When George W. Parsons visited the lighthouse in 1875, he noted a motto, "God with Us," inscribed on the pedestal of the lens near the revolving mechanism platform. When he asked Keeper Bell about this, Bell replied: "Indeed we need Him badly enough out here sometimes . . . when the hurricane comes down on us and this whole thing totters and shakes as though it were about to fall."
It could be a harrowing experience for the keepers out on those sea-swept lighthouses. Although the reef lights have proved themselves through the "test of time," most keepers on these lighthouses probably knew about the ill-fated iron-pile Minot's Ledge Lighthouse off Massachusetts which collapsed in a storm in 1850 with the loss of two keepers.
John W. Frow was the first keeper of the Fowey Rocks Lighthouse when it went into operation on June 15, 1878. Only three months later, Frow and his assistants went through their first storm on the new lighthouse. The winds reached more than 100 miles per hour. Frow recorded in the station journal for September 6, that as the winds increased, the keepers secured the lighthouse boat to an upper platform of the tower. Just after midnight, "there was a heavy hurricane blowing and increasing rapidly. The glass of the lantern leaked badly." For the next twenty-four hours, the keepers at Fowey Rocks worked to keep things dry, mopping the lantern floor, wiping down the lens, and keeping the light burning in the midst of the black gale. Frow wrote: "Eastern door of dwelling [is] so strained one of the panels is almost off and starting to tear the other off."
For three days the hurricane raged. The lantern windows were working loose from their putty, "allowing the rain into the lantern constantly." Finally, on September 11, the barometer began to rise. "The gale broke and the wind came around to the southwest," Keeper Frow wrote with relief. The Fowey Rocks Lighthouse had survived its first hurricane.
In 1909 and twice in 1910, the Sand Key Lighthouse went through some terrible hurricanes. At that time, a United States Weather Bureau station was located near the lighthouse on the tiny sand islet. C. J. Doherty was the weather station keeper. The journals for the light station itself are no longer extant, but Doherty's log does survive, and Doherty, through this journal, gives us an idea of these hurricanes at Sand Key. Doherty was not at the station during the hurricane of October 11, 1909, when the winds gusted up to a hundred miles per hour. The weather station keeper returned to his station the day after the hurricane. The Key West Journal for October 13, 1909, reported:
Weather observer Doherty returned last night from Sand Key where he went to examine the damages sustained by the weather station there. He states everything on Sand Key was blown completely away, except the lighthouse, and that was damaged to some extent. No lives were lost . . . as every person there repaired to the lighthouse during the first part of the storm. The barometer fell to 28.32 inches, 14 points lower than at Key West. The sea overran Sand Key twenty feet high, coming to the top flight of steps on the lighthouse. Several windows were blown out, and the draft was so strong that the combined strength of several men could not open the doors below.
The following October, 1910, the infamous "twin" hurricanes hit Sand Key. The second was the worst with 125 mph winds with winds above gale force for more than thirty hours. Doherty, who this time had taken refuge with the keepers in the lighthouse, later reported:
This station was visited by two severe hurricanes on October 13th, 14th, and 15th, and October 17th and 18th. The wind velocity steadily increased and much rain fell . . .Waves began to wash over the island, and soon all the sand was carried away from under the lighthouse, and the island shifted to a position further north . . . An outhouse was washed away . . . at noon on the 17th the wharf and woodpile were washed away, and the lighthouse began to sway in the gusts. Great trouble was experienced in keeping the doors closed on the windward side, the force of the wind pulling out nails repeatedly . . . rain fell in torrents, making it impossible to see further than 100 feet . . . The wind velocity increased and the swaying and trembling of the lighthouse stopped the clock several times. . . the boathouse went to pieces and was washed to sea. At. 1:30 p.m. the brick oil house broke up. At 1:50 p.m. the barometer reached its lowest point, 28.40 inches . . . braces at the bottom of the lighthouse began to break, and the force of the waves kept striking them against the other iron like sledgehammers.
One of the strongest of the storms of the last half of the twentieth century was a category four storm known as Hurricane Donna, and it hit hardest at the Sombrero Key Lighthouse.
Through the years, the keepers at Sombrero Key Lighthouse suffered the travail of many storms, and in 1960, the Coast Guard keepers survived a two-day ordeal. During Hurricane Donna, 128 mile per hour winds kicked up 12 to 25 foot seas which smashed into the lower platform of the lighthouse and carried away the station's fuel tanks and work shop. The Coast Guard keepers were able to save the station's boat, but the entire lower platform of the lighthouse was ripped off. Fortunately, the living quarters, forty feet above normal sea level, survived without major damage. Throughout the storm, the men kept the light burning. When the storm slackened, the Coast Guardsmen were anxious to come ashore, but their boat was too damaged for them to use.
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