Screwpiles: The Forgotten Lighthouses

Deep Water Shoals

Tue Marshes Shoal

Deep Water Shoals Deep Water Shoals Lighthouse stood on the shoal on the starboard hand of the channel in the James River above Mulberry Island Point. Confederates attacked the lighthouse in 1862, and the Lighthouse Board removed the lens and stored it at Fort Monroe. Deep Water Shoals Light Station was the first on the James River to become an ice casualty when on January 20, 1867, ice floes completely destroyed the structure. The damage report following the destruction noted several problems. The station was located on the edge of the shoal, allowing ice flowing in the channel to build up against the pilings. The foundation structure formed a 20-foot square using just five five-inch-diameter iron piles, screwed 10 feet into the bottom. The combination of a weak foundation design and a risky location proved to be too much. 15

Until a replacement lighthouse could be built, a lightship moored in place of the station. An appropriation of $16,000 was approved by Congress on May 2, 1867. The new lighthouse was located away from the edge of the shoal on a river bottom better suited to hold the pilings. The new foundation, hexagonal in shape, had eight wood piles fitted with cast-iron sleeves. The keeper’s station, mounted on top of the foundation, was also hexagonal in design. The new Deep Water Shoals Lighthouse opened on January 15, 1868, with a sixth-order Fresnel lens. The light served until it was decommissioned in 1966. The Danger of Ice Floes As all three original James River screwpile lighthouses (and other screwpiles) experienced, their original construction design had a major flaw—a vulnerability to severe damage from ice floes. The lighthouses typically stood in shoal water, often at

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