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Kenrick A.Claflin & Son

1615-2. Light-House Establishment. Specifications for First-Order Iron Light-Houses to be Erected on Trinity Shoal and Timablier, Gulf of Mexico.

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1615-2. Light-House Establishment. Specifications for First-Order Iron Light-Houses to be Erected on Trinity Shoal and Timablier, Gulf of Mexico.

1615-2. Light-House Establishment. Specifications for First-Order Iron Light-Houses to be Erected on Trinity Shoal and Timablier, Gulf of Mexico. Washingon: GPO. 1871. 6 x 9″. 61 pages, including folding proposal, bid and bond forms. Includes complete specifications for screw-pile iron lighthouses Trinity Shoal and Timablier, Gulf of Mexico, from girders to screw piles, window sashes to water tanks and much more. The Trinity Shoal Light was a planned lighthouse meant to be constructed on Trinity Shoal, in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana. Had it been completed, the skeleton tower would have been among the most exposed lighthouses in the United States. Funds were appropriated for the lighthouse by the U. S. Congress in 1871, but construction progressed slowly. The site was some 20 miles (32 km) away from the nearest land, and contractors had great difficulty in laying the foundation for a tower. It was decided that workers would be housed in a shelter on a platform on the site; this was finally completed in 1873, and work began in earnest. On November 16, 1873, the site was struck by a strong hurricane. The lighthouse tender attached to the site, which was carrying most of the materials needed to build the tower, was wrecked; her crew were rescued by a nearby steamer. Although it was decided that the workmen should remain on station, on November 18 the continued rough weather destroyed their quarters and scattered the 16 men into the sea. Remarkably, all 16 were saved by the same steamer that had rescued the tender’s crew two days previously. As a result of the weather troubles, the Lighthouse Board decided that a tower was no longer needed on the shoal, and called off construction. Congress appropriated $50,000 for a new lighthouse on Timbalier Island, Louisiana March 3, 1869, followed by two similar amounts in 1871 and 1873. A final appropriation of $15,000 was made in 1874. With $120,000 of these appropriations, a new iron screw-pile lighthouse, with focal plane 125 feet above sea level, was completed by January 1875. The new lighthouse was placed in the water inside the island, which acted as an effective breakwater. The design was a skeleton framework with a spiral stairway, enclosed by sheet iron, giving access to the lantern and provided with a keeper’s dwelling in the lower part of the tower. The lens was a second-order, showing a fixed white light varied by red flashes. In 1894, the light tower was undermined by the scouring of the channel, and on the morning of Jan. 23, 1894, it canted over. The Timbalier Lighthouse site is now only a reef that is described on charts as “ruins.” It is located in about 7 feet of water between Little Timbalier Pass and the western tip of East Timbalier Island. Complete but front wrap lightly chipped, back wrap present but detached. Signature bound. with some losses, detached along spine. (VG-) $135