MIAH MAULL SHOAL LIGHTHOUSE - NEW JERSEY

Nehemiah Maull, born in 1737, was employed as a Delaware River pilot, an occupation that he shared with his father John, who had immigrated to Lewes, Delaware from England in 1725. In 1780, Nehemiah set out on a voyage to England to stake his claim to a portion of the family fortune. Given his occupation, Nehemiah was surely acquainted with the hazards of navigating Delaware Bay, but apparently the captain of the vessel on which Nehemiah was traveling was not, as the ship wrecked on an unnamed shoal in the bay. Nehemiah perished in the accident, but in honor of his years of service on Delaware Bay, his name was given to the shoal, so that he would live on in the memory of those navigating the bay. His multi-syllabic first name must have been considered too long, as the name given the shoal was just Miah Maull. With a width of 800 yards and a length of 1,000 yards, Miah Maull Shoal lies just east of Delaware Bay’s main shipping channel. Though late in coming, a lighthouse for the shoal was finally recommended by the Lighthouse Service in 1904 at a projected cost of $75,000. Congress allocated $40,000 for the project in 1906, and the remaining $35,000 the following year. With the lighthouse fully funded, a test boring was made on the proposed site, a circular area with a diameter of 400 feet that was ceded to the federal government by the State of New Jersey. Miah Maull Lighthouse would be of the caisson style, and the pieces of the cast-iron shell for its foundation were fabricated by Lynchbourg Foundry Company of Virginia at a cost of $8,633.47 and shipped to Christiana Depot near Wilmington, Delaware in July 1908. Around that same time, a working platform was built near the shoal, and 187 fourteen-inch white-oak piles were driven into the shoal to a depth of twenty-one feet. After reaching the prescribed depth, the heads of the piles were cut off at a height of one foot above the shoal to support the lighthouse’s foundation.  To protect the foundation, a four-foot-thick layer of riprap, having a diameter of 160 feet, was placed around the base of the caisson. In the meantime, Richard Mfg. Co. of Bloomberg, Pennsylvania was working on the cast-iron lighthouse superstructure, which was “in the form of a frustum of a cone, three stories high, surmounted by a watch room and fourth-order helical bar lantern, and surrounded at the base by a veranda.”  A temporary light, mounted atop the completed lighthouse foundation, became operational on September 13, 1909, and this makeshift beacon would have to serve for a couple of years as funds for Miah Maull Lighthouse were depleted. Congress provided an additional $30,000 on March 4, 1911, and a contract for erecting the superstructure and completing the station was made on April 4, 1912. Work at the site began in May 1912, and over the next few months, the lighthouse was pieced together atop the foundation. A permanent light and temporary fog signal, a 2,000-pound bell struck by machinery, were established on February 15, 1913. The station’s third-class Daboll foghorn went into operation on December 5, 1913 and had two trumpets, one pointing up the bay and the other down the bay. Two, five-horsepower kerosene engines powered an air compressor, which compressed the air up to 100 pounds per square inch. The total cost of the station was $104,102. The living quarters for the keepers consisted of a kitchen and dining room on the first floor, two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor, and another pair of bedrooms on the third level. The original lens used in Miah Maull Lighthouse was manufactured by Barbier, Benard & Turenne of Paris in 1912 and was marked as “456 – U.S.L.H.S.” The lens completed one revolution every fifteen seconds atop steel ball bearings, and ruby glass was positioned in the lantern room to mark the shoal side of the lighthouse. One of the Macbeth-Evans lenses, a fourth-order, six-panel, fixed lens, replaced the rotating lens in Miah Maull Lighthouse. This optic remained in service for years, but was reportedly removed by the Coast Guard in 1999. The Coast Guard assumed responsibility for Miah Maull Lighthouse in 1939. The Coast Guard removed their last crew from the station in 1973, after automating the lighthouse. The metal veranda on the first level was later removed as well, having deteriorated past the point of repair. Lewis Maull, a descendant of Nehemiah Maull, was successful in having the lighthouse added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, and a plaque commemorating the honor was installed on the first level of the lighthouse in October of that year. With the Coast Guard from Cape May and descendants of Nehemiah Maull still interested in its future, Miah Maull Lighthouse continues to warn vessels away from the shoal as it honors one who helped others safely navigate the bay.

Located near the center of the Delaware Bay, eight miles south of Fortescue and 18.5 miles northwest of Cape May.

GPS: Latitude: 39.126647, Longitude: -75.208682

BRANDYWINE SHOAL LIGHTHOUSE - NEW JERSEY

 

The original Brandywine Lighthouse built in 1850, utilizing a screwpile type construction, had proved successful, However, by the twentieth century, living conditions at the station were considered somewhat cramped compared to other offshore lights then being built. The sum of $75,000 was provided in 1911 for “rebuilding and improving the present light and fog signal at Brandywine Shoal on the present or adjacent site.” The decision was made to build a reinforced concrete lighthouse just fifty feet from the current light. The third-order Fresnel lens was transferred from the old to the new lighthouse where it was first lit on the evening of October 20, 1914. The two towers stood side-by-side for a while until the superstructure of the screwpile light was torn down. The platform surrounding the old light, however, was retained, and several structures, used by the Navy in the 1940s and 50s, were built thereon. To form a protective harbor near the light, a protective wall of riprap, forming almost a complete circle, was placed around the lighthouse in 1923. Brandywine Shoal Lighthouse was the last remaining manned station on Delaware Bay when it was automated in 1974 – an appropriate distinction for a station where the first screwpile design in this country was deployed, where one of the earliest lightships served, and where tests were conducted with the third Fresnel lens to be used in the United States.

Located in the Delaware Bay about 8.5 miles northwest of Cape May.

GPS: Latitude: 38.986232, Longitude: -75.113185

SHIP JOHN SHOAL LIGHTHOUSE - NEW JERSEY

 

A fourth-order Fresnel lens, manufactured by L. Sautter & Cie., was installed in the lantern room of the new Ship John Shoal Lighthouse and activated for the first time on August 10, 1877 with William Knowles as its first head keeper. Charles Sullivan and two assistants were in charge of the temporary light from 1874 to 1875, when William Knowles was appointed head keeper. To assist mariners in periods of limited visibility, the lighthouse was also equipped with a 1,200-pound fog bell that was struck a triple blow every forty-five seconds. In 1884, the characteristic of the light was changed from fixed red to fixed white with a red sector covering an arc of 185°, and in 1892, the light was changed to an occulting light. Large stone blocks, weighing from two to six tons each, were placed in a pile about sixty feet from the foundation cylinder in 1894 to protect the lighthouse from damage caused by running ice.  Around 1920, a concrete foundation, surmounted by a metal platform, was constructed atop one of the two piles of riprap that protected the station. A metal catwalk led from the lighthouse to the platform, which held several storage tanks that were too large to place in the small lighthouse. In 1931, the light was electrified through the installation of duplicate 800-watt lighting plants. A 32-volt, 250-watt bulb was placed inside the fourth-order Fresnel lens in lieu of incandescent oil vapor equipment previously used, and the lighthouse was wired for lights in the living quarters, fog-signal room, and storeroom. At the same time, a Tyfon air horn replaced the station’s fog bell. In 1973 the station was automated. A bank of solar panels was placed on the storage platform in 1977 to supply power to the unattended light.

Located 2.8 miles south of the mouth of the Cohansey River.

GPS: Latitude: 39.30528, Longitude: -75.3767

FOURTEEN FOOT BANK LIGHTHOUSE - DELAWARE

 Fourteen Foot Bank Lighthouse in 1946

                                                                                       Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

Fourteen Foot Bank Lighthouse was activated for the first time on April 10, 1887, exhibiting a white light with red sectors covering the dangerous Brown and Joe Flogger Shoals, though finish work continued through September 10, 1887, when the station’s fog signal was placed in operation. In 1892, the characteristic of the light was changed from flashing every fifteen seconds to fixed for a period of forty seconds’ duration, followed successively, by an eclipse of three seconds, fixed period of fourteen seconds, and an eclipse of three seconds. James C. Jones was appointed the first head keeper of the lighthouse and served in this capacity until his passing in 1895. The final Coast Guard crew left Fourteen Foot Bank Lighthouse in 1973, after which an electric cable stretching to the mainland supplied the power for the automated light. Back-up diesel generators were housed at the station in case commercial power was interrupted. Later, the light was solarized, and the fourth-order, Henry-Lepaute Fresnel lens removed from the lantern room. 

Located in Delaware Bay, almost 12 miles off Bowers Beach.

GPS: Latitude: 39.048249, Longitude: -75.182205