SENTINEL OF THE SEAS

Previously untold story of the historic St. George Reef Lighthouse.

Positioned six miles off the coast of Northern California, the rock formation that eventually bore the lighthouse was originally an underwater volcanic mountain. The remote, wave-swept and dangerous location was dubbed Dragon Rocks in 1792, and its submerged reef became known as St. George Reef, “in the hopes that the dragon might one day be slain.” After a series of fatal shipwrecks, including the disastrous 1865 loss of the gold-bearing steamer Brother Jonathan (subject of the author’s previous book, Treasure Ship, 2006), the United States Lighthouse Board in 1882 commissioned the engineering and construction of a lighthouse on St. George Reef, to be supervised by Alexander Ballantyne. The seasoned sailor had already built a lighthouse off the Oregon coast, but that was nothing compared to the risky challenge of the California project, painstakingly described by Powers in exacting detail. Hampered by cold winter rains and budgetary restrictions, the increasingly fatigued around-the-clock laborers finally interlocked into place the mega-tons of solid concrete and granite blocks in 1891. A year later, the tower’s French Fresnel lighthouse lens was illuminated. Keeping a crew of five lighthouse keepers on-site proved as challenging as the construction. The “wickies,” as they were known, endured harsh weather conditions, moisture-related illnesses, fires, explosions and earthquakes; average tenure was a mere three to six months. The lighthouse’s mettle was tested by a series of violent storms, including one in 1923 that ripped the engine house off its foundation. Deactivated in 1975, it has since been the focus of preservation efforts. Powers overstuffs his narrative with engaging lighthouse stories (some of them quite ghostly), worker/Coast Guard profiles and such odd tidbits as the fact that liquefied lard was one of the early fuels used. Historic photographs, maritime diaries, notes, reports and interviews round out this uniquely comprehensive, extensively researched maritime history.

A fascinating, informative tale related with powerful, intimate urgency.