Lighthouses
The first navigational lights in the New World were probably
lanterns hung at harbor entrances. The first lighthouse was put up by
the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1716 on Little Brewster Island at the
entrance to Boston Harbor. Paid for and maintained by "light dues" levied
on ships, the original beacon was blown up in 1776. By then there were only
a dozen or so true lighthouses in the colonies. Little over a century
later, there were 700 lighthouses.
The first light erected on the West Coast in the 1850's featured the same
basic New England design: a Cape Cod dwelling with the tower rising from
the center or standing close by. In New England and elsewhere, though,
lighthouses reflected a variety of architectural styles. Since most
stations in the Northeast were built on rocky eminences, enormous towers
were not the rule. Some were made of stone and brick, others of wood or
metal. Some stood on pilings or stilts; some were fastened to rock with
iron rods. Farther south, from Maryland through the Florida Keys, the coast
was low and sandy. It was often necessary to build tall towers there -
massive structures like the majestic Cape Hatteras, North Carolina,
lighthouse, which was lit in 1870. At
190 feet, it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the country.
Notwithstanding differences in appearance and construction, most
American lighthouses shared several features: a light, living quarters and
sometimes a bell (or later, a foghorn).They also had something else in
common: a keeper and, usually, the keeper's family. The keeper's
essential task was trimming the lantern wick in order to maintain a
steady, bright flame. The earliest keepers came from every walk of life -
they were seamen, farmers, mechanics, rough mill hands - and appointments
were often handed out by local customs commissioners as political plums.
After the administration of lighthouses was taken over in 1852 by the
United States Lighthouse Board, an agency of the Treasury Department, the
keeper corps gradually became highly professional.
燈塔在新大陸上，最初的航標(biāo)燈要算那些掛在港灣入口的提燈了吧。 最初的燈塔是
1716 年由馬薩諸塞灣殖民地在波士頓港入口一個(gè)叫小布羅斯特的島上建起的。 這最初的燈 塔是通過向船只征收"買光錢"來維持運(yùn)作的，于 1776
年被炸毀。 那時(shí)，在各殖民地，真正 的燈塔僅有十幾個(gè)。 但過了一個(gè)世紀(jì)多一點(diǎn)，燈塔就增至七百多個(gè)了。 1850 年，在西部
沿海建起的首座燈塔基本上沿襲了新英格蘭燈塔的設(shè)計(jì)方案，即那種中心或周圍升起塔樓的 典型的哥德角式房子。
新英格蘭與其它一些地方的燈塔在建筑風(fēng)格上是多樣化的。 在東北 部，燈塔大都建在石質(zhì)的高地上，因此塔身不需要太高。 它們有磚石結(jié)構(gòu)的； 也有木材或
金屬結(jié)構(gòu)的，有的燈塔建在支架上，有的則用鐵條固定在巖石上。 在更南方的地區(qū)，從馬
里蘭到弗羅里達(dá)礁群的海岸地勢(shì)低平且多為沙質(zhì)，因此高大的塔身就很必要了。 例如 1870 年在北卡羅來納的哈特拉角建的宏偉的大燈塔，高達(dá) 190
英尺，是全美最高的磚結(jié)構(gòu)燈塔。 雖然美國(guó)的燈塔在外觀和結(jié)構(gòu)上存在一些差異，但它們確有些共同之處，比如都有燈標(biāo)、有 住房、有時(shí)還有鐘(后來改用霧角)。
此外，還有一個(gè)相同之處，那就是都有守塔人，通常 是守塔人全家。 守塔人的基本工作就是修剪燈蕊，以便火焰明亮而穩(wěn)定。 最早的守塔人來
自各種行業(yè)：海員、農(nóng)民、技工和干粗活的。 這個(gè)職位通常是作為政治回報(bào)由地方海關(guān)官 員決定任命。 但在 1852
年后，財(cái)政部下屬的美國(guó)燈塔管理委員會(huì)接管了所有燈塔，守塔人 這支隊(duì)伍也逐漸趨向?qū)I(yè)化了。
譯路通武漢漢口翻譯公司整理
2012.7.21