Keepers feared storms above all, and with good reason. One wave smashed the thick windows in the lantern, more than twelve stories above the ocean. family stations, so the keepers' families had to live on shore. From 1891 to 1930, eighty keepers served on St. George Reef. Thirty-seven resigned and twenty-six asked for transfers. One District Inspector wrote of St. George Reef Light: "It tries and proves men. Show me the man who has put in the required time of service there, and I'll show you aman . .. and a lighthouse keeper, too!" He may well have had John Olsen, the first head keeper, in mind. For twentytwo years, Olsen ran the station, taking whatever wind and wave brought him. That included spending seventeen hours in an eighteen foot open sailboat on a trip that should have lasted two hours. One of Olsen 's assistants probably qualified, too. When, in 1903, the engine in the launch quit, hedrifted for fifty-six hours. John Olsen was not the only keeper that St. George Reefchallenged. In 1893, William Ericcson set out for Crescent City in the station sailboat. Neither Ericcson nor the boat were ever seen again. Eight years later, Gottfried Olden broke a leg when a wave struck the station boat as the boom lifted it from the water. In 1902, Julius Charter became ill and died later in Crescent City. The following year, Charles Steiner was taken ashore after becoming seriously ill. Keepers feared storms above all, and with good reason. One wave smashed the thick windows in the lantern, more than twelve stories above the ocean. George Roux, the third head keeper, spent two decades on the rock. During that time, he endured some of the worst weather ever recorded at the lighthouse. On one occasion, huge waves, breaking over the reef, marooned Roux and his assistant keepers for sixty days. Supplies ran short and the possibility of starvation loomed. The usually harmonious keepers seldom spoke to one another. Even asking for salt at mealtime could trigger a rage. In 1951, George Permenter, the officer-in-charge of the light, swung the derrick boom out over the water. The station boat with five Coast Guardsmen aboard hung from the boom. Two were keepers going on leave and two were electrician's mates, who had visited the light to make repairs. The fifth man would bring the boat back. Carefully gauging the waves, Permenter lowered the boat between two of them-a routine launching. Then, as he watched the crew unhook the bridle, a freak , rogue swell SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992
capsized the boat. Five men began fighthope it will soon be over." ing for their lives in the churning water. It was! Coast Guardsmen would never Despite heroic efforts, which earned spend another winter on St. George Reef Permenter the Silver Lifesaving Medal, Light. That April, a tug towed a large three Coast Guardsmen died that day. It navigational buoy (LNB) to St. George was the worst lighthouse accident in Reef and moored it a mile west of the California history. light. The Coast Guard had developed The Coast Guard searched for safer LNBs to replace lightships. Fully autoways to service the lighthouse. St. George mated and with backup systems, a LNB ReefLight was too important to abandon was a floating lighthouse. To verify reliand automation was still in its infancy. able operation of the LNB, the keepers High winds and the lack oflanding space monitored the light, fog signal and radio beacon for several weeks. made helicopter landings impossible. Then, on May 13, the Cape Carter Following that black day in 1951, a Coast Guard cutter Moments after this picture ofthe station boat being lowered into the stood by whenever surf was taken at St. George Reef Light in 1958, a fitting securing men transferred the bridle to the boat snapped. The four Coast Guardsmen aboard from the light. The were dumped into the sea, but the presence of USCG cutter Ewing policy paid off. assured their quick recovery. Seven years later a fitting securing the bridle to the station boat broke, spilling four men into the ocean. The crew of the cutter Ewing reacted quickly and plucked the men from the water. In 1960, the assignment of a 94foo t cutter, the Cape Carter, to CrescentCitymade transfers even safer. The cutter would ease in under the end of the boom. As a swell lifted the Cape Carter, one or two men climbed into a Billy Pugh net hanging from the end of the boom. As the cutter fell away with the swell, she backed away and thederrick whisked the men up. The Billy Pugh net was a made a final personnel transfer at the simple platform surrounded by a net. lighthouse. Chief Sebastian lowered the Those who used it seldom forgot the colors. Then he used the derrick to transfer two keepers to the deck of the cutter. After exciting ride. In February 1975, Chief James securing the derrick and chaining the I ightSebastian, the officer-in-charge, wrote house door, Sebastian and Petty Officer in the station log book: Louis Salter clambered into a rubber boat "This winter has been a long and lonely and motored out to the Cape Carter. That one. The weatherdoesn ' talwaysco- night, for the first time in 83 years, the operate when it comes time to change guardian of St. George Reef was dark. • crews and go home to families. We have spent extra weeks on St. George Donald R utheiford is the author ofa numdue to high winds and rough seas. We ber of books and articles on lighthouses.
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