I’ve recently seen questions from some of you on why when the tower is destroyed, relocated, or replaced, it would still be considered as the original. To answer that, there’s no better time to introduce:
Fun Facts about Lighthouses in General! #1
As seen with previous and forthcoming lighthouses showcased on this blog, there was a tendency for many of them to be destroyed due to a lack of nearby sea traffic, which obviously made them devoid of purpose. In America specifically there were many organizations to determine the locations and use of the lights, such as the Lighthouse Establishment, the United States Lighthouse Board, the Lighthouse Service, and currently the US Coast Guard. But for the question, whether rebuilt and/or relocated lighthouses are the same as the original, the answer is yes. Or. Actually, no. Well, as you can extrapolate, dear reader, the answer is complicated.
From the practical standpoint, obviously if a lighthouse is destroyed and rebuilt, it’s not the same structure. Despite this it still has the same name and history, and that reasoning is clear if we examine the purpose of lighthouses, especially towards mariners of the past. Typically when we think of lighthouses, we imagine them as warning signals to boats, and while that was part of their duties, a lighthouses’ base and original purpose is to be a geographical landmark. This is evident in different lighthouses Daymarks, the paint patterns on the outer walls, and the codes that its lights would put out at night. On particularly busy near shore routes, sailors would use the nearby lighthouses to triangulate their location. Even when relocated, the lighthouses would still stay in the ~general~ same area, with the exception of lights being moved for conservation purposes.
Obviously, as with all history, there are exceptions to this rule, but overall lighthouses served a very practical purpose to earlier marine travel before the invention of GPS. Reflecting on this, lighthouses do bring to mind an interesting reading of the Ship of Theseus, in which the concept of the structure is more important than its materials.
(Also, I hope this explanation was helpful and didn’t sound condescending, I’m admittedly very unpracticed in informative writing to run a learning centric blog. Despite that I hope you learned something from my ramblings, reader, as it’s a fascinating subject! I’m planning on going more into depth on Daymarks and light characteristics in the future, so please stick around if you’re interested! The lighthouses will be daily but admittedly the fun facts like these will probably be posted more so when I have the time. Here’s to loving towers with jobs!)
