Navassa Island Lighthouse: Crumbling Landmark Deactivated Since 1996

Summary: Navassa Island Lighthouse stands as a crumbling landmark, deactivated since 1996, on a U.S. tear-shaped island in the Caribbean Sea's Jamaica Channel.

Navassa Island lighthouse and keeper/assistants' quarters in 1999: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Appropriations Act of 1913, passed in the 63rd Congress on Oct. 22, 1913, as H.R. (House of Representatives) 7898, contained among its provisions for “urgent deficiencies ... and for other purposes” an appropriation of $125,000 (=$3 million-plus in 2015 for 1913) for a light station on Navassa Island (ch. 32, 38 Stat. 208, 224). Final tally of funds expended to June 30, 1918, came in under budget at $116,159.40 ($1.8 million-plus in 2015 for 1918).

Construction began in January 1916, with the lighthouse put into commission Oct. 17, 1917. As a second order Fresnel lens, the original illuminating apparatus had a focal length of 750 millimeters. Sited near the island’s highest point, the lighthouse assured maritime visibility with a focal plane of 395 feet (120 meters). The entire station complex of a lighthouse and quarters for the light keeper and two assistants was completed in November 1917.

A keeper and two assistants were housed in a 58-foot square (5.388-meter square) reinforced-concrete building, now in ruins. The single-story quarters featured a patio in the center. The inward slope of the roof, from the outside walls toward the patio, facilitated collection of rain water for storage in a 22,000 gallon capacity cistern. The keeper’s side comprised five rooms and a storeroom with three pantries, one for each of the staff. On the other side, four rooms apiece were designated for each of the two assistants.

aerial, west-to-east view of aerial view of ruins of lighthouse keeper and assistant quarters on Navassa Island: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Conversion to an automatic beacon in 1929 marked the end of lighthouse keeper tours of duty on Navassa Island. In 1980 a 190-millimeter, solar-powered optic was installed. The dismantling of the light by the U.S. Coast Guard on Aug. 29, 1996, signaled deactivation of the towering landmark, rendered redundant by the Global Positioning System (GPS).

As the tallest concrete lighthouse ever built by the U.S. Lighthouse Service, Navassa’s lighthouse still rises to a height of 162 feet (49 meters). Stone makes up the lighthouse’s foundation, a block of 40-feet square (3.7-meter square) atop solid rock. The grey white tower is made of concrete, with sectional cast-iron plates bolted to the walls on the third, sixth, service, and watch-room floors. The tower’s cylindrical shaft measures a diameter of 15 feet (4.57 meters). The watch room has an overhanging gallery. A black, helical bar lantern room of cast iron surmounts the tower.

Although still discernible and intact, the lighthouse's architecture is crumbling from abandonment. The lack of upkeep guarantees eventual capitulation into oblivion as the lighthouse joins other overgrown, ruined remnants, such as railroad beds and mining structures, under nature's floral blanket.

aerial, west-to-east view of Navassa in 1999, during second, US Department of Interior-administered inventory of Navassa's natural resources; explorers, film crew and research vessel (R/V) with Australian adventure group/film production enterprise, The Quest, lent support to the expedition: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS

The U.S. unincorporated unorganized territory of Navassa Island lies in the Jamaica Channel between the islands of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) and Jamaica.

The tear-shaped island’s strategic location for shipping became apparent with the opening of the Panama Canal, the waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, on Aug. 15, 1914. Located on the southern approach to the Windward Passage, the strait between Cuba and Hispaniola connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Caribbean Sea, the microscopic island stands in the direct path of ships traveling between the Panama Canal and the east coast of the United States.

With a land area of around 2 square miles (5.2 square kilometers) and a ruggedly formidable coastline of almost 5 miles (8 kilometers), Navassa Island is a flat-to-undulating coral and limestone plateau. The island attains its highest elevation of 252.6 feet (77 meters) at Dunning Hill in the southwestern interior.

Dunning Hill’s nearest sea point measures 440 yards (400 meters) from the southwest coast. Dunning Hill is located 655 yards (600 meters) east of Lulu Town, the now uninhabited settlement on Lulu Bay that bustled during the phosphate mining heyday lasting from discovery of phosphate-rich guano in 1857 until cessation in 1901. Dunning Hill peaks about 110 yards (100 meters) south of the site chosen for the lighthouse necessitated by spiking traffic through the Windward Passage.

Navassa's southwestern coast: terrain rises as plateau, with crumbling lighthouse and derelict staff quarters sited in southwestern interior: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Navassa Island lighthouse and keeper/assistants' quarters, 1999: US Geological Survey, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NavassaLighthouse.jpg

aerial view of ruins of lighthouse keeper and assistant quarters, Navassa Island: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lighthouse_Keeper_Residence_Navassa_Island.jpg?uselang=de

aerial, west-to-east view of Navassa, 1999: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS @ http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/navassa/

Navassa's southwestern coast: US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NavassaCoastAerialUSGS.jpg

For further information:

Marriner, Derdriu. "Navassa Island: US Fish and Wildlife Service Uninhabited Caribbean Island." Earth and Space News. Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/10/navassa-island-us-fish-and-wildlife.html