This Tuesday is the 50th anniversary of EARTH DAY.
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Our two amilancher trees are blooming for the first time in our year-old Briney Bank border alongside the Custom House.
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This week, we acquired some wonderful prints, above left, having to do with lighthouses, of which we (‘we’ as in all members of the Maritime Society & all area youth age 18 and younger, who automatically are members) own three.
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As you know, lighthouses are more than their lights.
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They function in several ways: as day markers (which is why NL Harbor Light is painted white). Even today, ferry captains use Harbor Light to guide their course as they round Ledge Light coming in the channel to New London.
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Of course, at night they guide ships with their lantern light.
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But in inclement weather — snow, rain, heavy fog, which obscure vision — lighthouses use an auditory signal: the foghorn, which was invented in the early 1850s.
(The word ‘foghorn’ was first recorded in 1855–60.) Prior to that, a variety of bells, whistles, and cannons had been used as ‘fog signals’. Boats today still are required to carry sound singal devices.
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New London inventor Celedon Leeds Daboll (more information), of the Daboll engineering and almanac-producing family, tested versions of his foghorn in the Engine House at Harbor Light (a remnant of which is the cement terrace on our property beside the stone wall). A second-class fog signal with two 18-inch engines and a Daboll trumpet was installed at Harbor Light in 1874. It was in operation 553 hours during 1875.
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A first-class Daboll fog trumpet was installed in 1883.
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In 1896, an improved fog signal consisting of two 3 1/2-horsepower Hornsby-Akroydoil engines, air compressors etc., was installed operating the first-class Daboll trumpet. By ‘horse-power’, originally Daboll meant powered by a horse (see drawing, above left).
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In 1903, a fog-signal house was built and a 13-horse power oil engine, with trumpet, siren etc., installed the following year.
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As a result of complaints by summer residents, and despite protests by local watermen, in 1911 the fog signal was discontinued at Harbor Light and moved off-shore to the then-new New London Ledge Light (1909).
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New London-born playwright Eugene O’Neill set his drama Long Day’s Journey into Night at his former home on Pequot Avenue, just a few blocks from Harbor Light. In the play, the mother, Mary Tyrone, complains about the mournful sound of the fog horn.
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Also highly contagious
kindness, patience, love, enthusiasm, and a positive attitude.
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Don’t wait to catch it.
Be the carrier.
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- the Custom House Maritime Museum is closed until further notice. We look forward to welcoming you in the near future.
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Custom House Maritime Museum
150 Bank Street, New London, CT, 06320
