulls to add to our bird viewing pleasure en route.

Scenes from the Hatteras-Ocracoke Ferry.

After we disembarked the ferry at the Ocracoke landing, we headed south towards Ocracoke Village, stopping at points of interest along the way.  The first such stop was at the Ocracoke Pony Pasture.  As in other places along the Outer Banks, this island also has Banker ponies that legends say came ashore from Spanish shipwrecks.  An alternative theory is that the ponies, which have distinctive physical characteristics, were brought here by 16th century English explorers.

At one time, the horses roamed wild, sustaining themselves on beach and marsh grasses, roots of sea oats, and rain and surface water.  They also served the locals, and were even used by the US Lifesaving Service and the Coast Guard to patrol the beach.  In the late 1950s, the Ocracoke Boy Scouts looked after the herd for a while.

The ponies were permanently penned in 1959 by the National Park Service (NPS).  Two reasons are given for why this was done.  One, the increase in horse-vehicle collisions after Route 12 was paved.  And two, the damage the herds were causing to dune vegetation, which, in turn, was contributing to beach erosion.  Today, the number of horses has dwindled from a high of 300 to the 17 that are in the care of the NPS.  Why such a big change?  Natural causes, I was told.

There’s another fence and a moat that adds to the distance between visitors and horses.

When we arrived, there was just one pony in the front pasture where the horses in the NPS herd are rotated for visitors to see.  This horse was busy feeding on hay; it paid little attention to us.  Soon, one of the rangers came out with a colt born earlier in the year.  This one was on a leash for its morning constitutional, so that was a little disappointing to see.  But it was a beauty nonetheless.  Then a few more came out, but they mostly kept their distance.

This colt was born earlier this year.

One pony, however, was quite rambunctious and put on a good show.  In some ways, it reminded me of a teenager letting off steam by acting out a bit.  It galloped around the pasture, kicking and bucking to work off its pent up energy.  It even managed to get another pony to follow suit, although the latter quickly tired of the game.

Temper tantrum or just working off excess energy?

We spent about an hour with the ponies, watching them from the platform set up for visitors and strolling the fenceline to see if we could find a closer vantage point.  In the end, the platform gave us the best view of the horses.

From the pony pens, we continued into Ocracoke Village, but I’ll leave that part of our day to another post.