520 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

mouth. Frying Pan Shoals light vessel, Cape Fear Light-
house, and Bald Head Lighthouse are the principal guides for
the approach.

The entrance of the river is obstructed by a bar which ex-
tends about two miles off-shore. The channel is under improve-
ment to secure a depth of 26 feet from the sea to Wilmington,
with a width of 400 feet across the bar, 300 feet in the river,
and an increased width at the bends. In June, 1912, the full
depth had been obtained, but not the full width in places. The
channel is well marked by range lights and buoys, and with

the aid of a chart it could not be difficult for a stranger of 16-
feet draft to navigate it on a rising tide.

Caper Frar River Liaeuts.

These aids consist of thirty-three lights marking the dredged
channels of the Cape Fear River. They replace twenty-nine
lights, mostly of the oil-burning post-lantern type, on old wooden
structures, and not properly placed to mark the new channels.

Ten of the new lighted beacons were established December 1,
1912, and the remainder November 15, 1913.

The aids extend along the Cape Fear River from the entrance
to Wilmington, a distance of about twenty-nine miles. The
sites are (except in three cases) submarine, the depth of water
averaging six feet. The bottom is hard sand, underlaid in a
few cases with rock.

The substructures built on marine sites (thirty in all) con-
sist each of four reinforced concrete piles and connecting
beams. These are surmounted by skeleton towers of galvanized
iron pipe, carrying slatted wooden daymarks. ‘Towers for rear
range lights are thirty feet high and for front lights and others
ten feet high.

A variety of illuminating apparatus has been installed, as

follows:

Apparatus Tiluminant Characteristic Candlepower

Reflector
Range lens Acetylene Flashing every second

4th Order lens Acetylene Occulting every 2 seconds

300 mm. lens lanterns Acetylene Flashing every second

300 mm. lens lanterns Acetylene Flashing every 3 seconds

300 mm. lens lanterns Acetylene Occulting every 2 seconds
16 | 300 mm. lens lanterns Oil Fixed

ni LL

Peace Restored 521

In general, acetylene is used as the illuminant, where possible,
for a distance of about twenty miles from the entrance, and oil
from there to Wilmington. All acetylene lights are white, rear
lights being oceulting every two seconds and front lights flash-
ing every second. All oil lights are fixed, rear lights white
and front lights red. :

Eight of the white range lights which could be suitably located

abreast of turns in the channel are provided with red sectors of
30 degrees covering these turns.

There have been no quarters provided, all lights being un-
watched. The change of illuminant in Bald Head Light,

which constitutes a unit of this system, makes quarters no longer
necessary in connection therewith. The entire group of lights
1s cared for by two post light keepers, one resident near South-
port, close to the entrance, having charge of three oil and sixteen
gas lights, and one at Wilmington, at the other end of the
group of lights, having charge of fourteen oil lights. All gas
lights are so located that gas tanks can be landed from a launch
directly upon the structure, except at Bald Head Light.
These improvements in the lighting of the Cape Fear River
are being made under the Act of March 4, 1911, appropriating
$21,000, and the Act of August 26, 1912, appropriating
$30,000 additional. The total expenditures and obligations for
the thirty-three lights to September 30, 1913, is $50,076.30
with a probable further expenditure of $500 for one additional

light, and $300 for clearing timber which partially obstructs
one range line.

Other aids supplementing the lighting aids mentioned above
are, Frying Pan Shoals Whistling Buoy, westward of the outer
end of the shoals; Cape Fear Entrance Whistling Buoy,' about
two and one-half miles off the bar; Cape Fear Entrance Bell
Buoy, at the entrance to dredged channels, and thirty-three iron
buoys and five beacons marking turns and other critical points
in the dredged channels in the river. Two other iron buoys

mark the quarantine anchorage, and one marks a wreck on the
middle ground at the mouth of the river.

—_————
Notice to mariners:

4 On November 2, 1915, Cape Fear River Entrance Gas-and-Whistle

uoy CF, painted in i i
fathoms of Water perpendicular stripes, was established in 6%

CF, which w n place of Cape Fear River Entrance Whistle Buoy

as discontinued. The -and-whistle b i i
wit ; gas-and-whistle buoy is cylindrical,
h skeleton Superstructure, and shows a flashing white light of 390

candlepower ever ; ,
16 feet above the oe seconds, thus, 0.3 seconds; eclipse 2.7 seconds,