This is a splendid example of a screwpile structure. Do you see the keeper’s quarters? Do you see the ladder leading
from the water to the keeper’s quarters? There was a circular stairway in the center column so the keepers could reach
the lantern.
How did the keepers get from the lighthouse to shore? What was the pulley on the left side of the tower used for?
Do you know about lead-based paint? Have you seen in the news a recent problem with lead-based paint? (Toys made in China?)
Think what a job it must have been to clean the red lead paint off of this entire structure and replace it with three coats
of hot coal-tar. This would have been done by workmen employed to help the keepers maintain their lighthouses. The lighthouse
service also employed specially trained lampists to work on the lamps and lenses and machinists to deal with the mechanisms
that revolved the lens or blew the fog signal.
Lighthouse Maps
Eighth Lighthouse District
Can you find Ship Shoal Lighthouse on this map?
Click on map to view larger image
Source: 1881 Annual Report of the U.S. Light-House Board
This Reader's Guide is intended to be used with Lighthouses Short and Tall, a book for readers 11 and up written by Mary Louise and Candace Clifford. It is available from the publisher,
Cypress Communications, by using their book order form.
