B8 APG News • September 22, 2016 Legacy of Light: Light marks 300th anniversary

By WALTER HAM U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters When the Boston Lighthouse was first lit 300 years ago today, sailors called on New England ports in wooden ships, pirates roamed the Atlantic Coast and the 13 colonies were under the Brit- ish crown. The light, which still guides mari- ners around ’s shoals, was the first of thousands of American Aids to Navigation (ATON) that have saved lives, protected property and enabled prosperity for the last three centuries. Located on , , nine nautical miles from Boston, the lighthouse was first lit on Sept. 14, 1716, using tallow candles. Today, the Boston Light has two 2 mil- lion candlepower lights that can be seen from 27 nautical miles away. Sally Snowman is the U.S. Coast Guard’s only remaining assigned light- Courtesy photo house keeper. In 2003, she became the After 300 years of service, the Boston Lighthouse continues to guide ships into Boston Harbor. America’s oldest Aid to 70th Boston and the Navigation was first lit on Sept. 14, 1716. first female to hold the position. Snowman said the city and the region during the Revolutionary War. law it passed, Congress created the U.S. waterways that make up the U.S. Marine have grown because of the light. As a part of her duties, Snowman Lighthouse Establishment to provide Transportation System or MTS. “Massachusetts prospered with Bos- manages more than 70 volunteers and “support, maintenance and repairs of In addition to protecting mariners and ton Harbor emerging as an international maintains the lighthouse, keeper’s cot- all lighthouses, beacons, (and) buoys.” the waters they traverse, the U.S. Coast port in the 19th century,” said Snowman. tage and other buildings on the three- The service would later be called the Guard also keeps America’s economy “For this to have occurred, the entrance acre island. U.S. Lighthouse Service or Bureau of on course. to Boston Harbor needed to be properly “My favorite thing about working Lighthouses. With the majority of trade flowing marked to reduce the significant loss of as the lighthouse keeper is the diversi- After 150 years of keeping the lights into the U.S. from the sea, the Coast life and cargo due to shipwrecks occur- ty of the job, which is also its unique- shining, the Lighthouse Service was Guard ATON system safeguards the ring on the ominous ledges.” ness, requiring the ability to multitask incorporated into the U.S. Coast Guard marine cargo transportation that generat- “Boston Light was built as the first and changing the scheduled agenda as in 1939. August 7 is designated as ed $4.6 trillion of economic activity and major Aid to Navigation in Colonial quickly as the New England weather,” National Lighthouse Day in the Unit- accounted for more than a quarter of the America to the mark the entrance and said Snowman. ed States. U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2015. continues to provide this service today,” Designated as a National Historic Managed by the U.S. Coast Guard “More than 73 million Americans are said the Weymouth, Massachusetts, Landmark in 1964, the Boston Light is Office of Navigation Systems and main- involved in maritime commerce, com- native who earned doctorates in Educa- one of nine lighthouses honored in the tained by Coast Guard cutters and ATON mercial fishing and recreational boat- tion and Metaphysical Science. Coast Guard Headquarters in Washing- teams around the nation, Aids to Naviga- ing on our waterways, and we help them Snowman said the Boston Harbor ton, D.C. Lighthouses from the Coast tion enable navigators to determine their to get home safely,” said Capt. Scott J. Islands National and State Park offers Guard’s nine districts have elevators position, chart a safe course and steer Smith, the chief of the U.S. Coast Guard weekend tours of the Boston Lighthouse named after them in the headquarters. clear of hazards. Office of Navigation Systems. in the summer. The storied landmark is located in the From the lone Boston Light, the Coast “Our vast Aids to Navigation system During tours, Snowman dresses in 1st Coast Guard District, the Boston- Guard Aids to Navigation system has started with the Boston Lighthouse and formal clothes from 1783, the year that based command that covers northeast grown to include more than 48,000 Fed- we celebrate its enduring contribution to the Boston Lighthouse was rebuilt. Brit- waterways from to Maine. eral buoys, beacons, and electronic aids our nation, our economy and our mari- ish forces destroyed original structure On August 7, 1789, with the ninth that mark the more than 25,000 miles of time heritage,” said Smith.