Elbow Reef Lighthouse

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Elbow Reef Lighthouse

Hello

we have been looking at this lighthouse since we arrived, sooooo for our last hike we went to the Lighthouse today, climbed the 100+ to the top and enjoyed the view and crisp breeze. We have a weather window so we will be leaving tomorrow heading to Treasure Cay and a short visit with Tom and Joy.. then make the 200 mile run back to the USA... we hope Fort Pierce then to Lady's Island.

We have had an interesting adventure, did not get as much diving in as we wanted but that gives us an incentive to return next winter.

Laura and Tom

Hope Town is the home to the famous Elbow Reef Lighthouse. Probably the most recognizable landmark in Abaco, the lighthouse is one of the last manual lighthouses in the world. The lamp burns pressurized Kerosene oil with a wick and mantle. The Fresnel lenses concentrate the mantle’s light into a beam directed straight towards the horizon. The lenses and burner equipment, weighing 8,000lbs, float in a circular lubricated tub. This reduces friction so that the 700lbs of weight, when wound up to the top of the tower by hand, smoothly rotates the 4-ton apparatus once every 15 seconds. The lighthouse keeper on duty must wind up the weights every 2 hours in order for the red and white candy-striped lighthouse to be seen from 17 miles away.In 1836, 2 lighthouses were built in the Bahamas in order to improve navigation and decrease the amount of shipwrecks. One of the lighthouses was stationed at the southernmost tip of Abaco called Hole-in-the-Wall, and the other just south of Bimini. Even with the lighthouse at Hole-in-the-Wall, wrecks were still building up around Abaco. As a result, in 1863, England decided, to build a lighthouse at Hope Town to steer ships clear of the extensive “Elbow Reef”. Despite protests made by wrackers (salvagers), the lighthouse was completed in 1864. At this time, the lighthouse was equipped with a non-rotating, first-order light. In 1936, approximately 73 years later, the Imperial Lighthouse Service closed the Lighthouse at Gun Cay (south of Bimini), and realized that the lighthouse at Hope Town was in need of a beacon for easier identification by ships. The Gun Cay lighthouse was then decapitated, and the iron lantern room with its dome, petroleum burner equipment, turning mechanism, and the rotating Fresnel lenticular panels were brought to Hope Town to replace its standing wick-type light. In 1996, for economic reasons, the Port Department was prompted to automate the hand-wound kerosene–burning lighthouse in the Bahamas. The Lighthouse Preservation Society (the non-profit historical and educational society dedicated to the preservation of Bahamian lighthouses) convinced the government to reconsider, as long as the Society would provide the Port Department with the parts they needed that were longer available through their previous supplier. Since then, the Society has been using mantles from the Coleman Company (manufacturer of Outdoor Equipment). Today, the Elbow Reef Lighthouse is still sending out light, rated at 325,000 candlepower, with the same light source it acquired in 1936.