Cape Hatteras Light Station – Cape Hatteras National Seashore (U.S. National Park Service)

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse protects one of the most hazardous sections of the Atlantic Coast. Offshore of Cape Hatteras, the Gulf Stream collides with the Virginia Drift, a branch of the Labrador Current from Canada. This current forces southbound ships into a dangerous twelve-mile long sandbar called Diamond Shoals. Hundreds and possibly thousands of shipwrecks in this area have given it the repute as the Graveyard of the Atlantic .

Visiting the Light Station

The Cape Hatteras Light Station is located near Cape Hatteras, its namesake, which is roughly in the middle of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The street address is

46379 Lighthouse Road
Buxton, North Carolina 27920

decimal fraction Degrees : 35.251203, -75.528176
Degrees Minutes Seconds : 35° 15 ‘ 4.3302 ”, 75° 31 ‘ 41.4336 ”

Visiting the beach comes with potential hazards. Visiting the beach comes with potential hazards. Learn the dim-witted steps you can take to improve your guard .

Visitors preparing to climb Cape Hatteras Lighthouse National Park Service

Climbing

due to ongoing restoration efforts the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse will not be available for climbing in 2022 .

Virtual Experiences

A new A new virtual enlistment of the Cape Hatteras Ligthouse and webcam are available for visitors to virtually experience climbing the beacon and enjoy the breathtaking view from the clear .

The first Cape Hatteras lighthouse built in 1803 ©Mike Litwin
history
structure of a beacon at Cape Hatteras was foremost authorized in 1794 when Congress recognized the danger posed to Atlantic transport. however, construction did not begin until 1799. The foremost beacon was lit in October of 1803. Made of sandstone, it was 90 feet improbable with a lamp powered by whale vegetable oil .
The 1803 beacon was ineffective to effectively warn ships of the dangerous ball field Shoals because it was besides short circuit, the unpainted sandstone blended in with the background, and the signal was not strong adequate to reach mariners. additionally, the loom was ailing constructed and maintained. frequent complaints were made regarding the beacon .

The first Cape Hatteras lighthouse after improvements ©Mike Litwin
In 1853, following studies made by the Lighthouse Board, it was decided to add 60 feet to the height of the beacon, thereby, making the column 150 feet grandiloquent. The newly extended tower was then painted red on peak of white making the beacon more recognizable during the day. At the lapp time, the loom was retrofitted with a first rate Fresnel lens, which used deflection a well as mirror image to channel the light, resulting in a stronger glow .
By the 1860s, with the indigence for extensive repairs, Congress decided to appropriate funds for a fresh beacon. The Lighthouse Board prepared plans and specifications and construction on the new beacon began in October of 1868 .
Since the beacon was built before the contemporary batch driver was perfected, an matter to problem immediately arose. The prime urine levels on the Outer Banks are quite high and, consequently, when they began digging out the pit for the beacon foundation, it filled with water about 4 feet down. Working with the natural conditions, the foreman, Dexter Stetson, used a “ floating foundation ” for the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This intend that layered 6 foot x 12 foot yellow pine timbers were laid crossways in the foundation pit below the water table. Granite plinths ( rock layers ) were placed on to the acme of the timbers .
The raw beacon was lit on December 16, 1870. The 1803 beacon was demolished in February of 1871. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse received the celebrated black and white stripe daymark pattern in 1873. The Lighthouse Board assigned each beacon a distinctive paint design ( daymark ) and light sequence ( nightmark ) to allow mariners to recognize it from all others during the day and night as they sailed along the coast .

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse as it looks today National Park Service
The beacon is a conic brick structure rising from an octagon-shaped brick and granite establish and topped with an iron and glass lantern. It is the tallest brick beacon in the United States and measures 198.49 feet from the bottomland of the initiation to the circus tent of the pinnacle of the column. This height was needed to extend the range of the light-beam from the tower ’ s low-lying beach site. The loom ’ second hardy construction includes outside and home brick walls with interstitial walls resembling the spokes of a wheel. There are 269 steps from the ground to the lens room of the beacon .
The Fresnel lens installed in the 1870 beacon was powered by kerosene and could be seen approximately 16 miles from the land. The keeper had to manually rewind the clockwork apparatus each day. The Fresnel lens normally took 12 hours for a dispatch cycle. When the lamp was electrified in 1934, the manual mechanism was no long needed. Damaged by vandals, the giant star glass Fresnel lens had to be replaced by a mod aero beacon in 1950. today, electricity provides the rotating might and a photoelectric cell turns the light on and off .
ascribable to threatening beach erosion, the Bureau of Lighthouses decommissioned the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in 1935. The beacon was then moved to a skeletal steel tugboat until 1950. On November 9, 1937, the Cape Hatteras Light Station was transferred to the National Park Service. While the ballpark was not operational at this time, the beacon and the keepers ‘ quarters became share of the nation ’ sulfur first National Seashore .

The Buxton Woods tower was the warning beacon, 1935–1950 National Park Service
On January 23, 1950, the Coast Guard returned the beacon ( 250,000 candlepower ) to the beacon since the beach had rebuilt over the years in front of the beacon. In 1972, the beacon was increased to 800,000 candlepower. From the 1960s to the 1980s, efforts were made to stabilize the beach in front of the beacon, which had started to erode again. In March of 1980, a winter storm swept aside the remains of the 1803 beacon and caused significant dune erosion .
In 1999, after years of study and debate, the Cape Hatteras Light Station was moved to its present localization. The beacon was moved 2,900 feet in 23 days and immediately lies 1,500 feet from the seashore, its original distance from the sea. The double Keepers ’ Quarters, the Principal Keeper ’ second Quarters, the dwell cisterns, and the oil house were all relocated with the beacon .
The National Park Service presently maintains the beacon and the keepers ’ quarters. The U.S. Coast Guard operates and maintains the automated light .

timeline

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on the move in 1999 National Park Service

Moving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
In 1999, the Cape Hatteras Light Station, which consists of seven historic structures, was successfully relocated 2,900 feet from the blot on which it had stood since 1870. Because of the threat of shoreline corrosion, a natural process, the stallion light place was safely moved to a modern site where the historic buildings and cisterns were placed in spatial and elevational kinship to each other, precisely as they had been at the original locate. While the National Park Service has met its obligation to both historic preservation and coastal protection, the much-heralded move of the historic station, specially the beacon, was heatedly debated and close watched .

The Atlantic Ocean encroaches on the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, 1999 National Park Service
Why it had to move
When completed in 1870, the Cape Hatteras beacon was located a safe 1,500 feet from the ocean. even then, however, storm-driven tides wholly washed over Hatteras Island, eroding backbone from the ocean side of the island and depositing it on the phone side. By 1970, this action, which has caused the gradual westward migration of the Outer Banks for at least the past 10,000 years, left the beacon barely 120 feet from the ocean ’ south edge and about certain destruction .
The key to preserving the 1870 column is its “ float foundation ”. Yellow pine timbers sit in fresh water on compress sand, with a brick and granite foundation on clear of them. This foundation was built because pilings could not be driven through unvoiced backbone located barely 8 feet below ground level when structure began. a retentive as the sand surrounding the basis remained in home, and the timbers remained bathed by the fresh body of water in which they were placed in 1868, the foundation garment was plug. If a storm eroded the backbone or the fresh water was disturbed by strategic arms limitation talks water system invasion, the timbers would rot and the foundation would finally fail .
Since the 1930s, efforts have been made to protect the Lighthouse from the encroaching sea. The Coast Guard installed the first sheetpile “ groins ” ( walls built perpendicular to the land ) to try to protect the loom. In 1936, however, they abandoned the beacon to the sea and moved its light to a skeletal system steel tugboat in Buxton Woods. In the 1960s and 1970s, as the ocean continued to creep closer, assorted attempts to “ stabilize ” the coast included beach nourishment and three new groins installed north of the beacon. A severe storm in 1980 accentuated the island ‘s westward apparent motion washing away the basis of the first ( 1803 ) beacon, which had been 600 feet south of the existing beacon. In 1803, that lighthouse had been one nautical mile from the shoreline .
In 1980, the National Park Service began planning, under the National Environmental Policy Act, for long-run security. A three-year action that included public meetings yielded several alternatives. move was considered but cursorily discounted as impractical. The option last selected was a concrete and sword breakwater revetment that would have protected the beacon in invest but would finally have created an island as the coastline receded to the southwest. As moving technology advanced during the decade and extra information became available about resettlement versus the approved breakwater, the National Park Service examined the alternative that allowed it to accommodate natural processes while still preserving the historic structures of the light station .
In 1987, the NPS requested the aid of the National Academy of Sciences, a group of scientists and engineers who advise the federal government on technical matters. The Academy ‘s 1988 report card, Saving Cape Hatteras Lighthouse from the Sea : Options and Policy Implications, considered ten options but recommend move as the most cost-efficient method of protective covering. The National Park Service besides considered this the best overall solution in that it would preserve the structures and accommodate the natural shoreline processes .
however, many people feared destruction of the brick beacon, the tallest in the United States. From 1988 to 1995, the move option was debated and discussed, with no fund requests made at the Congressional level or concerted fund-raise campaigns undertaken in the private sector. As Federal budgets became leaner, the NPS worked with the Army Corps of Engineers on a short-run ( 10-20 year ) protection choice to build a fourthly groin south of the beacon. Officials hoped that it would protect the most vulnerable section of the beacon area, and would give the NPS time to raise Federal funds for resettlement. however, North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission staff stated that it would not recommend a permit for building the fourthly breakwater since placing any hardened structures on the North Carolina coast is prohibited by state statutes .
In 1996, North Carolina State University independently reviewed the National Academy of Sciences ’ report and then issued its own report, Saving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse from the Sea, in January 1997. It not only endorsed the National Academy of Sciences ’ findings, but besides recommended that “ the National Park Service proceed ampere soon as potential with its give plans to obtain the fiscal resources necessity to preserve the beacon by moving it. ” NPS managers then initiated a concert attempt to begin the plan and fund work to move the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. fund was last appropriated by Congress beginning in fiscal year 1998 .

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on the move, 1999 National Park Service
How it was moved
The decision to relocate the Cape Hatteras Light Station was a sound public policy decision based on the best science and technology information available. International Chimney Corp. of Buffalo, New York was awarded the contract to move the beacon, assisted, among other contractors, by Expert House Movers of Maryland. In childlike terms, the concept of moving the 4,830 long ton structure consisted of lifting it off its initiation, transferring the load to a transport organization, moving the loom along a prepared affect route, and installing it on the new basis .
To accomplish this feat, the master initiation down to the pine timbers was replaced by irregular prop up beams and supports. then a steel air master of arts in teaching was inserted over the timber felt with impermanent posts on top. As cross beams and independent beams were set, the irregular shore parts and beams were removed. hydraulic jacks built into the independent beams were used to effect the 6 foot raise therefore that roll beams and rollers could be introduced. After all jacks were shored, using oak crib, the system was pressurized and the jacks began lifting. At each lift level, jacks were retracted and shored up in sequence and the system lifted again to 6 feet. At this point it was ready to roll .
After it was lifted, the tugboat moved along to its new location 2,900 feet to the southwest on steel mats starting on June 17, 1999. Steel track air became rails and roller dollies permitted the digest frame to move along the traverse. Three zones of hydraulic jacks kept the beacon aligned. Push jacks, clamped to the cut pulled the skeleton forward 5 feet at a fourth dimension. The beacon was equipped with sixty automated sensors to measure the transfer of the load, cant, shaking, and shaft diameter. A weather station was installed at the top to monitor hoist rush and temperature .
The Principal Keeper ‘s Quarters, double Keepers ’ Quarters, oil house, cisterns, and sidewalks, which were moved during February, March, and April, awaited the beacon. On July 9, 1999 the beacon was carefully placed onto its new initiation, which foundation consists of a 60 ‘ ten 60 ‘ steel-reinforced concrete slab 4 feet deep, 5 feet of brick, and 1 1/2 to 2 feet of rock. The light station was wholly once again with all the buildings being in the same relative military position as they were originally .
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, lookout of the parlous Diamond Shoals, where the Gulf Stream meets the Labrador Current, witness to the tragic sinking and exultant rescues claimed by the “ Graveyard of the Atlantic, ” resumed its duties on November 13, 1999 and continues to do so to this day. now safely 1,600 feet from the ocean, it should not be threatened by the indomitable ocean waves for another 100 years .
Move at a glance

• Took over a year of preparation
• Moved from June 17, 1999 to July 9, 1999 (23 days)
• Moved using horizontally mounted hydraulic jacks which pushed the tower along a track system in 5-foot increments.
• After the tower was pushed approximately 5 feet, the jacks were retracted and reset along the grid beams.
• Cost $11.8 million
• Moved 2,900′
• Set back approximately 1,500′ from the shoreline

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse shining at sunrise National Park Service

The Light

The original light was Argand style lamps mounted in front of parabolic reflectors. In 1839, Cape Hatteras was fitted with eighteen 14 ” reflectors. By 1849, the luminosity had been upgraded to fifteen 21 ” reflectors. This system used whale oil for fuel and, if in perfect operating circumstance, produced a medium saturation fall that could be seen up to 20 miles .
The first base order Fresnel lens, installed in 1854, initially burned whale vegetable oil as well. however, due to over-hunting, the sperm whale was becoming barely and, by the 1870s, the US Lighthouse Service was in need of alternate fuels. There is no know record of precisely when the last whale petroleum was used in a US beacon but it is still mentioned in the 1871 Instructions to lighthouse keepers along with rape ( hazardous boodle or rapeseed ) vegetable oil. Colza oil was one of the replacements that the US Lighthouse Service considered, but it was difficult to get because it was a depleted net income craw for US farmers. By 1880, giant oil had disappeared from the scene and, according to the 1881 Instructions to lighthouse keepers, the available fuels were embroider petroleum and mineral oil ( kerosene ). There was a very short experiment at Cape Hatteras using porpoise oil. It was found to be wholly impossible and was not adopted. From 1913 to 1934, the lighter was provided by an incandescent oil vapor ( IOV ) lamp using pressurized kerosene in a mantle. official records show that kerosene even fueled the Cape Hatteras light as deep 1927 .
The Fresnel lens
Like most late 19th-century lighthouses, this one used a Fresnel lens. Fresnel lenses were manufactured in a serial of sizes, or orders, with first order being the largest—over 17 times more potent than the smallest ( 6th order ). In this shell, over 1,000 prisms were used and, all told, about 2,500 pound. of glass and bronze made up the 12 foot improbable first order assembly. trilateral prism projected light into a continuous 360 degree shine, and, in this case, 24 bulls-eye lenses provided the flashes. The light has always been white ; at other lighthouses, red and green have besides been used ( chiefly harbor and crop lights because discolor reduces the range of the beam ) .
The original lens assembly, which rotated on a chariot at ½ revolutions per minute, was turned by three 150 ram cast-iron weights suspended on a cable and dropping down the center. The cable was wound around a drum in the clockwork mechanism beneath the lens, which worked much like a grandfather clock. Each dawn, the weights were lento cranked by hand to the acme and then released at twilight when the lamp was lit, causing the lens to rotate. The gears in the mechanism provided the leverage to turn the 1-½ long ton lamp/lens assembly. The speed of rotation could be adjusted by a fan governor in the clockwork. A gentle hand advertise was used to start the lens rotating but, once it was in motion, it maintained its rotation until the weight unit reached the penetrate of the column and had to be rewound. Regulations required that the weight be rewound to the top of the loom every morning. In many short lighthouses, cranking was needed every few hours .
Electrifying the light
In 1934, concisely before the light was moved to the column in Buxton. A 36-inch ( noun phrase ) airport beacon was in the first place used. The stream 24-inch ( nominative ) beacon, character DCB ( Directionally Coded Beacon ) 224, was installed in 1982 .
anterior to the facility of the airport beacon, the Fresnel lens merely secondhand electricity for the abstemious source but hush used the clockwork and weight system to turn the ocular .
Current optics and bulbs
Two freestanding units, alike to search lights, are mounted side by slope confront in opposite directions, and are turned by an electric motor. The beacon is controlled by a photoelectric cell, which automatically turns the faint on at sunset and off at dawn. Each 1,000- watt bulb ( 120 volts – lapp as your house ), less than 10 inches tall, puts out an 800,000-candlepower beam focused by two parabolic reflectors. A spare bulb and primary reflecting telescope mechanically rotate into rate when the primary coil bulb burns out. GE makes the bulb. They are halogen/argon filled, with a tungsten filament, and price about $ 240 each. The mechanism is alike to an airport beacon .
The beacon rotates, like an airport beacon. The ‘flash ‘ is visible when the beacon points at you. The original Fresnel lens arrangement cast 24 beams, the current beacon projects two .
The official compass is 24 nautical miles ( a nautical mile is 6,080 feet ). At night, most vessels in clear weather can see the beacon from up to 20 nautical miles at sea. Seen precisely at ocean level, the steer visible crop is about 15.6 nautical miles. The USLHS standard was to allow an extra ten feet of altitude to account for the stature of the bridge deck, giving 16.2 miles. At night, the radiance or loom can be seen when the light is actually below the horizon ; in some atmospheric conditions deflection causes the light to follow the earth ‘s curvature, besides. These phenomena are besides factored in. The range of the beacon depends more on stature and air clarity than on the world power of its beacon .

Principal Keeper’s Quarters National Park Service

The Lighthouse Keepers
The staff of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse consisted of a Principal Keeper and two adjunct Keepers. The keepers did not live in the beacon but, when they were on duty, they would be found in the vigil room at the crown of the loom. originally, the Lighthouse Board provided caparison, staple foods, medicine, and a wage up to $ 800/yr. After the 1880s, keepers wore black aristocratic wool preen uniforms or fatigues .
They worked at the beacon performing sustenance, rectify, and administrative duties. Each keeper was required to stand a four hour lookout during the night. The time of these watches alternated casual from keeper to keeper. On one sidereal day, the Principal Keeper may take the 8 phase modulation to midnight watch, the 1st Assistant Keeper would take the midnight to 4 am watch, and the 2nd Assistant Keeper would take the 4 to 8 am watch. The following night the Principal Keeper would take the midnight to 4 am vigil, etc, etc. The keeper on watch at the end of the night would be creditworthy for all dawn sustenance of the lamp and lens to prepare them for the approaching night .
The keepers ‘ duties included :

• Hand-carrying fuel up to the lantern room and fueling the lamp
• Trimming the wicks (later, replacing the mantles and pumping up the oil vaporizer)
• Regularly cleaning and polishing (with jeweler’s rouge and whiting) the glass chimney, lenses and windows
• Polishing vast amounts of brass fittings and tools
• Cranking up the weight, latching it, and letting it free when they lit the lamp at night
• Lighting and extinguishing the lamp (it was wasteful and unnecessary to burn it by day)
• Closing lantern room curtains by day to prevent damage from magnified sunlight through the lens, and discoloration of the lens glass
• Cleaning and lubricating the clockwork
• Painting the structure
• Routine maintenance and repairs of all buildings
• Greeting and sometimes lodging visitors and inspectors
• Writing reports, keeping records, and ordering supplies
• Monitoring the light and nearby shipping at night

The two Assistant Keepers and their families lived in the Double Keepers ’ Quarters, built in 1854. The Principal Keeper and his class lived in the small family that was built in 1870 .

Cross-section diagram of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse National Park Service
Lighthouse Dimensions

Visitors enjoying the view from the top of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse National Park Service

frequently Asked Questions
Q. How does the height of this lighthouse compare to others?
It is the tallest brick beacon in the United States. besides, according to the National Maritime Preservation Initiative and F. Ross Holland, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse “ …still may be the tallest brick beacon in the universe. ”
Q. Has it been in continuous service since 1803?
Yes and no. There has been an established lighter tower of some kind in servicing since 1803. however, like most southern lighthouses, the fall was extinguished during the Civil War .
Q. How far was the ocean when the lighthouse was built?
The 1870 beacon was built approximately 1,500 feet from the shoreline .
Q. How many bricks were used?
1,250,000 were ordered from a Baltimore firm ; the accurate number used is unknown, but this human body tallies close with the engineering estimates. The brick was manufactured at a kiln on the James River in Virginia, for a Baltimore contractor. The bricks are not curved. Some extra went into the facade and walls of the 1871 Principal Keeper ‘s Quarters ( however, there are two kinds of brick in inside quarter ’ s walls. It is stranger if both are original ) .
Q. What other materials were used?
Black slate and white marble prey tile were used on most floors ( quarries unknown ). The stairs and most other metallic element items are cast, rolled, or draw iron. Bronze was used for more necessitate situations, such as the lantern frame work. The roof is copper, lined with tin inside ; the lightening gat is bronze with a platinum-clad tip. The storm doors at the acme and bottom of the column are plate iron and bronze respectively ; the bottom doors were primitively specified to be iron. The inner doors, removed long ago, were primitively wood with glass lights. Cast iron lintels and corbels once graced bring windows, but deteriorated and were removed. The window themselves are mod replacements for the original cast-iron framed casements .
Q. How deep is the foundation?
The original initiation was about 7-½ ‘ deep and was made of 6 ” x12 ” x12 ‘ crossed, yellow pine timbers submerged in water, topped with granite boulders cemented together. The foundation below the present beacon is a 60’x60’x4 ’ sword reinforced concrete pad, plus five feet of 147,000 high-density bricks and 1-½ to 2 feet of rock .
Q. How thick and solid are the walls?
The granite and brick base is about solid, but the sharpen loom above is double-walled, with 12 hidden, full-length vertical rib joining the two walls. The erect rib provide stiffness to the inner and out walls. They act like the flying buttresses in gothic cathedrals. The double-walled design helps keep the tower inflexible and the center of graveness low—which is located about a third of the way astir. At its base, the tapered knocked out wall is 46-3/4 ” compact and the inner wall—a truthful cylinder—is 20 ” thickly. 134 ‘ 4 ” above the ground ( even with the acme of the one-sixth landing windowpane ), the two walls merge. The brick inside the lantern housing ( watch room and service room ) was laid after the lantern was assembled and is less than two feet thickly. At its bottom, the out wall is 32 ‘ 5-1/2 ” in diameter and, at the bottom of the gallery brackets, it is 17 ‘ 2 ”. The inside diameter of the stairwell is 11 ‘ 6 ” from top to bottom—there is no wick inside. The lower gallery deck, by the way, is 29 ‘ 10 ” in diameter .
Q. Who did the actual construction work?
The Lighthouse Board provided a overseer of Construction, Dexter Stetson, who hired and trained closely 100 laborers locally, who received $ 1.50 a day. A number of the crowd went on to assist on the Bodie Island Lighthouse undertaking. Stetson besides worked on the Cape Lookout Light .
Q. Who pays for repair work done to the lighthouse?
The National Park Service .
Q. Who has maintained the lighthouse through the years?

• 1802–1820: Department of the Treasury, Commissioner of the Revenue
• 1820–1852: Department of the Treasury, Fifth Auditor
• 1852–1903: US Lighthouse Board, Department of the Treasury
• 1903–1910: US Lighthouse Board, Department of Commerce and Labor
• 1910–1935: Bureau of Lighthouses, Department of Commerce and Labor
• 1950–Present: US Coast Guard

In 1936, the 1870 beacon was turned over to the National Park Service. Currently, under a special Use Agreement, the US Coast Guard maintains the beacon and the NPS is responsible for the build itself. doubly a year, all four light bulbs are replaced, and the mechanism is inspected and lubricated .
Q. What has been removed, repaired, or replaced in the structure?
Much of the unwrap ironwork of the lower gallery, some of the stairs and all their anchor bolts, and the windows are replacements. lantern room glass has been replaced many times. The roof was rebuilt in 1992. The cast iron casement window trimming, and the slant stage set and its hardware are gone. A cabinet, a small desk, and a coal stave were once present in the watch room. A place of curler curtains ( visible in previous photograph ) that once kept the sunday ‘s rays out of the lens during the day are besides gone. Inner wood doors with methamphetamine lights were removed from the top and bottom entries, along with looking glass transoms at the bottom ; they were removed during the restitution and are said to be in storage by the USCG. Parts of the gear box and lens disappeared during WWII, along with the keepers ’ tools. The vandalize Fresnel lens was removed in 1949 and stored. In October 2006, the lens ’ pedestal and clockwork fabrication were removed. After 57 years, the lens and base assembly were reunited and can now be viewed at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, in Hatteras Village, good 10 miles to the southwest of the beacon .
Q. What is the circular well at the bottom?
Minus the fictile net and steel engagement floor, which are NPS visitor safety equipment, this was in the first place a sand hell that was provided in casing the weight cable of the clockwork mechanism parted causing the weight to free-fall down the tower. The backbone hell was a lot more forgiving and flexible than the slate and marble floor that surrounds the pit. The weight unit hardened could besides be lowered into the pit to facilitate maintenance and repairs such as cable television animate or surrogate. The well is about 4 feet bass .
Q. What are the vertical rails in the central well?
Lacking the elegant design found in every early region of the beacon, these rails are a late accession, not shown on the work plans. normally, in towers of this type the weights of the clockwork mechanism in the lens assembly would drop directly down the center of the tugboat, suspended from a cable cable. They were guided by “ fairleads ” that would control the lineage. Differences in structural details of the Cape Hatteras tugboat required a system of T-rails to keep the weights from swinging excessively as they dropped down the tower .
Q. What were the alcoves on the first floor used for?
Originally, the lamp vegetable oil for the light was stored in large, round metallic element containers called petroleum butt joint. They were large brass or tin tanks that ranged in size from 50 to 100 gallons each. They stood upright and were set side by side on masonry or wooden elevated shelves in the alcoves. Each one had a petcock at the bottom from which the keeper would draw his daily provide of lamp petroleum into his petroleum can. He then carried the oil cans up the loom to fuel the lamps. The large, cubic 350 gallon tank at the base of the tower replaced numerous anoint butt with one centralize storage tank. other gear may have besides been kept in the alcoves .
Q. What is the metal tank just above the first floor?
The large, square, 350-gallon tank was used for the memory of kerosene to light the lamp in the Fresnel lens .
Q. What are the numbers on the landing walls?
These numbers are called land numbers. They are not original ; the department of the interior has been repainted several times. The 1992 renovation gang made them to mark the landings for easy identification .
Q. Wouldn’t it have been easier to use a rope and pulley to haul up the oil ?
No and this practice was never allowed in US lighthouses. The fuel for the lamp was extremely valuable and, when it was being moved, the custodian was required to keep it in his possession. At any rate, it would not have been less workplace. A once-over pulley gives no mechanical advantage ; it calm takes 6000 ft-lbs. of work to raise a 5-gallon can of anoint 150 feet, just as it would climbing with the oil. But in climb, the legs do the exercise, not the arms. A twice-over pulley takes half as much effort, but takes doubly ampere long. The can would have tended to sway, and possibly rupture or spill when it hit a beam or bolt head, or fell ( oil use was very close monitored ; the keeper was held accountable for godforsaken ). And he ‘d silent have to climb all the means up anyhow – thus no point in going up empty handed .
Q. How many storms has it survived?
All of them ! seriously, no one knows ; not all were recorded. About 150 hurricanes and countless nor’easters have affected the Outer Banks since 1548, since Europeans were here ( who knows how many more before Europeans arrival ). This would suggest about 40 hurricanes since the beacon was built. On April 17, 1879, lightning struck the column ; respective months late, fresh shallow vertical cracks in the inside wall were ascribed to this by the keepers, but are now faithfully attributed to thermal expansion of the social organization. In the 1980s, studies of the cracks revealed motion with temperature variations. later, the beacon besides survived the Charleston earthquakes of August 31, 1886 ( 3 shocks up to 7.7 on the Richter Scale ) and September 3, 1886, which was felt in Chicago .
Q. Why is the tower leaning?
It is not leaning significantly, though there seems to be such a rumor floating about. There is a deceptive ocular illusion at certain angles of opinion, caused by the stripes, and sometimes enhanced by a backdrop of moving clouds. Hasbrouck & Hunderman found the appearance of a possible rebuff thin to the north or west, but could not rule out dim-witted irregularities in construction .
Q. Why is there a lighthouse here?
Extending about 14-20 miles offshore from Cape Hatteras are the shallow, shifting Diamond Shoals—a luck to nearby navigation. By day or night, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse provided a navigational have a bun in the oven, enabling ships to avoid the treacherous shoals. In the nineteenth hundred, “ coasting ” ( sailing along the coast ) was a bare, dependable form of navigation ; and in case of trouble oneself, the shore was within easy reach. Along the North Carolina slide, transportation besides made good use of favorable currents—the Labrador Current, flowing south near prop up, and the Gulf Stream, flowing north a act far out—which provided extra focal ratio. The Outer Banks of North Carolina are widely known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. One report says 230 ships of over 50 tons sank here from 1866 to 1945. Another says well over 2,200 ships have sunk off the Outer Banks since Europeans first arrived .
Q. How did the Diamond Shoals get their name?
It is not known where the actual name came from. The shoals are not a continuous mass, but are a series of three distinct shoals with channels between them. In 1948, the US Board of Geographic Names designated the entire series as Diamond Shoals and assigned names to the individual shoals and sloughs ( the channels between the shoals ). The inmost shallow is Hatteras Shoals, the middle incision is Inner Diamond Shoals and the out department is Outer Diamond Shoals. As for the sloughs – Hatteras Slough runs between Hatteras Shoals and Inner Diamond Shoals. The one that runs between the Inner Diamond Shoal and Outer Diamond Shoal is called the Diamond Slough .
Q. How many lightships have there been at Diamond Shoals?
There were three lightships :

• 1st (1824–1827): destroyed by gale winds
• 2nd (1897–1918): the #69 Diamond was sunk by a German U-boat
• 3rd (1919–1967): replaced by the “Texas” tower

Q. What is the “Texas” tower?
In 1968, a “ Texas ” column light station—a structure similar to an offshore petroleum rig—was completed out on the Diamond Shoals and called the Diamond Shoals Light Station. The light was located approximately 12.8 nautical miles or 14.7 legislative act miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. It was originally crewed by 6 people ( 4 on and 2 off ) but was automated on September 7, 1977. The 1000-watt lamp was 125 feet above the water and was visible for 22 nautical miles. The Diamond Shoals Light Station was de-commissioned in 2002 and the light up is no longer operational .
Q. Why are there so many lighthouses in North Carolina ?
Ideally, with lighthouses every 40 miles or so, one was closely always visible to coasting ships. When one passed out of range, another would soon appear .
Q. Is the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse still a functional navigational aid?
Yes, though it is now automated .
Q. With today’s navigational technology, is it still a useful aid-to-navigation?
Yes, though not to the same extent it once was. It provides confirmation of modern navigational methods and a landmark for local gravy boat traffic. attend from a few miles out to sea, this coastline has few distinguishing features .
Q. Why is it painted with black & white stripes?
The stripes serve as a day identification aid—known as a daymark—allowing mariners to distinguish between the lighthouses
Along the Outer and Core Banks of North Carolina, the Currituck Beach Light is unpainted, crimson brick ; Bodie Island is banded black and flannel ; Cape Hatteras is black and white coil stripes ; Ocracoke is white ; and Cape Lookout is black and ashen checkerboard. No evidence has been found to indicate that the checkerboard or diamond blueprint was primitively intended for the Cape Hatteras Light at Diamond Shoals, despite a popular folk narrative that some bureaucrat messed up the ferment rate .
Q. What is meant by the term “daymark” and how does it apply to lighthouses?
All lighthouses are daymarks. The terminus just means a fixed, ceaseless, identifiable have that can be used by a navigator during day hours to assist in determining a ship ’ randomness location along a coastline .
broadly, the shapes of the column and populate, the advertised color and the geological background such as cliffs, rocks, hillsides, etc. provide adequate data to the mariner to assist with localization decision. Towers can besides be painted, often in solid colors that line with their natural backgrounds making them more visible. thus, a beacon that is built of pit on a rough island would most probably be painted white ; a beacon near a town with numerous white buildings would credibly be painted red .
however, problems can occur in areas such as the central/southern Atlantic coast of the United States. In general, the coast is topographically quite flat with few, if any, great natural features to assist the mariner. Compounding this issue, the improbable coastal towers, built primarily between the 1850s and 1870s, were about identical in appearance from a outdistance at ocean. consequently, to make them identifiable, they each received distinct daymarks—usually paint—though some towers were left unpainted. lone sealed colors—black, white and red—were used because these are the ones that would stand out the best against the background. therefore, along the Outer Banks, the tall coastal beacon daymarks are : Currituck Beach Light – unpainted bolshevik brick ; Bodie Island – banded black and white ; Cape Hatteras – black and blank corkscrew stripes ; and Cape Lookout – bootleg and white checkerboard .
Q. Has the Cape Hatteras lighthouse always been black and white spiral striped?
No. This paint speculate did not exist until 1873 .
The 1803 sandstone column appeared to be white. This may have been due to the natural color of the stone or a whitewash coat. This changed when the loom was extended with a brick addition in 1854. The lower 70 feet of the tower remained white and the top 80 feet was red. It was probably red on top to contrast with flip and white on bottom to contrast with the vegetation. It was painted with a cement-based brick wash.

The 1871 Report of the Lighthouse Board indicates that, when it was first painted, the top contribution of the current tower was painted crimson and the buttocks depart white. early reports say that the wholly tugboat wasoriginally bolshevik. In any event, the stripes were painted in 1873. There are two black and flannel stripes on the column, each stripe circles the lower column 1-1/2 times, and all are wider on the bottom than on the top. It is not known precisely how the stripes were laid out, but it could have been done using a combination of pre-calculated dimensions, plumb bob, and taut lines. primitively, the keepers painted the loom using boatswain ’ sulfur chairs, taking up to 4 months every 6–10 years. advanced painting contractors use a window washer type chopine .
From 1936-1950, the official loom was a steel social organization, though many mariners placid used the 1870 beacon as a daymark .
Q. How can lighthouses be told apart at night?
Lights can be distinguished by their “ feature ” or nightmark. Their lights may appear to either gleam constantly ( fixed ) or flash at unlike rates. here, the rate is every 7-1/2 seconds, though it has varied over the years. Throughout the centuries, mariners have had lists of lights – tables that list the nation ‘s navigational aids including the lighthouses with their demand positions, their daymarks, and their lightly characteristics .