Monday, September 04, 2006

Cape Race Lighthouse - Lantern Lens


The Cape Race Lighthouse began operating in 1856 and is Canada's most significant landfall beacon. In 1912 radio operators here received the distress signal from the Titanic, which struck an iceberg 400 miles to the southeast. The original light tower was replaced by a white circular concrete tower in 1906. The giant hyper-radial lens, the largest ever built, contains hundreds of prisms that radiate light up to 24 nautical miles. The ocean beneath this beacon is wrought with treacherous currents and razer- sharp reefs and beset with fog, icebergs and storms.

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