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Coast Guard Activities Baltimore Reserve Lighthouse Maintenance Team recently completed two weeks of active duty time making repairs to Point No Point Lighthouse. The Team installed a new copper roof over most of the horizontal lantern room roof and began structural repairs to beams and wooden floors on the second and third decks. The Team will return to the Lighthouse again next year to complete the work.
The Lighthouse is located in southern Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, just north of the Potomac river entrance. Lighthouse construction begun in 1902, was hampered by a construction accident and heavy ice damage which delayed completion until 1905. The light was fully automated in 1938; however, the last Coast Guard personnel did not leave until 1962.
In late April 2001 the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kennebec, home ported in Portsmouth VA., delivered pressure treated lumber and roofing materials to the Lighthouse. In May, the Coast Guards Aids To Navigation Potomac supplied the Reserve Team with a coxswain who piloted a 22’ boat to transport the Team to and from the Lighthouse daily. Each trip to the Lighthouse took
more than a half hour, mostly through choppy water. It took in excess of 2 hours to transport the entire Team one way to the lighthouse.
Once on the Lighthouse the Team split into two groups, one working the floors while the other did roof repairs. The interior Team began by removing the existing ceiling coverings for decks 2 & 3 in order to expose the damaged structural floor beams. The members cut, sized and installed new floor beams where necessary. They then installed new planking over the beams to finish the floors. All the deteriorated wood was bundled and stowed in the lower part of the caisson. It will be picked up by the Coast Guard Cutter Sledge later this summer.
The roof Team began repairs to the existing metal roof that had been punctured and was coming apart at most of the soldered seams. They cut, bent, shaped new copper roll roofing, soldering the seams in place. Bad weather prevented the repair of the entire horizontal roof, however, over 80% of the new roof was installed and the roof was made watertight until repairs can be completed next year.
By CWO4 Walt Schroter
This story appeared in the
July 2001 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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