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History
The original lighthouse on this
site was first lit on October 28, 1850.
The lighthouse replaced a lightship that had marked the shoal since
1823. The 1850 lighthouse the first screwpile lighthouse to be
constructed in the United States. In 1914 it was replaced by the
current caisson type lighthouse. The light was automated in 1974.
Within the last couple of years it has been converted to solar power.
Brandywine Shoal Lightship
Early government records refer to this lightship as Floating Light #1
or Lightboat #1. It was stationed on Brandywine Shoal from 1823-1850,
and was replaced by the Brandywine Shoal Lighthouse. The vessel was
anchored about 1 mile west of the Brandywine Shoal and marked the
eastern edge of the channel. Lightship "N" was the only vessel to be
stationed there. She was built in 1823 in New York, probably by Henry
Eckford, and was 72' long with a 20' beam and of about 120 gross tons.
She had two masts, and displayed at fixed white light on the foremast
at 42' and on the mainmast at 45'. She had a hand operated bell. No
drawings of her have yet been found.
An 1838 report by William D. Porter, Lieutenant, U.S.N., describes the
lightship as:
Fifteen years old; very much out of order, requires
thorough repairs. The cause of rot in our lightvessels can be
attributed to the following causes: want of care and proper
ventilation, and the mephitic vapor arising from bilgewater. All the
caused can be obviated by the use of the common windsail (or tin or
copper ventilators) and the inverted bellows, as used on board the
vessels of the Navy, which has proved of decided benefit in expelling
the noxious vapors arising in a ship's hold."
After her service at Brandywine Shoal, the vessel was transferred to
Minots Ledge in Massachusetts for four years. Her next station was at
Cross Rip, Massachusetts, after which she served a short stint on Five
Fathom Bank (1855). She was retired in 1859.
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