It was one miserable night. The wind was howling through the rigging, and occasionally when the lantern would sway in a certain direction, you could see the rain blasting by in a horizontal downpour. The temperature in and of itself was not that bad, it was in the mid 70’s, but the wind and blowing rain caused a chilled you to the core of your body. Foul weather gear wouldn’t even keep you dry in these conditions. The sails were all reefed to the last reef point. Any farther would result in no sail at all and we would loose the ability to control the boat. This is the third day of this nasty weather and the navigator has not been able to get a celestial fix for two days now. The only fix he had was from the first day, and due to the poor conditions that day, he wasn’t sure of its accuracy. It sure would be nice to know what our position is. We should be close to landfall, as we left Tampa three days ago for what should have been a three-day run to Panama City. This weather has caused us to change course so many times though, that we are not sure of where we are exactly. Our only hope is that the weather will break just long enough for us to see the light from Cape San Blas.

The story above, in this instance is fiction, but having been to sea myself, I know all too well that it has been lived and re-lived thousands of times over the years. Modern electronics make things a lot simpler these days for navigators, but in the days before electronics were invented, lighthouses were a primary source of coastal navigational information. Cape San Blas lighthouse is no exception. True, it is now dormant, but it still stands as it did when it was constructed in 1848, as a solitary beacon, and a reminder of our maritime history. In 1882, in the midst of its active service years, there was no other light along the 120-mile coastline between Cape San Blas and Pensacola.

Historically, lighthouses have aided sailors at sea by providing a navigational tool for them, in most cases by telling them where dangerous coastlines or reefs were located. Yes, when one sees a lighthouse while at sea, you know that is where you do not want to be because of the dangers it is warning you of. There are however, other ways lighthouses help sailors at sea. Navigators can and do use them as a fixed object to obtain a known position that bearings can be taken from. Lighthouses are identified visually in the daytime by their construction or by the color that they are painted. At night, lighthouses flash different light schemes so that if a sailor is making a landfall, he can identify the particular lighthouse he is looking at. In the case of the Cape San Blas lighthouse, its lantern, a Fresnel lens, could be seen from 16 to 20 miles out at sea. It was identified at night by a white light burning for one second, with a twenty second break in between.

Being located on a small spit of land extending out into the ocean, the Cape San Blas lighthouse has had a turbulent history. Since being erected in 1848, the lighthouse has endured a continuous battle with the ocean. The existing structure is the fifth to be built on Cape San Blas over the years. All previous structures were either destroyed by storms or washed out by shoreline erosion. On two occasions, the erosion was so bad the physical location of the lighthouse had to be moved. As if this weren’t enough, the Civil War then came along, and the lighthouse came under attack from a new source. In 1861, Confederate troops destroyed the keeper’s dwellings and inflicted serious damage to the lighthouse itself, extinguishing the light for a couple of years. Soon after though, repairs were made, and be light was lit again in July 1865.

In 1895, in an attempt to find a more stable location for the lighthouse, Congress actually decided to move it to Black’s Island, and construction started soon after. The two keeper’s houses were moved, and concrete work began for the lighthouse, but then funds ran out, and work came to a halt. Nothing else was done for several years, so in 1901, Congress decided to abandon the Black’s Island plan, and the keeper’s houses were moved back to the original location where the lighthouse still stood. Storms continued to attack though, and erosion continued its course, so in 1916, the President authorized moving the lighthouse ¼ of a mile inland onto land that had been reserved for military use, and this is where it stands today.

In 1952, the Air Force added a LORAN station to the lighthouse, and in 1981 the lighthouse was automated, so there was no longer a need for keepers to man the lighthouse. In 1996, the Coast Guard deactivated the light, letting it assume its position in the journals of American maritime history. In the years following its deactivation, the lighthouse structure remained in place and in relatively good condition, but the keeper and assistant keeper houses were allowed to fall into disrepair. Repairs began some years ago on the exterior of the keeper’s house and were completed soon after. The assistant keeper’s house however, was allowed to remain in disrepair and had actually begun collapsing. As of July 2005 though, I am glad to announce that both houses have had their exteriors restored, and Hurricane Denise of the same month, apparently did no damage to either. The houses are still not accessible to the public, so the current status of their interiors is unknown.

The lighthouse light, complete with its Fresnel lens is still in place, and although visitors cannot climb the lighthouse structure or enter the buildings, the grounds are accessible for visitation. Cape San Blas lighthouse has served proudly and stood against the elements for over 147 years. At least 20 Keepers and 32 Assistant Keepers were assigned to the lighthouse over the years, and now have had their names added to the pages of history as well.

Today, as boats sail past, mariners can not help but think back to a time when the beam of light cutting through the darkness from this lighthouse, served as a beacon of salvation to their maritime ancestors. Lighthouses all around the world symbolize a beacon of guidance, and their histories are romanticized because of this. Though not originally intended for romantic purposes, over the years lighthouses have served and saved the lives hundreds of thousands of sailors. It is a fact that lighthouses do deserve this position of esteem which society has given them. These structures of concrete, steel, and rock have taken on a life of their own and they exert an aura that demands this respect. The Cape San Blas lighthouse stands as our personal reminder of this fact.