Florida Keys Reef Lights

Happy Father’s Day! For lighthouse keepers Fatherhood was often a balancing act between their official duties and family.
Benjamin Howard Lowe first served as an assistant keeper at Fowey Rocks Light. After his wife, Mary, suffered a difficult delivery of their fourth child she was in poor health, so Lowe moved the family back to Key West and requested a transfer to the Tortugas Light Station (Loggerhead Key Lighthouse).
Sometime around 1935 Lowe transferred to the American Shoal Light, which brought him closer to his family in Key West.
With a chronically ill wife and a family to look after, at the end of 1938 Howard Lowe transferred to the Sanibel Island Light, where his family could live with him at the land-based station.
After arriving at Sanibel Island Lowe opted to join the U.S. Coast Guard. After the death of his wife Mary in 1943 and the onset of heart related health issues, Lowe retired from the USCG in July 1944.
After retirement, Lowe lived in Miami where he operated a shell factory and business with his son Howard, Jr.
Benjamin Howard Lowe, Sr. outlived three of his four wives and died on March 8, 1989, at the age of 91. He is buried at Flagler Memorial Park in Miami.

On June 19, 1923, a small blurb titled 'Lighthouse Man Here', in the City News Items section in the Miami Herald, reported that, 'E. J. Whidden of Fowey Rocks lighthouse, 10 miles off Cape Florida, was a late arrival last night at the United States hotel'.
The trip was made not long after Eley J. Whidden, Principal Keeper at Fowey Rocks (1922-1924), rescued the crew of the 'Gasoline Launch Loiterer' on the morning of March 28th, 1923, after it '...struck a wreck of a four masted schooner, tore a hole in the bottom and sank rapidly'. The report of the rescue goes on to say that, 'Signals of distress were given and Mr. Whidden...came to our assistance in a motor boat, reaching us just as the water reached our decks...'. The narrative ends by saying that, 'We received every care and attention from principal keeper Whidden and his assistant, Henry E. Dicks until a boat...came out to get us and take us back to Miami'.
Keeper Whidden received a Letter of Commendation for his actions.

William Bethel became the Principal Keeper at the Key West Lighthouse on June 17th, 1889, his wife, Mary, was subsequently appointed Assistant Keeper on October 6th, 1891. William served until his death in 1908, when Mary Bethel succeeded him as Principal Keeper.

Yesterday was the 148th anniversary of the lighting of Fowey Rocks Light. No discussion of Fowey Rocks is complete without mention of the lantern room's bell-shaped roof. First lit on June 15th, 1878, Fowey Rocks is the only reef light with this design element, and, as far as I know, Ponce Inlet Lighthouse is the only other lighthouse to include that unique design.
Do you know of another lighthouse in the U.S. that has a bell-shaped lantern room roof? Let us know in the comments and drop in a picture if you have one!

On June 15th, 1878 the Fowey Rocks Light was first lit. Eventually to be known as the ‘Eye of Miami’, Fowey Rocks was a replacement for the ineffective Cape Florida Lighthouse. John Frow moved over from the recently closed Cape Florida to be head keeper, along with his son, Simeon, as First Assistant. Initially Joseph Frow served as Second Asssitant but was soon replaced by Jefferson Browne, who went on to become Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court and to later author a book, 'Key West: The Old and the New', which was published in 1912. Less than three months after being lit Fowey Rocks, and the keepers Frow and Browne, experienced their first hurricane.
The Fowey Rocks Light is administered by Biscayne National Park.

Happy Flag Day! June 14th marks the anniversary of the day in 1777 the Second Continental Congress adopted the flag of the United States.
Did you know that in 1858 Sand Key, Sombrero Key (Dry Bank), and Carysfort Reef were ordered to fly the flag during daylight hours so ships could tell were they were? With the Bahamas close by and the rudimentary navigation of the day, there could be some confusion as to where a ship was.
A June 5th ‘Notice To Mariners’ in the Baltimore Sun stated, ‘It having been represented to this office that mariners navigating the Florida Pass from Sand Key to Cape Florida are frequently at a loss, during daylight, to determine whether they are on the Bahama or Florida reef side, with the view to obviate that difficulty as far as possible, orders have been issued to the keepers of the Sand Key, Dry Bank (off Sombrero Key) an[d] Carysfort Reef lighthouses to hoist an American flag above the lantern…from sunrise to sunset’ This order was to take effect on July 1, 1858.
In a June 29th article in the Charleston Mercury about the U.S. Schooner Florida returning, 'from the Carysfort Reef and Dry Bank lighthouses … where she had gone for the purpose of erecting flag-staffs’, it was reported that flying the flag, ‘…will obviate the mistaking of lighthouses on our coast for those on the Bahama side.’
This illustrates the importance of lighthouses, not only did they guide ships and warn of hazards, but they also told mariners what country they were in!

A June 9, 1952, article in the Key West Citizen announced that Rebecca Shoal Light was. ‘Soon to be torn down…’.
Marking one of the more remote areas of the reef line, the iron-pile cottage style lighthouse, first lit on November 1, 1886, had replaced an iron screw-pile day beacon and would itself be replaced by a ‘…25 foot high lookout tower’. The piece goes on to say that, ‘The house will be dismantled and floated into Key West’.
It wasn’t until sometime in 1953 that the house was removed and an automated light was placed on the remaining piles. The piles were removed, and a new tower built in 1985 only to be damaged in a storm in 2004 and replaced by a new automated tower.
The iron lantern room was sold for scrap and later incorporated into the private Key Largo Lighthouse, built in 1959.

Today is World Ocean Day. The theme this year is 'Strong Marine Protected Areas for Our Blue Planet'. Did you know that all six of the reef lights, and four of the unmanned reef lights, fall within protected areas of the Florida Keys?
Five of the six reef lights, and three of the unmanned lights, fall within the boundary of the NOAA Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and one reef light, and one unmanned light, falls within the Biscayne National Park Boundary.

Even royalty loves a lighthouse! On May 18, 1991, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited the Fort Jefferson National Monument, now Dry Tortugas National Park, where they were photographed in front of the Tortugas Harbor (Garden Key) Lighthouse. (Image by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)