Ship Island Light

Ship Island Light was a lighthouse in Mississippi near Gulfport.HistoryThe first tower at this site was constructed in 1853; though appropriations were made starting in 1848; disputes over land ownership delayed acquisition of the land. This tower was built of brick and was initially equipped with a multiple lamp and reflector system; three years later, it was upgraded to a fourth-order Fresnel lens.In January 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War confederate forces seized the island, including the incomplete fortifications and the lighthouse. When they abandoned the fort in September, they removed the lighthouse lens and set the interior on fire. Union forces occupied the island shortly thereafter and restored it to operation in November 1862, using a captured lens and lantern. The light was blacked out to the north to prevent its use by blockade runners approaching from the mainland.By this time the tower had begun to lean conspicuously, and in 1886 it was condemned as unsafe, and a new tower was erected about away. This tower was constructed entirely of wood and was originally an open framework, though it was soon sheathed in siding. Wood frame keeper's houses were constructed to either side of it. The characteristic of the light had been changed from fixed white to fixed red in 1880. During this era the light was tended by one Dan McColl, who had lost a leg in a railroad accident. The old tower collapsed in 1901. Three years previous, a set of range lights had been erected to mark one section of the channel out of Gulfport, Mississippi; it was considered that the labor of climbing three towers was too much too expect of McColl, and he was transferred to Cat Island Light, a nearby screw-pile lighthouse, where he served until he died in 1904. The rear light of the range stood on a short open wood tower, a short distance from the main tower.