New & Notes from Everywhere

If you own the 1995 Lighthouse Bibliography, the update is now available for $8.00 from Tom Tag, 6262 Blossom Park Drive, Dayton, OH 45449.

There is a new booklet out about Michigan's Little Sable Point Light Station. The book is well done with crisp clear photographs and loaded with information. Well worth the $7.95 plus shipping from Lighthouse Depot. To order call 1-800-758-1444.

The week of Sept. 8-14 QVC TV will be promoting Made in Maine products. the backdrop for the show will be lighthouses and harbors. planned, although not tentative is a live broadcast from Portland Head Light.

Merritt O. "Mo" Wright, 81, a retired CWO in the Coast Guard who began his career in the U.S. Lighthouse Service died in Portland Maine. Capt Wright served 32 years in the Coast Guard, beginning his career aboard three masted schooner and joined the Lighthouse Service in 1936. For several years he served as the Commander of the Ice Breaker Snohomish.

Work has begun on Atlantic City's Corrider Project which will create a "welcome mat" for visitors to the resort in the five blocks between Boardwalk and the new convention center. When completed in mid-1997, the road improvements will be enhanced by landscaping, public plaza, a fountain pool and you guessed it, a 60 foot facsmilie lighthouse which will serve as the centerpiece for the attraction.

Attention: Harbour Lights Collectors . . . Thirty Mile Point, Spectacle Reef and St. Joseph's Pier Lights which were introduced as open editions in 1995 will be retiring and will now be limited editions. Also, four new pieces that were introduced as open editions will now be limited editions limited to 9500 pieces. They are, Cape Lookout, Fire Island, Alcatraz and Mukilteo. When 9500 pieces are made the molds will be destroyed. Due to public demand, Harbour Lights will no longer introduce new pieces as open editions. If, after an open edition sells out and the lighthouse merits inclusion in their Great Lighthouses of the Worlds series they may consider a smaller version.

Candace Clifford has created a new web site of regional listings of publicly accessible lighthouses, the URL is: http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/maritime/ltaccess.htm For publicly accessible life saving stations the address is: http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/maritime/lssaccess.htm

Anna-Myrtle Snow, 85, of Marshfield, MA, wife of the late famous lighthouse historian and author has passed away. Although she proofread, edited and complied indexes of her husbands books and research, helped him prepare for his lectures, she is perhaps best remembered as Mrs. Santa Claus from her husbands illustrious career as the Flying Santa of the Lighthouses. After her husbands death, Mrs. Snow continued her husbands work by giving lectures in schools on pirates and shipwrecks. The Edward Rowe collection of sea related items has been donated to various places such as the Peabody Museum, Mugar Library at Boston University and the Hull Life Saving Museum. Recently, some of Snows research material on lightships was donated to the New England Lighthouse Foundation.

A local planning commission has approved plans to repair and enlarge the old farmhouse near the entrance to Point Cabrillo Lighthouse for use as a visitors center.

Last months issue of Lighthouse Digest featured a story on the Life Saving Crew from Pea Island Life Saving Station. In 1847 the men from the station made a daring rescue of six crew members, the captain, his wife and 3 year old daughter from the ship E. S. Newman. They were never recognized for this rescue. At an award ceremony at the Navy Memorial, several weeks ago, the Commandant of the Coast Guard made a presentation which included the unveiling of the Pea Island exhibit, which includes a medal with certificate and photograph of the seven members of the lifesaving station - a painting of the rescue and photographs of the Station during World War II. The Pea Island Life Saving Station was staffed entirely by blacks, and their race is thought to be the reason they were never given recognition for their courageous rescue at the time.

In the February issue we published a photograph of an unknown lighthouse in Brazil. Thanks to Bob Nichols of Automatic Power, Inc we now have a little more information. The name is San Antonio Lighthouse, erected in the fort of the same name in Salvador, Bahia State. This is the oldest lighthouse in Brazil and is noted in the book, "A Voyage to New Holland in the Year of 1699" by Englishman Cecil William Dampier.

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum has expressed an in interest in taking Sharps Island Lighthouse, should the Coast Guard decide to dismantle it as was reported in last months issue of Lighthouse Digest. However, the Coast Guard would have to pay to have it moved to the museum. W. Ray Huff, who chaired the State Commission to Save the Lighthouses said Sharp's Island Lighthouse was sturdy and should be left alone. "We had a survey (done) on the thing and it's still solid, even though it doesn't look it" he said. Huff said lighthouse in general need to be preserved, even if they fall into disrepair.

It now appears to be official . . . Nauset Light on Cape Cod will be moved this year. Officials have stated if it is not moved this year it will surely topple onto the beach below. It was originally scheduled to be moved in 1997, but because of this winters past erosion, it must be moved this year. For out of area residents, this will be a good time to attend the New England Lighthouse Foundation spring convention where you will be able to see not only Nauset Light but Cape Cod/Highland Light for the last time at their current locations.

This story appeared in the April 1996 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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