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Can’t Build a Lighthouse? Use a Ship Instead

Originally published in March 1900

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“A few miles off shore of Cape Hatteras are the dreaded Diamond Shoals, on which futile attempts have been made to erect a lighthouse. It would seem as though the only practicable way to protect shipping from this graveyard of the deep is to moor above the shoals a lightship able to meet the exceedingly trying conditions. Such a vessel has been designed and is now nearing completion at the yards of the Fore River Engine Company, of Massachusetts. She will be steam-propelled and electric lighted. The lights, three on each mast, will be of 100 candle-power and 100 volts each.”

Scientific American, March 1900

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