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Buoys are floating aids that are anchored to rhe seabed. Boaters interpret what they m ean by their shape, color, and the characteristics ofli ghrs and sound signals. Beacons are fixed to the earth's surface (nor flo ating) and can be anything from big lighthouses to a sign nailed to some pilings . Lighted beacons are simply called lights; unlighted beacons are called daybeacons and have shapes or colored signs to distinguish them from other beacons. '" ..,..,.~ 1(, • , !<'IJ...1· ~~~ ' M ariners can determine which beacon or buoy they are looking at by how they are m arked and then comparing them to rhe chart. Buoys com e in diffe rent shapes and colors and m any are m arked with numbers. Lighthouses are painted in different patterns and colors so th ey can be distinguished from one another. The characteristics for all ATON m aintained by the Coast Guard are noted on charts and published in the USC G Light List. Ir is important rhar m ariners don't confuse one navigational aid with another one.
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The way rhe light is produced in lighthouses an d lightships changed over rime with rhe development of new technologies. The first lighthouse ever built, the Pharos lighthouse in Egypt, built in the 3rd century BC , was lit with fire and was reflected our to sea with mirrors. Some of the earliest lights were m ade with multiple-wicked :;;-y· oil lamps with reflectors to concentrate it .-: C:,· into a beam of lighr. In the 1820s, a French ~~~~~IW physicist, Augustin Fresnel, invented a special ·' ·~ - .- . . . . glass lens with rings, refl ectors, and prisms th at , -~- •. ·: . ~ ~ ·. ·. •• surrounded a single lamp. These lenses proved :~~~ . ~=:_ to be so effective rhar m any are still used today. -'t ·
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Sound signals are also used to guide boars ~nesnel ·;:~n~{~ and ships in reduced visibili ty, such as fog. In colonial rimes, .'.i.:"··~ >~::: people fired cannons from shore to warn ships that they were · ./· : •• getting close to land. Today, many buoys and beacons are equipped with bells, whistles, gongs, h orns, and air sirens. ;:_-:r:,_ .·_@·.".
:. Lightships were floating aids ro navigation that were stationed in places where it was either too deep, too far fro m shore, or too dangerous to build a lighthouse. These vessels carried the sam e aids to navigation as lighthouses . The Coas t Guard doesn't use lightships anymore. In 1983, rhe N antucket Lightship, rhe las t lightship in service as an ATO N, was replaced with a Large Navigational Buoy (LNB). 1h ese "monster buoys" are up to 40 feet in diameter. Different 1rypes of rowers are now built in som e of the stations rhar used to be m airked by lightships. -
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SEA HilSTORY 126, SPRING 2009
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