One Era Begins, Another Ends

aboard Blunts Reef lightship. Courtesy of Linda Fiess.

Along with civilian keeper Lewis, Fiess served under Bob Moorefield, who had resigned from his civilian position and joined the Coast Guard on July 7, 1941. (Medical care was better for Coast Guard military personnel than for its civilian employees and Moorefield’s wife was ill.)

A little more than a year later, on August 18, 1942, at San Luis Obispo’s Mountain View Hospital, Ellogene Fiess delivered Linda Gayle, the Fiess’s first-born child and the station’s first Coast Guard baby.

It must have been a stressful time to be stationed at the lighthouse. Five months after Don and Ellogene’s arrival, the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred; two-and-ahalf weeks later a Union Oil Company tanker, the Montebello, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine shortly after it sailed from Port San Luis. The attack occurred about four miles west and two miles south of the Piedras Blancas light station in coastal waters near the town of San Simeon.

As the reader might imagine, much changed at Point San Luis when the United States entered the war.

Immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack, continuous watches were established; blackouts of the Fresnel lens in the lighthouse tower and the lighted buoys in San Luis Bay were common; more military men were assigned to the light station; and in January 1942, a lookout house was erected. It wasn’t until September 1942 that orders were received to resume the normal operation of the light.

Also in September 1942, Moorefield received orders to assume temporary charge of the Avila Section, U.S. Coast Guard Beach Patrol:

‘You will establish a regular patrol between Avila and Point Buchon with the facilities and men now available at Avila. Patrols must be maintained every night from sunset to sunrise, and also during inclement weather or foggy weather when the visibility is zero.

“Under no condition should a man be left alone on patrol, but they should travel in pairs and be stationed fifty feet apart. Rifles will be distributed at a later date, but the main weapon used by the men on beach patrol duty is a police club.

“It is understood that until transportation facilities are furnished this station you will find it difficult to establish a patrol at a distance from the Avila headquarters. But if you contact the Army they might aid you in this matter. However, until the Section is fully established, maintain patrols at such places as can be reached, and also take steps to get the quarters in shape so that when all equipment is received, the patrol can be immediately set up.

“Make a survey of such communication facilities as are available, and divide the beach up into sections so that they can be readily identified, and men can be assigned posts.

“The men on patrol are to report any unusual activities or attempted landings to the Avila Section office; then this information will be transmitted to the nearest Army headquarters. Reports are to be made via the fastest available means.”

No doubt Fiess participated in beach patrol duty along with the other military men stationed at Point San Luis at the time.

Circa 1942 photo of Don, Ellogene, and Linda Gayle Fiess, most likely taken at the time the family was preparing to leave Point San Luis for a new posting. Courtesy of the Point San Luis Light Station archives.

The Lewis and Fiess families left the light station on the tender ship Lupine in November 1942; the Lewises to the Carquinez Strait light; the Fiesses to a new wartime assignment. With Lewis’s departure, the era of civilian keepers at Point San Luis, which had begun in June 1890, was officially over. Only Moorefield remained from the “lighthouse service era,” but he was now a Coastie.

Note: Kathy Mastako is the author of “The Lighthouse at Point San Luis, A collection of short (true) stories.” The book is available at the Point San Luis gift shop and on Amazon, among other outlets. Book proceeds benefit the Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers, the 501(c) (3) non-profit organization that operates the light station.