ELDRED ROCK LIGHTHOUSE, ALASKA, USA

Hurricane winds, estimated at ninety miles per hour, were howling down narrow Lynn Canal as the Clara Nevada started her multi-day journey from Skagway to Seattle. It was February 5th, 1898, near the peak of the Alaskan gold rush, and the three-masted passenger ship was loaded with over 800 pounds of the prized mineral, an illegal shipment of dynamite, and some one hundred passengers, including more than one frustrated fortune seeker. Just over thirty miles into her southward voyage, the ship ran aground at Eldred Rock and exploded into flames.


Photo Text & Copyright www.Lighthousefriends.com

CAPE HINCHINBROOK LIGHTHOUSE, ALASKA, USA

On the night of September 13, 1906 the steamship Oregon, captained by H.E. Soule, was en route from Seattle, WA to Valdez, AK with fifty passengers and about 900 tons of freight aboard. Due to heavy fog, the vessel was three miles off course when it ran hard aground on rocks fifty yards offshore from Hinchinbrook Island. This point of land, which marks one side of the entrance to Prince William Sound, had long been regarded a menace to navigation, and just a few months prior to the Oregon’s accident, a Congressional act of June 20th, 1906 had authorized the construction of a light and fog signal station there.


Photo Text & Copyright www.Lighthousefriends.com

PEQUENO E COLORIDO PREDADOR DAS ÁGUAS

Dedicatória ao Rei Dom Sebastião

E vós, ó bem nascida segurança
Da Lusitana antígua liberdade,
E não menos certíssima esperança
De aumento da pequena Cristandade;
Vós, ó novo temor da Maura lança,
Maravilha fatal da nossa idade,
Dada ao mundo por Deus, que todo o mande,
Para do mundo a Deus dar parte grande;

Photo & Copyright Anonymus
Poema Luis de Camoes, Os Lusiadas, Canto I, 6

NAVIO DE GPL

O Gás de Petróleo Liquefeito (GPL) é um dos produtos petrolíferos que se obtém directamente por destilação do petróleo. Os Gases de Petróleo Liquefeitos são hidrocarbonetos em C3 e C4 e suas misturas. São gasosos em condições normais de temperatura e de pressão e mantidos no estado líquido elevando a pressão ou baixando a temperatura. Os mais comuns são o propano e o butano, gases mais densos que o ar, pelo que tendem a ocupar as zonas mais baixas em caso de serem libertados para a atmosfera.


Photo Anonymus

PESCA NO ÁRCTICO

Dai-me uma fúria grande e sonorosa,
E não de agreste avena ou frauta ruda,
Mas de tuba canora e belicosa,
Que o peito acende e a cor ao gesto muda;
Dai-me igual canto aos feitos da famosa
Gente vossa, que a Marte tanto ajuda;
Que se espalhe e se cante no universo,
Se tão sublime preço cabe em verso.


Photo & Copyright Thomas
Poema Luis de Camoes, Os Lusiadas, Canto I, 5

USS RONALD REAGAN CVN-76, USA

Estaleiro Northrop Grumman Newport News
Lançamento 4 de março de 2001
Incorporação 12 de julho de 2003
Situação Em operação
Deslocamento 101.000 a 104.000 ton carga total
Comprimento 333 m total - 317 m linha d'água
Calado 11,3 m
Boca 76,8 m - 40,8 m linha d'água
Propulsão 2 × reatores nucleares Westinghouse A4W
4 × turbinas a vapor
4 x motores diesel

Velocidade 30 nós / 56 km/h
Raio de ação Sem limites em termos teóricos
Armamento 2 × Mk 57 Mod3 Sea Sparrow
2 × RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile
mísseis

Número de aeronaves 90 aviões e helicópteros
Tripulação mais de 5.500 tripulantes; e oitenta pilotos.
Lema Peace Through Strength (Paz através da força)
Classe Nimitz

Photo Text & Copyright Wikipédia

SENTINEL ISLAND, ALASKA, USA

Cries of “Gold! Gold in the Klondike!” sparked one of the greatest gold rushes in history. In 1896, when George Carmack and his two brothers-in-law discovered the precious metal where Bonanza Creek flowed into the Klondike River in Canada’s Yukon Territory, the area was almost uninhabited. Soon, however, an army of fortune seekers surged northward from Seattle and other Pacific port cities to try their luck in the gold fields.
The route taken by most of the stampeders led them to Skagway, situated at the northern terminus of Lynn Canal and the Inside Passage. From Skagway, the goldseekers still faced an arduous 600-mile trek before they could start panning in the frigid Klondike waters. In observation of the centennial of the Gold Rush, Alaska issued colorful license plates depicting the determined gold seekers threading their way up to Chilkoot Pass en route to the Klondike.

Photo Text & Copyright www.Lighthousefriends.com

MINOR LIGHT OF ALASKA, ODIAK PHAROS, USA

The Cordova Rose Lodge sits atop a barge named the Berry #1 that was built in 1924. The barge served as a pile driver, fish trap setter, and a houseboat before being towed to its present location in 1964. Its owners at that time, Bob and Rose Arvidson, landlocked the barge and built up the property surrounding it. Bob added the lighthouse to the site in the late 1970s to help guide him up Odiak Slough and later convinced the Coast Guard to recognize the structure as an official aid to navigation.
Eldon and Jan Glein purchased the property in 1992 and subsequently renovated the buildings and created the present Corodva Rose Lodge. The current owners, Gaye and Gary McDowell, took over the lodge in 1998 and have been upgrading the property while making sure it maintains its unique nautical feel.


Photo Text & Copyright www.Lighthousefriends.com

GUARD ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE, ALASKA, USA

Guard Islands, a pair of small, rocky islets, stand sentinel over the northern entrance to Tongass Narrows, which leads south to Ketchikan. Atop the larger of the two islands sits Guard Island Lighthouse, one of the most accessible lighthouses in Alaska. Its history is brief but eventful, much like the history of Alaska itself.
Purchased in 1867 for $7,200,000, Alaska was quite a bargain at roughly two cents an acre. Because much of it was considered an uninhabited arctic wasteland, many decried the acquisition as foolish, but thirty years later the discovery of gold precipitated a boom no one could have anticipated.

For years Native Americans and Russian fishermen, hunters, and traders had plied the waters near Ketchikan, and countless lost vessels attested to the dangers of the shallow inlets and dense fog. Although only two years after the US acquired Alaska the Senate requested a review of the Northwestern coasts to determine suitable spots for lighthouses, funding was not provided for another thirty years. Several day beacons and buoys were installed as minor aids to navigation, but it wasn’t until the Gold Rush, triggered by the 1896 discovery, that private citizens, and traders clamored loudly enough for the Lighthouse Board to receive funding for much-needed light stations.

Some speculated that Congress dragged its feet in the hope that private enterprise would provide necessary development; possibly the naysayers who viewed Alaska as the country’s largest white elephant prevented federal funds being diverted to it. Whatever the cause for the delay, in 1901 Congress finally appropriated $100,000 for lighthouse construction, ushering in an Alaskan building boom that lasted two years and resulted in eleven lighthouses, with five more constructed in later years.

Photo Text & Copyright www.Lighthousefriends.com

CAPE ST ELIAS LIGHTHOUSE, ALASKA, USA

On July 20, 1741, Captain Vitus Bering named Cape St. Elias, which peaks at a height of 1,665 feet, for the saint whose day it was according to the Russian Orthodox Church calendar. The cape is actually the southwestern end of Kayak Island, which retains the name given it in 1826 by Lieutenant Sarichef of the Russian Navy for the island’s resemblance to an Eskimo skin canoe. The defining feature of the island is Pinnacle Rock that stands a half-mile off the western end of the cape like a giant exclamation point. Due to hidden rocks and reefs, the waters around the cape were regarded as one of the most dangerous points along the entire Alaskan coast.
The first attempt at establishing a light to mark Cape St. Elias was in 1912, when the lighthouse tender Armeria left Seattle, bound for Alaska where it was scheduled to deploy fourteen acetylene light buoys. Each of these lights was equipped with storage tanks that could keep a beacon burning day and night for at least six months. While anchored off Cape Hinchinbrook in preparation for delivering supplies to the lighthouse established there in 1910, the Aremeria was driven onto an uncharted rock by heavy swells. With a hole in the hull and water entering the engine room, the captain had no choice but to beach his craft.


Photo Text & Copyright www.Lighthousefriends.com

CAPE DECISION LIGHTHOUSE, ALASKA, USA

During his voyage of discovery in 1793, Captain George Vancouver sailed throughout much of present-day Southeast Alaska bestowing names left and right on bays, islands, lakes, straits, points, coves, inlets, ports, passages, and capes; such is the prerogative of an explorer. Near the end of that year's sailing season, Vancouver reached what must have been for him an important decision, for he named the tip of the nearby island (now Kuiu Island) Cape Decision. Just off the point, Vancouver decided that he had progressed far enough north to be beyond the islands claimed by Spanish explorers. It would be over a century later before the Lighthouse Service would make the decision to build the Cape Decision Lighthouse, the last lighthouse built in Alaska.
For several years following the acquisition of Alaska in 1867, the vast majority of vessels made their way between Seattle and Juneau by following a twisting route through the myriad of islands that parallel this stretch of the northwest coast. By remaining “inside” the islands, the captains and passengers could enjoy a safer and smoother journey than that experienced “outside” the islands in the open North Pacific.


Photo Text & Copyright www.Lighthousefriends.com

SAND ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE, ALABAMA, USA

Sand Island? While that appellation was certainly applicable when the first lighthouse was built on the island, today a more appropriate name for the remaining small patch of terra firma surrounding the present lighthouse would be Granite Block Island. The island’s size exceeded 400 acres in the 1800s, but today, it is has shrunk to less than one acre.
Sand Island is located roughly three miles offshore from the primary Mobile Bay entrance, which is bounded on the east by Mobile Point and on the west by Dauphin Island. On May 23, 1828, Congress empowered the Secretary of the Treasury to place an “iron spindle” lighthouse on the outer bar of Mobile Bay. The tower, visible from a distance of six miles, was completed in 1830.

Mariners soon complained about the inadequacy of the lighthouse, and on March 3, 1837 Congress responded with an allotment of $10,000 for an improved lighthouse on Sand Island. The lighthouse, built by Winslow Lewis, rose to a height of fifty-five feet and was fitted with fourteen lamps backed by sixteen-inch reflectors. Lewis completed the project under budget, returning $1,101 to the government. John McCloud served as the first keeper of the lighthouse, which was outshone by the more powerful Mobile Point Lighthouse and was thus considered a second-class beacon.


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MOBILE POINT LIGHTHOUSE, ALABAMA, USA

The fact that Alabama has the shortest coastline of any Gulf Coast state is offset by its having the Gulf Coast’s largest bay – Mobile Bay. Recognizing the importance of the bay, the United States took control of it during the War of 1812. Work began on a fort at the bay’s entrance in 1819, two years before Spain officially ceded the region to the United States. The fort was built at Mobile Point, located at the western extreme of the peninsula that stretches across much of Mobile Bay’s mouth. Completed in 1834, the fort was named Fort Morgan in honor of General Daniel Morgan, a Revolutionary War hero.

Photo Text & Copyright www.Lighthousefriends.com

MIDDLE BAY LIGHTHOUSE, ALABAMA, USA

Captain John Grant is rightly known as the “Father of Gulf Coast Transportation,” and several of his transportation projects are tightly coupled with Gulf Coast lighthouses. At the age of twenty-five, Grant perfected a dredge and used it from 1826 to 1829 to deepen the passes into the harbor at Mobile. A year after the dredging, the Choctaw Lighthouse was built to aid vessels that could now reach the port. Grant next turned his talents to the construction of the railroad linking New Orleans with Milneburg on Lake Pontchartain. Port Pontchartrain was established at the railroad’s terminus in Milneburg, and several lighthouses were subsequently constructed to improve navigation into the port. Grant’s name is mostly closely associated with his dredging in 1839 of a pass linking Mississippi Sound with Mobile Bay. Known as Grant’s Pass, this channel made it possible for ships to avoid entering the Gulf of Mexico, when sailing between Mobile and New Orleans. Grant required toll payments for use of his pass and eventually constructed a private lighthouse at Tower Island to assist navigation along his waterway.

Photo Text & Copyright www.Lighthousefriends.com

BUQUE ESCUELA LIBERTAD, ARGENTINA

El navío desplaza un máximo de 3765 toneladas, aunque su desplazamiento estándar es de unas 3.025 toneladas. Tiene una eslora (largo) total de 103,75 metros, una manga (ancho) de 14,31 metros, más 11 metros de puntal en la cuaderna maestra y un calado de 6,6 metros.

El velamen se compone de 27 velas en aparejo tipo fragata, repartidas en cuatro palos (bauprés, trinquete, mayor y mesana) con una superficie expuesta al viento de 2652 m2 en total. Las velas son de diferentes tipos: 15 cuadras, 6 estays, 4 foques, 1 trinquetilla y 1 cangreja. Este método de propulsión desplaza el barco a una velocidad máxima de unos 18 nudos, lo que le ha permitido batir records de navegación a vela desde hace muchos años.

Como propulsión auxiliar dispone de dos motores diesel de 1.200 HP cada uno, capaces de desplazar el navío a una velocidad máxima de 13 nudos, aunque la velocidad de crucero se establece en 8 nudos.

Como todo barco de grandes dimensiones, dispone de una serie de embarcaciones auxiliares de menor tamaño, en este caso dispone de 2 lanchas a motor, 1 bote semirrígido, 1 ballenera y 22 balsas salvavidas.


Photo Copyright & Text Mare Nostrum

KING GEORGE ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE, ANTARCTICA

Nearest Town or City: Stanley (Argentina) Antarctica
Location: South Shetland Islands, north of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Notes: This is believed to be the southernmost lighthouse in the world.

The island is home to the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station, named for meteorologist Henryk Arctowski (1871-1958).

Researchers here study marine biology, oceanography, geology, geomorphology, glaciology, meteorology, climatology, seismology, magnetism, and ecology.
Tower Height: 29
Description Tower: Red column with black bands.
Operational: Yes
Current Use: Active aid to navigation.
Characteristic Range: Flashing white every 10 seconds; range 6 nautical miles.
Height Focal Plane: 146
National Register: No
Country: Antarctica

Photo & Copyright Lighthouse Depot

BUQUE ESCUELA SEBASTIAN DE ELCANO, ESPAÑA

El proyecto de construcción del barco nace con un Real Decreto de 17 de abril de 1925, destinándose para ello un presupuesto de 7.569.794 pesetas y con el fin de sustituir a su predecesor, el buque escuela Minerva. Tomó el nombre de Juan Sebastián de Elcano en recuerdo del ilustre marino vasco. Su botadura tuvo lugar el 5 de marzo de 1927 siendo su madrina Carmen Primo de Rivera, hija del presidente del gobierno.

El 29 de febrero de 1928 realiza su viaje inagural entre Cádiz y Málaga, llevando un pasajero de excepción, el rey Alfonso XIII. De allí partió para Sevilla donde se celebraba la Exposición Universal, despertando la admiración de sus numerosos visitantes.

Su primer viaje transoceánico fue la vuelta al mundo en dirección opuesta a la ruta Magallanes-Elcano. Desde entonces ha realizado otras nueve, así como setenta y dos cruceros de instrucción, recorriendo más de millón y medio de millas náuticas por todos los mares del planeta. En él se han formado generaciones y generaciones de oficiales de marinos de la Armada, navegando con el viento y ayudados por el sextante y el compás.

Así mismo, Elcano ha participado en innumerables desfiles y regatas a lo largo de su dilatada existencia, dejando clara constancia de sus dotes marineras. Entre las principales cabe destacar la regata transoceánica Lisboa-Bermudas de 1964, la de 1966 entre Bermudas y Newport , la Gran Regata Colón'92 y la Gran Regata 2000. De entre los numerosos trofeos y distinciones conseguidos, quizá el mas importante sea la Boston Teapot, otorgada por la Sail Training Association en 1974. Esta distinción se concede anualmente al velero que consigue la mayor distancia sobre un circulo máximo entre dos puntos de la tierra en 124 horas.

En su ya larga trayectoria, el barco ha soportado numerosos temporales en cualquiera de sus numerosas manifestaciones (pamperos, ciclones, huracanes, tifones, monzones ,etc.), luchando contra olas de quince metros de altura y vientos de más de ciento sesenta kilómetros por hora. Historias relatadas por sus comandantes en sus crónicas que bien podrían figurar en los mejores relatos de aventuras.


Photo & Copyright Javier Barranco
Text Lalo Izquierdo y Oscar Mtz

WINDWARD LIGHTHOUSE, USA

The following information about this lighthouse comes from the records of the Officers and Civilians Spouses Club and oral histories compiled by Ms. McMillan.

The lighthouse keepers' cottage is currently in use as the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station Cultural Historical Collection. The collection houses hundreds of old black and white photos taken from the Spanish American War, WWI, WWII, as well as the Viet Nam Era. There is also an enormous amount of United States Marine Corps memorabilia stored there covering over 100 years of their history on "The Rock."
The lighthouse, made all of steel, is 60 feet tall with 67 steps and has a molded copper cupola containing a weather vane with the compass coordinate of "O" for Ouest (Spanish for West). The interior is sleeved in tongue-and-groove mahogany. It was built in 1904 in the U.S., shipped here to Guantanamo Bay, and assembled here. It ran on whale oil as an official navigation light until 1955 until the light was decommissioned and moved to the Coast Guard museum in the States. It currently has a weaker solar light that can be seen out to 5-miles. Records indicate the solar light was placed in the cupola in 1988.

In the picture, you will see a small boat on the lower right corner of the photograph. That is one of the boats used by Cubans to flee Castro's Cuba in the mid-90's when thousands of Cuban refugees fled their homeland. The remains of about 10 boats are mounted within the lighthouse compound grounds for visitors to view.

The Lighthouse Historical Collection is open to Naval Station residents and visitors from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. each Sunday. Unfortunately, due to safety concerns, the lighthouse is no longer open to the public. The Cultural Committee of the Officers and Civilians Spouses Club is responsible for management of the historical collection and lighthouse.


Photo & Copyright by IT2 Paul W. Nelson, U.S. Navy Reserve
Text unc.edu

AMELAND LIGHTHOUSE, NETHERLAND

Navigation Latitude 53° 26" 43'
Longitude 5° 37" 23'
Format DD DMS
Body of water Waddenzee
Height Above Water 190 feet
Light Characteristics Fl W. (3) 15s, visible for 20 nautical miles

Address Friesland province, northern coast of Netherlands Hollum, Netherlands


Photo & Copyright Flickr

BUQUE ESCUELA SIMON BOLIVAR, VENEZUELA

El ARBV Simón Bolívar (BE-11), también conocido como El Embajador Sin Fronteras, es el buque escuela de la Armada de Venezuela.

Tiene por misión fundamental formar a los cadetes de la Escuela Naval de Venezuela y el aspecto de su misión internacional es el de vigorizar y proyectar la imagen naval de Venezuela, así como el de establecer y estrechar vínculos de amistad con las Armadas de otros países.

Posee tres mástiles y un área de velamen de 1650 m² en un total de 23 velas.

Fue construido a pedido de la Armada de Venezuela en 1978, botado al agua el 21 de noviembre de 1979 afirmándose su Pabellón Nacional el 12 de agosto de 1980.

Es uno de los cuatro buque escuela de países hispanoamericanos construidos en los Astilleros Celaya de Bilbao, además del Cuauhtémoc de México, "Guayas" de Ecuador y "Gloria" de Colombia.

El ARBV Simón Bolívar (BE-11) ha navegado doscientas cincuenta y siete mil doscientas setenta y dos (257.272) millas náuticas desde su botadura, realizando diecinueve (19) cruceros de Instrucción al Exterior. El Buque Escuela ARBV. "SIMÓN BOLÍVAR" (BE-11), además de ser el buque insignia de la Armada de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela. En el año 2002 por órdenes del Presidente de la República y Comandante en Jefe de la Fuerza Armada Nacional, este buque entró por primera vez en un proceso de mantenimiento mayor y reconstrucción de casco y estructura en Diques y Astilleros Nacionales C.A. (Dianca), con la finalidad de mejorar las condiciones de la unidad.

El miércoles 10 de septiembre de 2008 en el Comando de Guardacostas, ubicado en el muelle del puerto de La Guaira, Estado Vargas, el Ciudadano Presidente de la República acompañado del Ministro de la Defensa y del Alto Mando Militar, procedió al acto de botadura al mar del Buque Escuela luego de 6 años de mantenimiento.

El domingo 28 de febrero de 2009 vuelve a zarpar el buque escuela en misión de entrenamiento de cadetes de marina, acompañados de los mejores cadetes de las escuelas de formación del FANB.


ARBV Simón Bolívar (BE-11)

Historial
Astillero Astilleros Celaya (Bilbao, España)
Clase Buque escuela
Destino Activo

Características generales
Desplazamiento 1260 toneladas
Eslora 82.5 m
Manga 10.6 m
Calado 4.4 m
Propulsión 1 Detroit 12v-149t gasoil
Velocidad 10 nudos
Tripulación 93 (17 oficiales) más 102


Photo & Copyright Wikipédia