Hi, everyone. I'm Emily. And I'm Vince. And this
is The Lighthouse Lowdown. Hi. We just stared
at each other. Oh, I had a long day. Model review,
you know. Yeah. Our listeners should know that
every time that intro is playing. it's live for
us. So it's not, you know, we're just staring
at each other dancing or something. Yeah. It's
usually fun. Sometimes I feel the pressure impending
that I have to say something when it's over.
So I'm like, Oh no. Oh, Oh, I got to think of
something. But anyway, I got a good episode coming
at you today and I had a lot of good ideas that
I could use for the history buoy that would correspond
with this episode. Nice. And I went with a light
ship. So that's what we're going to do for our
history buoy. A specific light ship? Yes. Great.
And this is a name that's shown up a few times
while I've been researching or traveling or whatever.
And I'm like, that's funny. And it's the frying
pan shoals. So I'm going to talk about that today.
Which corresponds with our light ship, of course.
Nice. Yeah. The history buoy is the frying pan
light ship, specifically LV -115. Because you
know how any light ship that was assigned, people
should go listen to our light ship episode. I
can't remember what it was, like 50 -something?
Light ships. Yeah. And you can get educated on
the numbering system. But any light ship that
was stationed somewhere got the name frying pan.
So there were several frying pan light ships.
But the one I'm talking about is the longest
serving one. So first of all, what are the frying
pan shoals? We're in North Carolina, outside
of Cape Fear. Oh, cool. So I put a little picture
up of, you can see the stars of the lighthouses
that we covered in our Outer Banks episode. The
Outer Banks. So south of that, almost to whatever
state is below North Carolina. South Carolina?
Wait, I didn't get a chance. Whatever state is
south of North Carolina. I didn't get a chance
to use my brain before I said that. I was in
auto mode. But yes, so closer to South Carolina,
we have Cape Fear. And even when you pull up
Google Maps, you can see this dark spot in the
ocean. And that is our frying pan shoals. And
they said that it was called that because it
looks like a frying pan. And I disagree. Is there
a different view where maybe it looks like a
frying pan? No. Maybe like a frying pan held
sideways. Yeah. But that's... Well, even like
the panhandle of Oklahoma. Yeah. Oh. Panhandle
of Texas. Frying panhandle. I don't know. I kind
of get that. It kind of looks like a lodge cast
iron. Okay. Sponsored by. Like North Carolina
is a big weird shaped pan and that's the handle.
Who knows? That's what I'm thinking. Okay, so
that's what's coming up in my brain. Anyway,
it's about 18 miles long and it's like a shifting
shoal. So like the sands move, which is what
makes it so dangerous is that you can't really
like predict where the edges are going to be.
Okay. And it's southeast of Cape Fear, North
Carolina. And it's made of silt and sand deposited
from the Cape Fear River. So that's what we have
up. This area was, quote, dreaded by shipmasters
only a little less than those at Cape Hatteras.
And we know that Cape Hatteras, outside of Cape
Hatteras, was considered the graveyard of the
Atlantic. So this was obviously a high contender
for places you've got to worry about when you're
sailing around North Carolina. Or, you know,
on the east coast of the U .S. So two lighthouses
were built in the area in 1794 and 1817, but
both were not good enough to mark the outer edges
of the shoal because you'd have to have a pretty
powerful light to make it 18 miles. Yeah, it's
a big panhandle. Yeah, so if you go anything
less than all out, it's not going to work. So
that's kind of what happened. These lighthouses
that were made to mark were the first of baldhead
lighthouses, which I briefly mentioned, but we'll
have to do an episode on them some other time.
Because of that, because these lighthouses weren't
good enough, they added on top of that a light
ship to be placed in 1854. Did I say ordered?
Ordered a light ship? I don't know. Placed an
order for a light ship. Overstock .com. Just
like ordering a new car. I mean, you do have
to order it from a shipbuilder. Yeah. Oh, and
I actually have a picture. I'll show you of it
in production. Oh, cool. Eight light ships served
this location from 1854 to 1930. And 1930 is
when LV -115 took over at the Shoal. And that's
the one that I'm covering today. So there was
this long chunk of history in which there were
light ships, but none of them had quite an extensive
history as... our LV -115. So that's what I'm
going to refer to from here on out as the frying
pan lighthouse. Cool. Lightship. Hold. So here
I pulled up a picture of when it was being built.
So they build the hole first and then they put
it in the water and then they finish building
the rest of the lightship, which is interesting.
It's a cool photo. Yeah, so there's a couple
cool ones of it being built and mainly this is
just to show like it's... Double -masted, had
lights on top of each one. Oops. We love that.
So it was built in 1929, as we can see from our
screen. And it had the classic bright red hole
with the large white letters that says frying
pan. That's awesome. Yeah, so we saw a lot of
those, and it's kind of the staple for light
chips, especially in the U .S. It had a crew
of 15 people, but only 10 would serve at a time.
So they'd serve for 28 days and then get 14 days
off is usually how it went. Nice. The light ship
was active from 1930 until World War II when
it served as an examination vessel, which I don't
know what that is. I forgot to look it up. Examination
vessel in World War II? Yeah. I would guess like
approaching ships. Yeah, maybe. I don't know.
But that was from 1942 to 1945. And after this,
it was placed back on the shoals until 1964.
So it's a solid 30 years of it being out on the
water, which if you listen to our light ships
episode, you'll hear that it was actually very
hard on a ship to be out in open water like that.
And especially anchored. There was a lot of stories
about this ship in like hurricanes and whatnot.
It's difficult for a ship to be more down during
a storm because it wears it. Like, it's not a...
So much stress on the anchor chain. Yes. And
the ship being jerked around. It's all attached.
Yeah. So, that's a long time to be out on the
shoals. And, of course, it would come in every,
like, two years for maintenance or something.
So, they were keeping it together. 1964. Picture
there. A light tower resembling an oil drilling
platform was built, which is also called the
Texas Tower. So this is a specific type of lighthouse
that was built. I think that it said that there
was like 10 or something. I think, I think, I
think. I think. I think that we have seen one
of these before. I can't remember the term Texas
Tower, but I swear maybe an explosion or a research
station, some story associated with a tower that
looked just like this. Yeah, we've had a few
out on the water, but I don't know if we've had
a Texas tower before. Or maybe we've just come
across them but not done an episode on it. Yeah.
But yeah, it's a cool picture. The light ship
circled it and blasted its whistle three times
before departing for good. A little goodbye.
Shame. So that's a cool picture of this light
tower officially relieving. Frying pan light
ship of its duties. 1965, the light ship was
decommissioned and donated to a museum in Southport,
North Carolina. This is where it all goes downhill.
Budget issues killed this museum and the ship
sank before anyone could figure out what to do
with it. Wait, what? Yes. Like where they had
the museum because people were like, what are
we going to do with it? At a port? Or like wherever
the... Like, it was a maritime museum, so wherever
it was floating just went down. Oh, man. I know.
At some point, and it wasn't clear when, the
light ship was refloated and drained before sinking
again in Whitehaven, Maryland in 1983. So that's
the double sinker. All this time, it survives.
Tale of the frying pan. Never gets sunk during
service. And then afterwards, in its retirement,
it gets sunk twice. After three years of staying
underwater, it was righted, which, doing so,
tore off one of its masts. Oh, man. Old age is
a bitch. Terrible. And it was sold to a John
Crevy, I think it's pronounced, for $8 ,000,
who spent weekends with his friends shoveling
crap out of the ship, like muck and barnacles
and whatnot. And once it was all cleaned up,
they sailed it to New York, where it served as
a restaurant, bar, dance club. That's awesome.
The frying pan. Yeah, and they said they left
a bunch of the barnacles and some stuff on the
inside. Cool. and filled it with all kinds of
eclectic things. So it was like this whole experience.
I'd be so excited to go to a bar that was a sunken
ship. It'd be kind of difficult to get drunk
on a ship. No, it wouldn't. Well, I'm thinking
of Vertigo. History suggests that is not true.
Oh, true. Yeah, I guess true. It was floating,
though, as a bar? I think so, yeah. Yeah, yeah,
for sure. Then after that, it was forced to move
to another pier in New York City. So it was in
a pier. I'm not gonna be able to remember what
number pier it was, but then it got moved to
66A, Pier 66A, because they were doing construction
on Hudson Park or something. I didn't make notes.
I don't know. But anyway, so they had to move
it, but it reopened in 2008 and remains today
as the Pier 66 Maritime Bar and Grill. And you
can sit on the deck and have cocktails and fancy
seafood. Like I attached the website for this
place and it looks so good. No chance you're
going to show it to me. No. Okay. Pier 66. Maritime
Bar and Grill. Okay. Noting. Well, the website
is just called. fryingpan .com. What? Yes. Hold
on. I would pull it up, but it's too difficult
with how we project our screen now. Yeah, fryingpan
.com. Cool logo, I must say. Mm -hmm. I'll probably
just put that on our cover. Okay. Without asking
anybody. Oh. Look at that. Yeah, it's pretty.
Little red outline. It only has the one mast.
The one mast. Which is accurate. Mm -hmm. Wow.
Lore accurate. I wonder if this is valued by
the patrons. Yeah, like if you're interested.
Because I noticed there's no tab on that website
for the history of the light ship. So I'm wondering
if it's just very food forward. Like it's more
of a, like, oh, it's on a ship. How cool is that?
Without it being, tell me all about it. There's
an art history. Oh, there is. Okay, good. Yeah,
shows the frying pan image. Oh, yeah. That was
a long description. Okay, good. I don't want
to go too crazy on here, but that's awesome.
I'd love to go. Yeah, see, it's on our list now.
Yeah, but we can't. What, what? New York in the
wintertime. I bet we can't sit on the deck. It's
got teak furniture. Why do you say wintertime?
Well, because we're talking about going to New
York in the wintertime, potentially. I sent you
a video of Canada in the wintertime. In Banff.
I don't know what that is. It's not near New
York. It's West. I'm not talking about New York.
What is going on? You're talking about New York
for Christmas. No. Yes. When? We're talking about
an option for after our wedding. Oh. Wow. That
must have been vetoed in my head or something
because I have no memory of that. We talked about
Branson, Missouri. And so I was like, oh, well,
something. big like new york is probably out
of the question anyway um i pulled up a picture
of uh the frying pan light ship this was in 2006
so it was before it opened in the other pier
and as a part of the restaurant that's available
now so but just for you to see the the lettering
the bright color the single mast it's pretty
cool that's crazy i can't believe they broke
the mast riding the ship and then What does it
take to weld that thing back on? Well, it was
owned by a guy, you know, at that point. So,
yeah, he's probably not like, oh, I better make
this historically accurate. He's probably just
like, it was a sunken ship. I might as well just
get it as close as I can. And then there was
one. Yeah. Pretty cool, though. It's probably
in someone's house. The other mast? Yeah, it's
probably a staircase. The center of a spiral
staircase. yeah so that's um we come across this
uh light ship again in this episode so it was
either that i covered the shoals in depth or
the light ship or i forgot this was the buoy
i'm having a great time oh good yeah it's a double
whammy because now we are heading into our lighthouse
for the day and so don't forget we're in north
carolina cape fear And the first lighthouse ever
built in North Carolina was to mark this frying
pan shoals because we heard about how dangerous
it is. Of course. Pulled up another photo just
of all the marked shipwrecks we have. There's
a lot of them. Along here. It's very clear where
the shoal lies. Yeah, it's a nice map. If you
ever want a map of a shoal, just let all the
ships wreck and then show where those are. Yeah,
and then it just outlines it perfectly. Yeah,
so they show where the light ship. was on here
and also where the tower is now so oh cool yeah
that's it's a very cool map lots lots of good
stuff in there but as i was saying baldhead lighthouse
did a poor job and so then the light ship was
anchored on the far edge to market in 1854 and
the annual report of the lighthouse board of
1889 said in part that while the light ship was
indispensable and they weren't planning on getting
rid of it it also was frequently torn from its
mooring during storms and had a small range for
lighting the shoals because obviously it's just
the end and so it's just like they didn't have
any way to reliably have this one object that
marked the shoals it was like a combination like
i read a little bit on baldhead and it For a
while it was by itself, and then they got a new
one, and then they made it a range light, and
also there's a light ship in there, so it just
kind of got too convoluted. And so they requested
a lighthouse on the tip of Cape Fear, and you
can see from this map as well that really this
is all a bunch of little islands. I can't remember.
I think it's called Smith Islands or something.
Okay. So towards the end there, that's not like
the end of land. It's like just a bunch of little
broken up islands, which can be said for a lot
of the Outer Banks too. Yeah. Oh, Vince is looking
something up. I'm sorry. No. I don't mean to
go off track. There's a gulf island. What's it
called? Frick? What the frick? Something like
that. Every time I go to the maps when we're
on here, it just doesn't work. Forget about it.
Okay. It might be out there. Golf is on your
mind. Yeah, there's always a golf course nearby.
They wanted a lighthouse out here with a range
that would fully encompass the shoals instead
of it being like, I'm pretty sure Bald Head started
as a third order light and then switched to a
fourth order light. Neither of those are going
to reach 18 miles out. And even more, because
you have to be warned in advance. Yeah, hopefully.
Yeah. Like, I see the light now that we're stationary.
And in this report, it's also noted that there's
no first order lights between Cape Lookout and
Cape Romaine, which is about 170 nautical miles
apart. Pretty significant. They suggested a 150
-foot masonry tower and requested $150 ,000.
And the board repeated this request from 1890
to 1897. But Congress didn't bite until they
more than halved the request to $70 ,000 instead
of $150 ,000. And then they approved it. They
sent half, $35 ,000, to begin the project in
1898. And then the other half was in 1901. And
so while they could still make this lighthouse
150 feet tall because of the cut in budget, it
meant that they had to go with a different look.
So in 1903, Cape Fear Lighthouse was completed
as an octagonal iron skeletal lighthouse equipped
with a first order Fresnel lens. Pulled up a
really nice picture. Bungalows. This Fresnel
lens was the one that we talked about in our
Mercury floats episode as like the heaviest,
biggest Mercury float system they've ever made.
And it was like 6 ,000 pounds altogether. So
the lens was over six feet in diameter. and had
24 flash panels and produced a white flash every
10 seconds. So that's a lot. Think about 24 panels.
It's like a lot more than your average. Very
complex piece. Brunel, yeah. The tower was painted
white. So this picture that I have pulled up,
there's a little bit of black up top. That happened
later. Originally, it was all white, which you
can imagine is difficult to see against blue
sky. So that's why they added that in there.
They had three keepers' houses that were built
in a row, and they were all white as well. I
think I read that they had green shutters or
something. Cool. I like it when they're all neat
like that. Yeah, it's a really nice construction.
Lined up cute. Little porches. I wonder what
those two other buildings are. Do you know if
those are additions or other offices? I didn't
make a note. Outhouses? They're probably outhouses.
They look pretty big. Yeah, they look... I can't
make any guesses. I don't know. The fact that
there's two identical ones makes it complicated.
Maybe they're work sheds. I've read some places
have work sheds. I would say oil houses, but
you'd only need one. Yeah. I don't know. Don't
know. Questions out there. So once this lighthouse
was established, the bald head lighthouse was
changed to a fixed fourth order light because
they were both flashing. So make it less complicated
by changing the other one. There were only three
head keepers in this lighthouse's history. Wow.
I know. Well, also because it didn't last like
super long. It's just, yeah, pretty quick. But
the first was Captain Charles Swan. Awesome name.
The son of the captain of the frying pan light
ship. So it runs in the family. Incredible. And
he served from 1903, which was the beginning
of the lighthouse, to 1933. So 30 -year service
at this lighthouse. Long time. Especially for
a son. What? I just, I don't know. Like someone
who's like, I'll do what my dad did. And five
years later. But on land, yeah. But this guy
did a full career. Yeah. And these are some things
that happened during his service. The lantern
room was painted black in 1906. So it was a pretty
quick turnaround from, you know how slow things
move in the lighthouse world. Yes. And so only
three years after beginning service to change
the day mark of a lighthouse is pretty quick.
1915, the board requested $35 ,000 to move the
lighthouse, which was denied and never requested
again. So I think that they must have seen, they
must have been worried about erosion or something
and then was like, oh, never mind. I wonder where
they're going to move it. I don't know. Like
you're on an island, maybe just a little more
inland or something. I don't know. Because, you
know, the beach is right here. It appears, yeah,
well, from this perspective, moving out. It is,
I mean, yeah, the water's right there. Yeah,
I don't know. But, and if you look at it today,
then, you know, that erosion never came to be,
so they weren't, it's a good thing that it wasn't
approved because it would have been for nothing.
In 1920, a three -ton Mercury float was installed
in place of the chariot that was there already
for our first -order lens, so. For anyone that
wants to hear more about that, go to our Mercury
Floats episode. That wasn't that long ago, right?
No. Okay. Maybe a month. That was a more recent
one. Captain Charles Swan retired after his assistant
keeper of over a decade had a heart attack while
relieving him in the lantern room and died. Damn.
I know. And they said that he had been having
chest pains while climbing the lighthouse for
the past year and was just like, he just stopped,
would stop halfway up to rest. And then go the
rest of the way. Like, oh, I wanted to avoid
having the heart pains. His heart was trying
to tell him for so long. That's why you can't
tough it out. Gotta get help. But these men were
like hardcore. You gotta tough it out sometimes.
Not when you have chest, never when you have
heart pains. Never when you have heart pains
that make you stop. Noted. So that was the end
of our first head keeper. And there was only
two after this. There was two. I mean, obviously,
there's three keepers' houses. So there's a first
assistant and a second assistant keeper. And
there was a lot higher of a turnover in those
than the head keepers, of which there was only
three, like I said. So 1958, Oak Island Lighthouse
was lit, which was really powerful. And also,
I think it looks like a cigarette. Do you have
a photo? I'd love to see it. No. What? I know
I don't. I don't know. I think... My realization
is that I really like lighthouses that are dynamic
and or, you know, like conical. Like, I like
it when they're tapered edges. When they're straight
up and down, I don't like them. Yeah. Looks like
a cigarette. Oak Island Lighthouses. Yeah, you're
right. It's a cylinder. And it's got black top,
white middle, and then tan, bare gray, tan base,
all of equal length. So it looks a lot like a
cigarette. Yeah. Like a lit cigarette. Not to...
I mean... Obviously there's beauty in every lighthouse,
but it's... Every lighthouse is beautiful. Every
lighthouse is beautiful. Except for some. Yeah,
but I can have my preferences. I mean, some people
really don't like skeleton towers. Oh, really?
Yeah. I like them. I do too. Some people really
don't like integral towers. I disagree with that.
You can disagree, but it's what some people feel.
Am I telling you that they're wrong or right?
Is this therapy? This is uncomfortable. So anyway,
the building of Oak Island meant that Cape Fear
was kind of unnecessary because it was less powerful
and everything. And on top of that, they felt
that the tower, even being up, would confuse
mariners during the daytime. So you know what
they did? They made it into a Christmas tree?
They blew it up with dynamite. I love that that's
a thing that we've done throughout history. It's
just like, let's just bring it to the ground.
You know, I don't know what else to do other
than use explosives. Yeah, I mean, it's the best
way to get it down. Just leaves a pile of rubble.
I guess. Or twisted metal. Did they destroy the
lantern, you think? No. So I'll talk about that
in just a second. So I pulled up some pictures
of its destruction, which they have a pretty
cool picture of it going down. Not that we like
it, but it is a cool picture. Yeah. The foundation
nowadays is still visible on site and the generator
house and the three keepers houses are still
there as well. Cool. So here's a picture of the
foundation. You can see where the central column
used to be and then each of its connecting legs.
Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's a bummer. Is it in the
middle of a roundabout? It appears that it's
a roundabout. Or it's just like where you park
to see it or something. I don't know. I don't
think you're going to go see it. What? You wouldn't
go see that? It appears to be a roundabout. They
do have a sign like it's something you see. So
it's history. Well, yeah. We've seen something
like this before. Yes. Where a foundation is
still there. And it's like a shrine. Somehow,
yeah, it's turned into visitors. Well, I mean,
yeah. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Put brick around
it. No, it's nice. In 2017, the generator house
was a snack shop called Mike's Bites. I don't
know what happened to it after that or what it
was before that, but just in 2017 at least. And
until 2022, the Keeper's houses were rental properties
known as Captain Charlie's Station for the first
Keeper. Cool. and are in excellent shape and
they were put on the market in 2022 as a family
compound and i think that they're still available
here's from the rental properties uh what's the
website what's the cost you have to inquire so
you can't afford it okay many millions of dollars
you know what they say when you have to inquire
you can't afford it exactly they say yeah well
that's actually not true for a lot of wedding
stuff so put that out of your head i have to
inquire a lot well um But it's really nice. We
got some greenery. A family compound is such
a flex. I know. It sounds like such a cool thing.
I know. And you know those little houses that
we were discussing earlier are still there. Yeah.
It must be something. Part of the compound. Is
there a Zillow listing? I don't know. Probably
not. You have to inquire. You have to inquire.
Yeah, it was Intracoastal Realty something company.
I don't know. But yeah, you guys can look it
up. It's got what looks like private beach access.
Right out the front door. A little pathway, you
know. Whoever buys it, let us come visit. Yeah,
actually you owe us for putting this out there.
Well, finder's fee. Finder's fee. Oh, man. So
yeah, it's pretty nice and still kicking. Those
are beautiful homes. It looks like a great area.
So you asked about the Fresnel Lens and what
happened to that in 2009. The old Baldy Foundation.
which I'll definitely cover that when we get
to Bald Head Lighthouse, purchased the remnants
of the Cape Fear Fresnel lens, which was set
up outside an antique dealer in Wilmington, North
Carolina. So what happened was the contractor
that demolished the lighthouse had the good sense
to save the lens, right? Which, by the way, would
be an insane amount of work to remove it. Remember,
you have to take it all apart. Every prism. And
I'll show you a picture. They had this lens at
an exhibition or whatever, exposition in 1901.
So they had a picture of it there. So I'll show
you how massive it, like if you think about it.
Anyway, it's crazy. But he had the good sense
to take it apart and sold it to the antique shop
owner in 1968. Same guy. Still there. Crazy.
Oh, I have a picture. of what it looked like
outside of the antique shop so you'd have to
know your stuff to realize that this was a fresnel
lens frame looks like the eye of sauron yes that's
i was like what does this remind me of the lord
of the rings that's hilarious the lord of the
rings like evil eye in the sky i couldn't think
of it yeah because there's no top like obviously
it was a fresnel and so like it's missing some
of its framework but It was outside, just in
the elements for all that time. I'm surprised
it's not made of brass. I thought all, I don't
know why I thought that, but I thought all those
materials, I mean, cast iron we've seen, but.
Maybe the parts that were brass are gone. I don't
know. Because remember how many, you know, how
many frames. So all the glass is gone. Yes. And
all the, yeah, probably all the brass that was
framed around. The prisms he separated and sold
to customers over time and at various auctions
and sales. They're in people's houses. Exactly.
Meaning the prisons are spread all over North
Carolina and beyond. Like at this point, who
knows where they are? I'm sure a lot of them
are like at the dump. If you have like grandma's
estate sale and you're like, what is this hunk
of glass? You throw it in the trash. Yeah, like
a hundred pound hunk of glass. Yeah, it just
looks like a hunk of glass. Yeah, grandma's always
holding on to shit. Yeah. You would never know
that you had something special. That was the
lighthouse. Like, how could you do this? So now
that they have the complete framework, the foundation,
they have gone to work trying to find all approximately
1 ,000 prisms that made up this lens. And so
far they have collected around a third. So that's
significant. And that includes seven bullseyes.
Wow. Yeah. Pretty good. We're making some excellent
headway. That's cool. And they mentioned in...
you know, the articles that they've done that
it's pretty much a pipe dream to expect to ever
find the whole thing. But it's kind of fun to
be like putting it back together. Don't you wonder
where they're at? Well, they said that some have
been used as paperweights. Some have just been
found like in storage or under beds. Like one
of them was just under somebody's bed. And one
bullseye was used as a coffee table and had burned
a hole in their carpet. That's awesome. Like
what a way to learn that you have something that's...
Really powerful. That's such a cool discovery.
Yeah. I know what that is. And I wonder, yeah,
if you get approached or if you just like put
it out there. I don't know. Rambo's always had
this huge ass coffee table. It's heavy. And for
some reason it burned the ground. What? What?
So they're planning on building an exhibit near
Old Bali to house the lens whenever they get
more pieces. Very cool. Yeah, hopefully before
like they get too much further. I kind of want
to see it. As it is right now. I wish they could
put it together and then the pieces that they
don't have make those like black glass or something.
Yeah, like some way to mark what it should look
like. But here I have a picture of it at the
exhibition. That's crazy. And at the top you
can see every single one of those little prisms.
Just so crazy. And the contractor sold all those?
Sold the whole thing. In its entirety, yeah,
to the antique shop. And then the antique shop
owner were selling, like, pieces off at a time.
I mean, I get it. Yeah, no, you can't blame him,
really. It's just, like, if it's not special
to you, it's not special to you. That's such
a shame. I know, but it's pretty cool. And I'm
glad this picture from the exhibition is, like,
showing what it looks like. And you can see there's
a tiny replica of a skeleton lighthouse in front
of it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What a time. It is kind
of funny looking at this picture, too. They have
things just like set up here and there, just
stuff. Like, take a look at what we've come up
with over the past year. And people would just
get together and just take a look. This is when
engineering was really cool. Yeah. It was just
like, what can you come up with? Now it's like,
we draw on computers. I was thinking about that
today during the model review, like that we just,
we have scans of an entire refinery. Like. It
just blew my mind. Every inch. Just... Hundreds
of scans. Between pipes? How? I don't get it.
It's crazy. Yeah. How can you scroll through
miles and miles of pipe and just have it all
there in 3D version? Yeah. I mean, I did like
a... They have some incredible technology now
for scanning 3D. I know we're a little off topic,
but... I got paid to go to Colorado and I used
a camera. So not even a scanner. Yeah. Just a
360 camera and a tripod and my phone for two
days, two and a half days to map out every inch
inside and outside the roof, everything on this
facility. I can't say more about it. And it all
goes together in one big computer model. So they
sent me to go and then everyone who ever works
in that project knows what it looks like. Yeah.
They can like fly through every square inch of
that place. And that's, you know, there's more
advanced scanners and whatnot. Yeah. Yeah. But,
but still crazy. That's like all it takes. It's
so crazy. Yeah. And just have that forever until
somebody throws it away. Like they're going to
throw away every single one of these pieces of
glass. It would be nice to have seen it when
it was brand new, like fresh out of the system
and set up. Yeah. But it was beautiful. So hopefully
we'll get to see it again one day, refurbished
and. Set up in this exhibit. So we saw a first
order lens in KitKad. Is that one of the only
ones on display? Are there many? I think there
are not many, but I don't think it's... It's
not common. Yeah, it's not common, but it's also
not super rare, I think. That one had a little
bit of damage, if I remember right. Yeah. I think
the goal for a lot of maritime museums is to
have something like a First Order Fresnel lens.
So if you go to a maritime museum, it's likely
that they'll have something. Yeah. Even if it's
just like a piece or something. I think it was
Gay Headlight. Is that where the museum? In Martha's
Vineyard. Yeah. It was fantastic. Worth the walk.
But I remember, I was like, oh my gosh. They
built three stories of a building. Like as a
balcony around this thing. It makes sense. I
mean, it's really special. And it's huge. It's
crazy. There's no other way to see it. And that's
what I have for the episode. Nice. A little bit
of frying pan, a little bit of light shift, a
little bit of lighthouse. I really enjoyed the
frying pan. I would like to see it. I'm glad
to know it now because I was... Oh, I didn't
include this picture. There was one picture of
frying pan next to another light ship that said
hens and chickens on the side. What is the hens
and chickens light ship? I've got to know. And
you don't, you didn't look. I don't. Cause I
was just going to mention like, this is what
happens is I'm like frying pan. We'll have to
leave that for a future. Yeah. I'm going to leave.
I'm not buoy. Yeah. Tie it in. Tie it down. Chickens.
That's so funny. That's all. Thank you for listening
to me talk about this one. It was actually fun
because it's like low key, not a ton of information,
but unique history. It's a good story. It's a
cool lighthouse. Good history. The buoy was nice.
I wanted to say thanks to our listeners on YouTube,
which I'm learning. They're not usually the same
listeners as the podcast to YouTube watchers,
but thanks. Last time I asked for people to go
follow us and we had quite a spike. Oh, did we?
Yeah. I mean, biggest ever. That's great. Like
I said, we usually don't ask for stuff like that.
I don't want to be annoying, but that was nice,
so thanks. Very good. And what was I going to
say? Oh, man, I had something else to say. Do
we have a listener right now? No, it wasn't listener
related. I was going to say something else, and
then you started talking about the YouTube, so
now I can't remember. Sorry. We got a YouTube
comment. That we're like fun with flags. Fun
with flags, which is, I looked it up. I didn't
know what they were referring to. It was a show.
Not How I Met Your Mother. Big Bang Theory. Oh,
yes. Big Bang Theory, Sheldon. Sheldon and Amy.
He has a podcast he starts talking about flags.
I know. I couldn't tell if it was an insult or
not. I don't know. That we're like a. Social
recluse trying to talk about something that most
people don't find interesting. Right. A couple
of engineers get together. Dang it. Well, I took
it as a compliment because I smiled when I was
watching the skit. All right. That's good. Yeah.
I mean, we're kind of that. We're fun with flags.
Fun with flags. Fun with lighthouses. Yep. So
what else? That's it. Check out our Instagram.
Oh, I'm really behind on the Instagram. I'm pretty
sure like I haven't posted anything for the past
four episodes or something. I don't know what's,
I don't know why. What are you doing? It'll be
okay. I don't know. Just make a couple posts
and catch everybody up. Yeah. I'll just, yeah.
Yeah. See, but at this point, yeah. Yeah. This
will be episode number five. This is episode
79. 78. 78. We get to 100, we're going to do
something special. We're not going to do that
until next year. That's fine. Okay. And you can
check out our website, thelighthouselowdown .com.
Leave us a review on there. I'm trying to reach
you, but your car's extended warranty. Excuse
me. I'm doing our outro. You know what? That's
it. Thank you for listening to The Lighthouse.
The Lighthouse Struggle Bus. Fun with Lighthouse.