DATE: Monday, September 15, 1997            TAG: 9709150034

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: George Tucker 

                                            LENGTH:   80 lines

LITTLE-KNOWN LIGHTHOUSE HAS WATCHED HISTORY UNFOLD HERE

Until recently, when I visited Old Point Comfort Lighthouse just outside the ramparts of Fort Monroe for the first time, I smugly believed that the two better-known Cape Henry beacons - the older one dating from 1791, and its replacement built in 1881 - were the only ones of their kind in the Norfolk, Virginia Beach and lower Virginia Peninsula areas that merited historical consideration.

I was wrong, and, since I like to share any new finds of this sort with interested readers, I'm going to make my discovery the theme for today's column. All of the facts have been gleaned from Linda Turbyville's historically accurate and sumptuously illustrated ``Bay Beacons: Lighthouses of the Chesapeake Bay,'' published by Eastwood Publishing of Annapolis, Md., in 1995. Filled with stunning color photographs showing each currently operating Virginia and Maryland lighthouse, the book is an ideal browse for anyone who relishes the rich lore of the Chesapeake and its estuaries.

In 1798, seven years after the original Cape Henry Lighthouse first sent its rays over the nighttime waters at the entrance of the lower Chesapeake, the Virginia General Assembly authorized the conveyance of two acres at Old Point Comfort to the federal government as a location for a lighthouse. A few months later, Congress passed an act authorizing its construction, after which the property was surveyed. Once this was accomplished, Congress then appropriated $1,500 to cover the cost of construction of the tower. Since this sum was later found insufficient, Congress subsequently added an additional $3,500.

Even though the lamps of the new lighthouse overlooking Hampton Roads were first lighted in 1802, the current beacon was not the first navigational aid at Old Point Comfort. Twenty-seven years earlier in 1775, the Virginia legislature allocated 20 pounds annually to a man named John Dams for maintaining a nightly bonfire beacon on or near the site of the present beacon to serve as a guide for incoming and outgoing vessels. The old records also show that Dams had previously been hired by the same body as the custodian of the ruins of Fort George at Old Point Comfort, which had been destroyed by a terrific tropical hurricane in 1749 - the same storm that had created what is now known as Willoughby Spit on the south side of Hampton Roads.

Fort George, on the acreage now occupied by Fort Monroe and the present lighthouse, was preceded by several earlier bastions, all of which maintained somewhat fitful nightly bonfires as aids to shipping. Turbyville's book also speculates that the Indians of the Lower Virginia Peninsula also probably maintained occasional nightly beacons on the same site long before the arrival of the Jamestown colonists in 1607 to warn their tribesmen that Spanish ships were operating in the lower Chesapeake area.

These temporary expedients, dating at least back to the 16th century, became unnecessary after the present octagonal stone tower with a copper lantern on top was completed in 1802. Since that time, with the exception of a brief period between 1813 and 1814, the Old Point Comfort lighthouse has continued to function nightly. Its brief period of inactivity occurred during the War of 1812, when British naval forces terrorized the Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay areas.

To be more specific, in March 1813, a notice was given that the beacons in all of the lighthouses in and around the Chesapeake Bay were to be extinguished to thwart the enemy. Three months later a British squadron sailed through the Virginia Capes. After being defeated at Craney Island, the same force burned Hampton. Meanwhile, the Old Point Comfort lighthouse fell into the enemy's hands and was used as an observation tower rather than a beacon. With the end of the War of 1812, the Old Point Comfort lighthouse returned to its primary use. Now completely automated, its 21,000-candlepower light can be seen clearly at a distance of 16 nautical miles.

During its 195 years, the beautifully maintained beacon - tiny in comparison with the gigantic black-and-white cast-iron Cape Henry Lighthouse - has witnessed many important historic events. Notable among these was the mayhem wrought by the CSS Virginia (the former USS Merrimack) on the Federal blocking fleet in Hampton Roads on March 8, 1862; the celebrated encounter between the same ironclad and the USS Monitor the next day; the embarkment of the Federal troops from Fort Monroe on May 19, 1862, that ended in the recapture of Norfolk from the Confederates; the departure and return of the Great White Fleet in 1907 and 1909; and countless other thrilling naval maneuvers, particularly during World Wars I and II.

So, if you are as unaware of this historical treasure as I was, take time out to visit it soon. The guards at Fort Monroe will be happy to show you how to find it, and I can guarantee you that the panorama across Hampton Roads from the site on a clear day is breathtakingly spectacular.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu