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"來維持運作的，于 1776

 年被炸毀。  那時，在各殖民地，真正 的燈塔僅有十幾個。  但過了一個世紀多一點，燈塔就增至七百多個了。  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計方案，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格上是多樣化的。 在東北 部，燈塔大都建在石質的高地上，因此塔身不需要太高。  它們有磚石結構的；  也有木材或

金屬結構的，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，從馬

 里蘭到弗羅里達礁群的海岸地勢低平且多為沙質，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 190

 英尺，是全美最高的磚結構燈塔。 雖然美國的燈塔在外觀和結構上存在一些差異，但它們確有些共同之處，比如都有燈標、有 住房、有時還有鐘(后來改用霧角)。

 此外，還有一個相同之處，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，以便火焰明亮而穩定。 最早的守塔人來

 自各種行業：海員、農民、技工和干粗活的。  這個職位通常是作為政治回報由地方海關官 員決定任命。 但在 1852

年后，財政部下屬的美國燈塔管理委員會接管了所有燈塔，守塔人 這支隊伍也逐漸趨向專業化了。

譯路通武漢漢口翻譯公司整理

2012.7.21