Fowey Rocks Light

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Short descriptionScript error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "lighthouse tracking".Expression error: Unexpected < operator. Fowey Rocks Light is located seven miles southeast of Cape Florida on Key Biscayne.[1][2][3] The lighthouse was completed in 1878, replacing the Cape Florida Light. It was automated on May 7, 1975, and since 2021Template:Dated maintenance category (articles)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". is still in operation.[4] The structure is cast iron, with a screw-pile foundation, a platform and a skeletal tower. The light is 110 feet above the water. The tower framework is painted brown, while the dwelling and enclosed circular stair to the lantern are painted white. The original lens was a first-order drum Fresnel lens which stood about Script error: No such module "convert". high and weighed about a ton (tonne). The light has a nominal range of 15 miles in the white sectors, and 10 miles in the red sectors. It serves as a maker for the entrance to the Hawk Channel passage through the Florida Keys.[5]

File:USCGFoweyRocks.jpg
Fowey Rocks Lighthouse, U.S. Coast Guard Archive

Fowey Rocks are named after the Royal Navy frigate HMS Fowey which was wrecked on a different reef to the south in 1748.[6] During construction of the lighthouse the workers lived on a platform built over the water to minimize the danger of transporting them and their supplies each day from the mainland. While construction was under way, on 17 February 1878 the Arratoon Apcar ran aground on the reef. The 1500 ton steamship came to rest just Script error: No such module "convert". from the workmen's platform.[7] Efforts to save the boat failed, and she was pounded apart on the rocks and sank. Today the wreck is an excellent scuba diving site.[8] One early assistant keeper of the lighthouse, Jefferson B. Browne, later became Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court.[9]

The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 washed away the first deck of the lighthouse, 15 feet above the water, but the tower survived. The lighthouse is inside the boundaries of Biscayne National Park.

In June 2011, the General Services Administration made the Fowey Rocks Light (along with 11 others) available at no cost to public organizations willing to preserve them.[10][11] On October 2, 2012, the National Park Service accepted ownership of the light.[12]

It is the last of the original Florida Keys offshore manned reef lights in operation, all others having been decommissioned by 2015.[13][14] The original Fresnel lens has been replaced by a modern solar-powered light. Although owned by the National Park Service, the light continues to be maintained by the US Coast Guard.[15]

References

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  1. ↑ Template:Cite uscgll
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  3. ↑ Template:Cite rowlett
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  6. ↑ The Coast Guard History site, cited above, says she was a Spanish Galleon, but there is substantial documentation of her Royal Navy status.
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Love Dean, Lighthouses of the Florida Keys (1998), p. 228.
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

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Further reading

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External links

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