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National Geographic : 1936 Aug
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE to locate us while many unfortunate human beings were clinging to floating wreckage and succumbing slowly to exposure." Pioneer use of radio in the Lighthouse Service began in 1901, when an experimen tal radio set was installed on the Nantucket Shoals Lightship. About four years later, during a severe gale, the lightship sprang a leak and her operator kept spelling out the word "help," as no SOS or other distress call had then been adopted. Coming to the lightship's rescue, the tender Azalea got a hawser to the sinking ship and started tow ing her to New Bedford. Though she sank on the way, her crew of 13 men was saved. Today, of course, all outside tenders and lightships use radio, and a number of isolated light stations and some tenders are equipped with radiotelephones, which greatly facilitate reports and orders in emergencies. At remote stations, the lightkeeper's life long has been a symbol of loneliness. Before the days of radio, all the keepers heard was wind and waves, sea birds, or the foghorns of passing ships. During a period of bad weather in 1912, no tender could reach the lighthouse on Tillamook Rock, Oregon, for seven weeks (p. 187). The sta tion on Cape Sarichef, at the entrance to Bering Sea,went for ten months without any mail or news-August, 1912, to June, 1913! Radio changed all that. "Before we got our radio," wrote one keeper, "a new President might have been elected a month before we knew about it. This time, we heard it as soon as any body. The last two big prize fights, when it was announced who was champion, we heard it. . . . We listen also to ministers preaching, and there is singing. It is al most the same as being in church . When storms blow, our sets keep us posted; we can take all necessary precautions and follow the progress of the hurricane." THE LIGHTSHIP, OUTMOST SENTRY OF SAFETY Look over the rail as your liner sweeps by Nantucket Lightship. If it be a misty evening, you will see a small red vessel, Photograph by Dr. H . S. Palmer only 149 feet long, rolling in the sea, and "HE FLOATS THROUGH THE AIR-!" you will note the quick flash of its brilliant electric light and hear the tireless blasts of When a supply ship arrives at Kaula Rock Sta- its fog signal. This is the new No. 112, tion, Hawaiian Islands, men must be swung to the which recently replaced the relief lightship, end of the narrow trail cut into the side of the rock. The same rope is used to hoist supplies No. 106. No. 106 was rushed to the Nan (page 182). tucket station within 24 hours after the 176
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