| Construction and Repairs to the South Pier-head Beacon Light (part 2) |
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On June 20, 1924, William Bush, who had replaced William Robinson as Keeper, reported in his log: "I have been fighting fires in the South Pier from 1 a.m. until 3 a.m." The fires took their toll and the wooden pile South Pier began to disintegrate. In August 1924, a heavy sea washed out part of the footing under the elevated foot-walk, and in early April 1925, the elevated foot- . walk began settling down into the water, due to damage from ice flows. The keeper reported: "There is lots of ice present at the footing."By early 1925, a decision was made to tear down and remove the elevated foot-walk. In May, a removal crew was sent to the site and a Mr. Hnunvan, who was one of the men in the crew, was badly hurt when he fell in among the stones of the South Pier. The removal of the elevated foot-walk was completed on May 14, 1925. The steel framework, foot-walk itself and hand rails were disassembled and stored for pick-up and potential reuse at another lighthouse site. The Lighthouse Tender Hyacinth arrived in June, and took the disassembled pieces of the steel foot-walk to the Lighthouse Service Depot in Milwaukee. At the same time, the lamp in the old wooden tower was changed to use Acetylene gas supplied from a high pressure tank. The Acetylene gas was piped to a Flasher Burner and the light in the South Pier-head beacon was thus changed from a fixed light to a flashing light. The piers continued to deteriorate and several attempts were made to strengthen them with stone. Lighthouse Service engineers began working on the harbor and making repairs to the cribs in April 1928. This was followed by the dredge G. G. Meade arriving in May to begin construction work in the harbor, and the tug Cumberland arriving later that month, with a shipment of stone for the pier. The final stroke of bad luck came on Sept. 9, 1928, when fire broke out in the old wooden pier at 2 a.m. It got the best of Keeper Bush, and he had to call the Whitehall fire department. The fire burned all night and they finally succeeded in putting out the fire at 10:30 a.m. on the next day. More stone was sent to repair the pier throughout 1929, but in late November a heavy sea cut behind the stone in the pier and washed out part of the pier and washed sand into the channel. Metal South Pier-head Beacon Light Replacement In early November, the Lighthouse Tender Hyacinth took the lantern, lens and other apparatus belonging to the old pier beacon, back to the lighthouse depot. Excerpted with permission of the author from: All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form .or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or used in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.
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