HL185 Sharps Island Lighthouse sits in ten feet of water, warning seafarers of the shoals off Poplar Island and Black Walnut Point. The sharply tilted caisson structure is the third lighthouse to service this area of the Eastern Chesapeake Bay near the entrance to the Choptank River. The first lighthouse was actually situated on Sharps Island, which at one time comprised about 900 acres and was home to a thriving agricultural community. In the 17th century the isle had three owners: William Claiborne, John Bateman and Peter Sharp, a Quaker physician whose name was applied to the island. By the time the Lighthouse Service made plans for a navigational beacon on Sharps Island, the fate of the shrinking island was a foregone conclusion. That is why in 1837 Congress appropriated the relatively small sum of $5,000 to build an integrated and portable station, with the lantern built on top of the wooden keeper’s quarters. In 1848, the lighthouse was moved farther inland as the island continued to lose the battle with erosion. This early navigational aid possessed a fixed light, which was upgraded using a fifth-order Fresnel lens in 1855. In 1865, the Lighthouse Board noted: “The sea, however, is gradually but surely undermining the bluff, and has already reached one corner of the building, leaving no doubt as to the result.” |
Captains Cove 851 W Harbor Drive C, San Diego California 92101 
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