Looking At Cape Disappointment

by Robert Bales

Title

Looking At Cape Disappointment

Artist

Robert Bales

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

The Long Beach Peninsula's first lighthouse, Cape Disappointment, had a bumpy beginning. As early as 1848, a government survey had recommended a lighthouse due to the great number of shipwrecks. Lighthouse construction materials were underway in 1853, stashed in the hull of the ship Oriole when it sank two miles off shore. While a few items were salvaged, the bulk of the shipment was lost.

Problems continued to plague the project, including the discovery that a lantern for the lighthouse had never been ordered. A first order Fresnel lens, invented at the turn of the 19th century by Augustin Jean Fresnel and ground and constructed in Paris in 1841, was shipped from its first home at the Navesink Lighthouse in New Jersey. The lens, using 18 wicks, burned five gallons of kerosene each night and produced a light that could be seen 20 miles out to sea. Purchased for approximately $4,500, it would cost $6 million to create today.

In dense fog, the lighthouse originally rang out the deep, resonant tones of a 1,600-pound bronze bell as warning. It was later learned that the configuration of Cape Disappointment was such that there were dead spots where the bell could not be heard, and use of the bell was discontinued. The 53-foot masonry lighthouse was completed in 1856.

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March 8th, 2013

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