Hope Town Lighthouse

Wednesday we climbed to the top of the Hope Town Lighthouse....here are some stats on it. The lighthouse was built in 1864 and is one of only three in the world with kerosene powered lights (all three are in the Bahamas). The large Fresnel lens floats in a bath of mercury and generates a light that is visible for more than 20 miles. Anybody that has read "A Salty Piece of Land"...the main character, Tully Mars, joined Capt. Cleopatra Highbourne on a mission to find a Fresnel lens for a lighthouse she wanted to refub in the Bahamas!
It is a mechanically operated lighthouse powered by a "grandfather's clock" type chain mechanism with pirate cannon balls as the powering weights. It stands guard over Elbow Cay's harbor. It is 120 feet tall and has 101 steps to the top (yes, we got our cardio workout on that one)! The mantle for the kerosene light looks barely larger than a Coleman type lantern! Someone climbs to the top at dark and lights the lantern and has to manually wind it every two hours to maintain the sequence of 5 white flashes every 15 seconds. Talk about labor intensive!!!!

Here's a link to a full story and history of the Hope Town Lighthouse in case any of you history buffs are interested.....

http://www.go-abacos.com/news/whatson/whatson_lighth.html