KAPTN KEN's Lighthouses
KAPTN KEN's Lighthouses
Daytime Markings
(Still under construction )
Kaptn Ken thought that you may be interested in
knowing why some lighthouses have painted markings on the
outside.
If you were in a ship, 15 miles off the east coast of North America
and you did not have a
GPS unit with
you, it would be difficult to recognise the shore line as most of the east
coast is flat with no, or very few outstanding landmarks. But if you looked
through your telescope and saw a lighthouse with black spiral stripes, you
might recognise the Cape Hatteras lighthouse in North
Carolina.
Perhaps you might see a lighthouse with horizontal stripes, then that could be Bodie island lighthouse, also in North Carolina.
Are you begining to get the idea now? good read
on.
Let us stay with North Carolina, here is another one with distinctive
markings
This is Cape lookout lighthouse,
with it's characteristic diamond pattern
So far we have seen only black and white markings but there are many lighthouses that have colored patterns.
Farther up the east coast, in fact all the way up to Canada, we might see a lighthouse with horizontal red stripes. If we looked on our nautical map, it would describe the lighthouse in Nova Scotia at Breir Island.
This Daymarking also applies to some of the lighthouses along the Gulf coast and along the shores of the Great lakes for the same reason that it is relatively flat in many areas.
Now let us consider the West coast. Most of the shore line consists
of hills and mountains, together with coves and capes which can
be fairly well recognized from 15 miles out at sea. These lighthouses are
also marked on nautical charts, together with their location but they are
mostly white, which makes them stand out from the trees and green grass in
the background.
I hope this information allows you to understand
why lighthouses have different patterns.
Thank you for visiting this site.