A screw-pile lighthouse is a lighthouse which stands on piles that are screwed into sandy or muddy sea or river bottoms. The first screw-pile lighthouse to begin construction was built by the blind Irish engineer Alexander Mitchell. Construction began in 1838 at the mouth of the Thames and was known as the Maplin Sands lighthouse, and first lit in 1841. However, though its construction began later, the Wyre Light in Fleetwood, Lancashire, was the first to be lit.
The Pearl River is a river in the U.S. states of Mississippi and Louisiana. It forms in Neshoba County, Mississippi from the confluence of Nanih Waiya and Tallahaga creeks, and has a meander length of 444 miles (715 km). The lower part of the river forms part of the boundary between Mississippi and Louisiana.
CSS Oregon was a wooden sidewheel steamer that served as a gunboat in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Built in 1846 for the Mobile Mail Line, she transported mail between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, before the war. In 1861, she was seized by the Governor of Louisiana, Thomas Overton Moore, and served as a blockade runner before being selected for use by the Confederate Army. After transferring men and supplies to Ship Island, she was formally converted into a gunboat and armed with four cannon. Remaining behind on Lake Pontchartrain when many Confederate warships were transferred up the Mississippi River, Oregon served in the Mississippi Sound and Pass Christian areas. She took part in several minor actions involving USS New London, two of which resulted in the Confederates moving into shallow water to avoid close-range action, and the third ending when the Confederate ships abandoned the Pass Christian area. In April 1862, Union pressure confined her and other Confederate ships to Lake Pontchartrain. Later that month, with Union forces closing in on New Orleans, Oregon was sunk as a blockship. Her wreck was removed and destroyed in the early 1870s.
Lake Borgne is a lagoon of the Gulf of Mexico in southeastern Louisiana. Although early maps show it as a lake surrounded by land, coastal erosion has made it an arm of the Gulf of Mexico.
The Chandeleur Islands are a chain of uninhabited barrier islands approximately 50 miles (80 km) long, located in the Gulf of Mexico, marking the outer boundary of the Chandeleur Sound. They form the easternmost point of the state of Louisiana, United States and are a part of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge. They are an important migrating point for many birds on their way south, and are a prime marsh and forest wildlife area.
The Amelia Island Light is the oldest existing lighthouse in the state of Florida in the United States. It is located near the northern end of Amelia Island in the northeastern part of the state. Its light marks St. Marys Entrance, the inlet leading to St. Marys River, the Cumberland Sound and the harbor of Fernandina Beach, Florida along the Amelia River. The white light flashes every ten seconds which turns red from 344° to 360° when covering the shoal water in the vicinity of Nassau Sound.
Stratford Shoal Light, officially Stratford Shoal Light, is a lighthouse on a shoal in the middle of Long Island Sound approximately halfway between Port Jefferson, New York and Bridgeport, Connecticut.
The Cat Island Light was a lighthouse located on Cat Island off the coast of Mississippi. Originally built to guide shipping through the Mississippi Sound, it was discontinued as traffic moved further south.
Billingsgate Island Light was located on what is still called Billingsgate Island though it is underwater at high tide, at the entrance to the harbor in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.
The Tchefuncte River Range Lights are a range that was first established in 1838 to aid vessels entering the Tchefuncte River from the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana. The lighting apparatus was supplied by Winslow Lewis and consisted of nine lamps with several fourteen-inch reflectors. The original rear tower suffered during the Civil War and was replaced with the current tower in 1868. The new tower, ten feet taller than the first, was built on the same foundation, using some of the same brick. It was given a lantern which had been removed from Cat Island Light in Mississippi.
Round Island Lighthouse stood from 1859 to 1998 on the southwest end of Round Island in the Mississippi Sound, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Pascagoula, Mississippi. In September 1998, the lighthouse was toppled by Hurricane Georges. In 2010, the base of the structure and other lighthouse remnants were removed from Round Island and relocated within the City of Pascagoula for restoration.
The Merrill Shell Bank Light was a screw-pile lighthouse which once stood on its eponymous shoal in the Mississippi Sound, west of Cat Island and south of Pass Christian, Mississippi. It was replaced by a skeleton tower on the same foundation.
The Lake Borgne Light was a lighthouse in Mississippi at the entrance to Lake Borgne on what is now Lighthouse Point, east of Heron Bay. It was built in 1889 to replace an earlier light on St. Joseph's Island further east, which was shrinking and is now completely gone. The new light sat on a screwpile foundation in the marsh and was reached by a boardwalk; it was equipped with a fifth order Fresnel lens. The house was destroyed by the 1906 Mississippi hurricane but was rebuilt; it was deactivated in 1937 and abandoned. The foundation of the light is marked as a hazard on present day charts, as the point of land has eroded further.
The Horn Island Light was a lighthouse in Mississippi originally located at the eastern end of Horn Island. Moved and rebuilt several times, it was deactivated and abandoned in 1961.
The St. Joseph North Pier Inner and Outer Lights are lighthouses in St. Joseph, Michigan, US, at the entrance to the St. Joseph River on Lake Michigan. The station was built in 1832 with the current lights built in 1906 and 1907; they were decommissioned in 2005.
The East Rigolets Light was an early lighthouse marking the entrance to the Rigolets from Lake Borgne in Louisiana. It was deactivated in 1874 and destroyed sometime after 1923.
