Shadow's Absecon Obsession Multi-Cache

Welcome to Shadow's Lighthouse Series! Our family has a fondness for lighthouses and we thought it might be fun to start a geocache series that highlighted different lighthouses. So, we are starting with NJ (a personal favorite) and, hopefully, the series will afford cachers the opportunity to learn about various lighthouses and have some fun along the way. This cache is located in Leesylvania State Park and there is an entrance fee. Currently they are open until eight p.m.
Absecon Lighthouse, which is located in Atlantic City, is first on the list. We hope that you enjoy the series!

Before the Lighthouse: Historical information and stories of local shipwrecks -

The first story:
Earning the area the nickname of "the Graveyard Inlet," the schooners LOUISA, Ann, Nile, DUROC and other ships - George Cannon, Frankfort and Gherge's Kahn were among the scores of vessels that met their fates on the shores between the Great and Little Egg Harbors.
On December 9, 1849, during a storm, the Scottish ship Ayrshire ran aground, off Absecon Beach, with 202 people on board. As a result of damage sustained in the storm (it lost its mast and rudder) and subsequent grounding, the ship could not navigate. When the winds shifted and pushed the ship away from land, it began drifting at sea, northward and parallel to the shore. The ship drifted for one month and 3 days, ultimately running aground in the area now known as Manasquan, on January 12, 1850.
A fisherman saw the ship through a break in the storm and he ran for help. Volunteers brought equipment, including a life-car, that oxen pulled on a beach cart, while others lit a flare to let the passengers on the ship know that help was on the way. Using a Lyle-gun , and the life-car, volunteers were able to save 201 people, losing only one life - a father who grabbed onto the life-car, in a panic, after his four children had been loaded into the apparatus. He was washed away by waves and could not be saved.
To read more of the story, and rescue, click link provided.
To read more about the life-car, and life-saving, click here for the Coast Guard's site information.

The second story:
The immigrant ship Powhattan was lost on April 18, 1854. She was a 600 ton vessel, believed to have journeyed from Le Havre, France. She was, reportedly, carrying over 300 passengers. After 40 days at sea, she sank after being caught in a hurricane-like snowstorm, on the shoals, off the coast of NJ. The tragic loss of over 300 souls was followed by many of the victims (men, women and children) washing up on the shores of New Jersey, (Long Beach Island, Absecon Mainland, Brigantine, and Smithville). This event was one of the final, determining factors that led to the approval, and construction, of the now Historic Absecon Lighthouse.

The Absecon Lighthouse and its beginnings-

In 1854, based on promptings by Dr. Jonathan Pitney, later called the "Father of Atlantic City," the U.S. Lighthouse Service requested and received an appropriation from Congress for a lighthouse on Absecon Island. The land was obtained and construction began in 1855. Work on the lighthouse was completed at the end of 1856, with a final cost of $52,187. On January 15,1857, the first lighting occurred with a mineral oil (kerosene) flame focusing through a huge 36-plate, First-Order Fresnel lens made in Paris, especially for Absecon Lighthouse. The white light shone 19.5 nautical miles out to sea. In the first ten months of operation, the lighthouse proved its worth - not a single ship was wrecked.

The Absecon Lighthouse and some of its facts-

Constructed: 1837 (authorized), 1855-1857 (construction)
First Lit: January 15, 1857 (extinguished July 11, 1933) Re-Lit: October 03, 1999
Tower Height: 171 feet
Focal Plane: 167 feet
Physical Location: Latitude: 39° 21' 56" North Longitude: 24° 24' 53" West
Type of Construction: Double walled conical brick & mortar tower with iron spiral central staircase
Foundation Materials: Stone foundation with a timber wood platform
Tower Diameter: 26'4" at the bottom - tapers to 12' at the top.
Number of Steps: 228 to platform at base of lens (12 more to the lantern room - for a total of 240 steps).
Daymark: Bottom and top (including lantern) are pale yellow. Middle area has a black band.
Original Lighting Apparatus: 1st Order Fresnel Lens & mineral oil (kerosene) flame.
Present Lighting Apparatus: Original 1st Order Fresnel Lens & electric lamp.
Current Candlepower: ?.? million
Characteristic: Fixed Beacon
Beacon Distance: 19.5 nautical miles
Auxiliary Structures: 2 keeper's dwellings, oil storage house, outhouses
Operating Entity: Inlet Public/Private Association (IPPA)
Open to Public: Yes
Lighthouse Museum: Yes

CONGRATULATIONS to BUDABELI for FTF!!