Lighthouse Adventure

The last Delaware Bay Lighthouse adventure, sponsored by the Cape May, New Jersey Center for the Arts, took place on 9 September. The trip aboard the Cape May Whaler took its passengers by nine lighthouses.

They included the 157-ft Cape May lighthouse, built at Cape May Point in 1859; the 1885 Delaware Breakwater East End Lighthouse, which warned sailors of the shoals at Cape Henlopen; and the 1896 Harbor of Refuge Light Station, which suffered damage by storms in 1920 and was rebuilt in 1926.

The trip also included the 1914 Brandywine Shoal Lighthouse, built on the site of the first screw pile lighthouse. The seven-hour cruise pointed out the bright red Miah Maull Shoal Lighthouse, which bears the name of a shipwrecked sailor. Passengers saw the remains of the 1904 Elbow of Cross Ledge Lighthouse, which was toppled by a fog-bound freighter, as well as the hexagonal base of the 1875 Cross Ledge Beacon, which is all that remains of that beacon. The 1874 Ship John Shoal Light was named for a cargo ship that foundered nearby.

Viewers also saw the Fourteen Foot Bank Lighthouse, which dates from 1885. Its name comes from the 14-ft of water that cover this shoal bank. The shoal is nearly 6000-ft long and 1300-ft wide. In 1876, a lightship was posted at that place, but due to the ice floe danger it could not remain on station during the winter months when it was most needed. The unusual structure, according to the New Jersey Lighthouse Society, has a cast-iron cylindrical-shaped base topped by the keeper's almost house-like residence. Built in 1885, it was the nation's first caisson-style lighthouse.