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🟡 LIMITED RESEARCH VOLUME
OWNERS
Cape Lookout National Seashore
established. 1966
U. S. Treasury Department 1810-1812 era
LOCATION
Cape Lookout Bight, Southern Core Banks
Story
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Cape Lookout Lighthouse
Explorers, privateers, pirates, whalers, war ships and captains of assorted vessels knew of the value of Cape Lookout Bight as a good (then deep) anchorage and harbor of refuge. Mariners also quickly became aware of the dangerous shoals stretching 20 miles from the Cape.
In 1756, Captain Lobb of the HMS Viper noted on the chart he prepared—
“That Strangers may know this Harbour there is a Flagstaff erected by Captain Lobb about 50 feet high on a Sand Hill near Davis’s House (William Caleb Davis) and on Landlock Point, a Port which small vessells may Moor too.”
Caleb Davis was proprietor of a two-story “ordinary”–bed, board and pub, which with the flagstaff, became then established as the first guidance known marking this anchorage.
Famous Lookout Shoals
Threat to Navigation–
The shoals are generally sandy,
shifting to some extent with the heavy gales
and strong tidal currents that cross them. In
the middle is located the infamous Cape
Lookout Breakers, three-quarters of a mile
long, with a depth as shallow as two feet.
Navigation was made all more treacherous
with the convergence of the strong currents
and storms that rapidly form in this area.
Because the land was so low along this
section of the coast, a ship could be
dangerously close to shore without realizing
it. It was not until 1804, however, that the
United States Congress authorized the
construction of a lighthouse “…on or near
the pitch of Cape Lookout.” (Historic Structure Report, CALO, Cape Lookout Lighthouse)
Call for Construction bids:
In March 1811, the contract for construction
was awarded to Benjamin Beal, Jr., Duncan
Thanter and James Stephenson of Boston.
The Cape Lookout Light Station, comprised
of a tower and keeper dwelling, was
completed in 1812 at a cost of $20,678.54.
John R. Royal was appointed the keeper at the 1812 Cape
Lookout Station in January 1834 and since
that date, he had managed the light in the
smaller tower by himself. The size of the
new tower and the complexity of the first-
order Fresnel lens (in the 1859 replacement), plus higher performance
expectations by the Lighthouse Board were
more than one man could handle. On
September 27, two assistants were
appointed, A. P. Guthrie and Silas Blount.
Additional information on the keepers and their duties is found in the Historic structure Report for the Cape Lookout Lighthouse–click the link below–
Only known period depiction of the 1812 Lighthouse–
Beaufort Customs House–
The 1812 Lighthouse functioned below expectation and needs:
“This is at present a fixed light, fitted
with thirteen lamps and twenty-one inch
reflectors, and elevated ninety-five feet
above the level of the sea.”
“In consideration of the manner in which
navigators have to follow this low coast,
this light becomes, necessarily, one of
the most important sea-coast lights, and
requires to be elevated and improved to
that extent. The shoals off this cape are
of such character as to render it a very
important light.“
{Report of the Officers Constituting The Light-House
Board convened under instructions from the
Secretary of the Treasury to Inquire into the
condition of the lighthouse establishment of the
United States under the Act of March 3, 1851.
Washington: A. Boyd Hamilton, 1852. 138.}
———–
The 1847 edition of The American Coast
Pilot stated——
Cape Lookout Lighthouse is painted
red and white stripes horizontally and
can be seen 16 or 18 miles and
represents a ship under sail. It
contains a fixed light, elevated 100 feet
above the level of the sea. The house
is surrounded by a small growth of
trees, from which a bold sand beach
extends in a S.E. direction, about 3
miles, in the centre of which are small
hillocks of sand. This light, although
seen clearly all night, until near the
approach of day, cannot then be
discerned owning, it is thought, to a mist that rises between the vessel and the lamps. It is judged imprudent to
approach the shoals of Lookout in the
night nearer than 7 fathoms on the
east, or 10 fathoms on the west side.
Lt. H. J. Harstene, of the U. S. Navy and
commanding the U.S mail steamer Illinois,
filed his complaint with the board and
articulated the hazard and frustration in his
letter to Lt. Jenkins on July 18, 1851, when
he wrote, “The lights on Hatteras, Lookout, Canaveral and Cape Florida, if not improved, had better be dispensed with, as
the navigator is apt to run ashore looking for
them.”
—————
Although a whole new lighthouse was
required at Cape Lookout, a quicker upgrade
was urgently needed. In November 1856, an
initiative was made regarding “reflectors
and lamps to be fitted to a chandelier and
sent to Supt. of Lights Beaufort NC.” On
January 17, 1857, a shipment of “reflector
apparatus with extra lamps and wicks” was
shipped to Wilmington, N.C. From
Wilmington, on February 14, the
“illuminating apparatus” was forwarded to
Beaufort to be installed at Cape Lookout
Lighthouse. This improvement, however,
was simply a holding action for plans were
already being formulated to replace the 1812
tower with a first-order light.
1859 marked the changeover to the improved light tower and the 1812 structure was modified to become lodging for the assistant keeper.
Reuse of 1812 Tower
Although the Notice to Mariners stated that
part of the old tower was now the keeper’s
dwelling, the completion of this conversion
may not have occurred until the spring of 1860.
Correspondence from Whiting dated April 25 “reports alteration of the old Tower to
serve for Keeper’s quarters, suggest that
upper part of old Tower be taken down.”
Removal of the lantern was probable, for the
following month Whiting requested
“instructions in regard to disposal of old
illuminating apparatus removed from [Cape
Lookout].” With the addition of the first
assistant keeper in September and a second
assistant keeper in January of 1860, housing
was certainly at a premium.
It is uncertain just how long the old tower
survived. Interestingly, although its
function changed, its painting scheme did
not. It was referenced as the “old tower
painted, white and red horizontal stripes” in
the January 1869 List of Light Houses,
Lighted Beacons and Floating Lights of the
Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Coast of the
United States. It seems to have
disappeared in the 1870s. Perhaps with the
construction of the new Keepers House in
1873, it was no longer needed for housing,
assuming the original keeper’s house was
still in use to accommodate the assistant
keepers. There is no reference to the 1812
tower in a survey of the light station made in
1893.
{ “Cape Lookout Light Station, N.C. Reservation
Surveyed 1893 by H. Bamber” (CALO Coll.)
Document 623/60927 is annotated in 1906 with the
approximate location of the 1812 lighthouse and cites
an engineer’s letter of June 22, 1858 as placing the
old tower 50 yards east of the current tower.}
Gallery
Additional related content–
Credits
- NPS Archives and files
- Jean Kell–North Carolina’s Coastal Carteret County During the American Revolution
- Bob Blevins–Artist in Residence CALO
- Other references within text