The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-11-07
BY WILLIAM ALLEN JOHNSTON.

Rights Reserved
Picture 10 yourself d little man, sandy halrcd'
nervous, alert quick spoken young man with au
odish face but a boys swapping cycs--a little man,
so small in fact that he barely touches your shouI'
der. but nevertheless of those bttle men VINO oV
sheer force Of personality stand out sharp and dis
tinct among crowd of large men, and you have W. IT,
Flahcrtv. builder of deep lighthouses.
He is scarcely the YOU expected to sec and
whom YOU have pictured a mighty sea builder.
Perhaps YOU have some idea OF what it means TO
plant deep sea lighthouse in these modern. dynamic
days. Some black, squaly night you may havN
steamed along the outer bar of an Atant!G Shoal
shore and its shallowness is rolling and churning in
such sweeping biII9wS that the boats lee rail IS
The shore 'i is so far distant t6af land light if il
could be at all. would prove lure aud men
rather than safeguard While Ightship breast aii
It's moorines in a single night or less.
What warming is there tonight what solid assur
steamer labors and to starboard, great
yellow light sails into view over the port bow and
what appears be gigantic cannon rising mouth
% ols a ae o m 9S and baf OF hour 4' ac
is riding the dcep water, while back in the distance
tiny light wrinkles and disappears
1t is very precious OUTPOST, this grim guardian
OF the shoal You thankful. and then the wonder
ever was it put there planted there, in that desoate
impossible waste of shifting sands and wild waters'
the little man who barely touches your shoulder The
r2urast almost lnd'erous; IT is like the spectacle
Of an ant dragging cannon INTO the thick OF a bat
There's Il huge buwark of iron weighing thousands
OF ions and built league out from land on the
l5cachcrous bottom Of sea that is never quiet and
flahcrty and here's the story Of what little man
DO.
pfng the blocks on shore aud thcn when the weather
was calm darting out in boats and dropping them
lighthouse on land carry it ont to sea with fleet
plant ii with QUO mighty, desperate throw, rskng
lives and dollars in the struggle IT IS three days
Is enacted in these thEco stirring days and sleepcss
Peril From the Start.
huildIng OF caissou huge, bottomlcss wooden box
perhaps nifty feet square and deep the sand bot
tom requires, say ten TO twenty-five feet On top OF
this wooden cassou there arc bolted-wtb steel bolts
cylinders made of massive cast iron plates and
uring, say, forty five feet in diameter by SIX and
This stupeudous top weight of iron is sufficient in
itself TO drive the lower. hollow rim of the square
sand, in the Of auviaI mud clear through IL
permanent foundation. So a bargcfu OF cement is
dumped into tue Gassou iron cylinder and the latter
men. sandbogs for the time heng. 90 down into the
wooden box below deep under the wafer and toiling
keeps the water from boiling in under the cutting
edge; they dig away the sand and lei the wooden box
slowly down, deeper, deeper till the whole top heavy
structure is finally rooted fast and will stand there
Tor & ages ,t1 asnnst Inc might s & Of the ors SCI?
iron cylinder like smokcstack and four more for
Inc removal oil tue each DelnG htted with
lirlockS.
All This work involves timc-,pcrI too-.eveTy hour
of the long days and nights. Al is strain and
and struggle, right up to the time that the lantern
is fitted on The op of the supcrstructure, but the
time that Fahcrty Gghts hardest the time that his
battle with the reaches its thrilling climax and
he is all ready do die be time when tbe cut
ting edge OF the caisson first feels the bottom. This
the throw Of the dice.
Imagine the situation.
Here's great. topbeavy structure OF iron and
wood, tcetcring upon false bottom of shifting sand
Intu il is half anchored it at the utter mercy of
high winds and heavy Ii II bowls the game
is lost.
In 1904 such accident happened in Chesapeake
Bay along the main ship cbanucl TO Baltimore. Nomi-
naly IL Is simple thing. this overturning of light.
Rouse caisson bat here it threw the contractors into
bankruptcy. and it was only year later and at
cost OF $lS0o00 that the simple reversed and
The thing of iron aud wood turned upright again
So Flabcrtv fights from the moment the huge
valves arc opened and the unweldy thing takes lis
first stupendous plunge into tho For IN illus
traton lake The launching of the Lighthouse caisson
at Smith 5 Point. Inc ratified it OF TO me
Placing the Caissons.
Place a spot IN the sea marked by buoy some
Twelve miles out from the mouth of the Potomac
river and along the edge OF the channel. a. treach.
crous spot of transverse tides aud CURRENTS