Navassa Island Light

Navassa Island Light

The light in 1999
Location	Navassa Island, Navassa Island, Haiti
Coordinates	18°23′51″N75°00′46″W / 18.397379°N 75.012836°W / 18.397379; -75.012836
Tower
Constructed	1917
Construction	stone (foundation), concrete (tower)
Automated	1929
Height	162 ft (49 m)
Shape	truncated cone
Markings	Unpainted (tower), black (lantern)
Operator	United States Fish and Wildlife Service
Light
Deactivated	1996
Focal height	395 ft (120 m)
Lens	second order Fresnel lens

Navassa Island Light is a deactivated lighthouse on Navassa Island, which lies in the Caribbean Sea at the south end of the Windward Passage between the islands of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) to the east and Cuba and Jamaica to the west. ^{[1] [2] [3]} It is on the shortest route between the east coast of the United States and the Panama Canal. The light was built in 1917 and deactivated in 1996. The light is gradually deteriorating from lack of maintenance. The keepers' house is roofless and in ruins. ^[3]

History

In 1905, the U.S. Lighthouse Service identified Navassa Island as a good location for a new lighthouse. ^[4] However, plans for the light moved slowly. With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, shipping between the American eastern seaboard and the Canal through the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti increased in the area of Navassa, which proved a hazard to navigation. Congress appropriated $125,000 in 1913 to build a lighthouse on Navassa, ^[5] and in 1917 the Lighthouse Service built the 162- foot (49-meter) Navassa Island Light on the island, 395 feet (120 meters) above sea level. At the same time, a wireless telegraphy station was established on the island. ^[6] A keeper and two assistants were assigned to live there until the Lighthouse Service installed an automatic beacon in 1929. ^[7]

After absorbing the Lighthouse Service in 1939, the U.S. Coast Guard serviced the light twice each year. The U.S. Navy set up an observation post for the duration of World War II.

In 1996, the Coast Guard dismantled the light on Navassa, which ended its interest in the island. Consequently, the Department of the Interior assumed responsibility for the civil administration of the area, and placed the island under its Office of Insular Affairs. ^[8]

The importance of the light before the advent of GPS is evident in the fact that it has the twelfth-highest tower and fourth-highest focal plane of all U.S. lights.

See also

• Caribbean portal
• Engineering portal

• List of lighthouses in the United States

References

1. "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: West Indies / Virgin Islands". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on 1 May 2017.
2. Rowlett, Russ. "Navassa Island Lighthouse". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
3. "Navassa Island". U.S. Geologic Survey.
4. "Uncle Sam to Build Lighthouse on Abandoned Navassa Island". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Vol. 152, no. 177. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 18 June 1905. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
5. "United States Court of Appeals". www.cadc.uscourts.gov. Archived from the original on 22 July 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
6. "Island Sends S.O.S. to Ships on Ocean". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Vol. 186, no. 120. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 30 April 1922. p. 31 – via Newspapers.com.
7. Rowlett, Russ. "Navassa Island Lighthouse". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Retrieved 17 November 2012.
8. "Navassa Island". Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior. June 12, 2015. Archived from the original on August 15, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2018.