1920 CAPE HENLOPEN LIGHTHOUSE HISTORY.

CAPE HENLOPEN HISTORY

THE LIGHTHOUSE IN 1920

In the past 10 years the Federal government has spent over $200,000 to build 'jetties'

around the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse just off the Delaware Bay Breakwater. The old lighthouse

erected by the British in 1760 is in danger of being washed away.

Timbers of piling, nailed, bolted and lashed together that once made a 500 foot long jettie

are now warped, twisted and deeply imbedded in sand, allowing heavy seas to break over it and

wash away the lighthouse foundation. Pine trees have been allowed to grow on the dune to help stay

the erosion to no avail. The jetties last no time at all and give but little protection.

Originally, the lighthouse stood 300 foot from the breakers in high ground The lighthouse

holds expensive glass prisms and mechanism, a plate of silver as a reflector, worth $2000, and

in the keepers house is a grandfathers floor clock, still keeping time, left by the British many years

ago. It is made of mahogany by a Boston clock maker.

There is a movement to save the structure by Delaware's Congress, the state historical society and interested individuals, asking the Navy for some of the German war ships recently

given the United States and the obsolete Navy battleships now used for target practice, with which

to build jetties around Cape Henlopen.

Hiram Burton, former Delaware Congressman, who lives five mile from the Capes, has

said the Henlopen Light House was built in 1760 one mile from the ocean breakers. That's when Hen and Chicken Shoals, which reach four miles toward Rehoboth, was part of the beach, separated by a shallow channel, making it a 'hammock', where cattle were grazed in the summers. The

building of the Breakwater has caused the tides to strike the beach in a way to cause erosion.

Burton and his followers call for a jettie north about a mile or so , from the lighthouse, from shore to Hen and Chicken shoals , slanting slightly south to take the currents in back of it. This is where the old German war ships and the Navy's obsolete battleships come into play. Fill them with stone, sink them in the proper direction and they become bulwarks for ages.

Recently the Navy built a radio compass station within a stones throw of the lighthouse which directs navigation at sea, giving bearings to vessels going into the Delaware Bay that do

not need to wait for a pilot to board to make entrance to the Breakwater.

Abstract: Baltimore Sun, Sunday, November 14, 1920 by Harrison H, March 22, 2019.