Harbor Island Bar, NC 
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Along the southern side of North Carolina’s vast Pamlico Sound, at the entrance to Core Sound, lay one of the most important navigational gateways in the state’s inland waters. Harbor Island Bar, a shallow and shifting shoal situated on the easterly side of the channel connecting Pamlico Sound with Core Sound, presented a constant hazard to mariners. Vessels traveling between the ports and fishing communities of Core Sound, Beaufort, and the inland sounds depended upon safe passage through this narrow route. To guide mariners across the dangerous shoals, the federal government maintained a light station at Harbor Island Bar for more than a century, first as a lightship and later as a screw-pile lighthouse.
The history of Harbor Island Bar Lighthouse reflects the evolution of maritime navigation in North Carolina’s sounds, from floating lightships to permanent offshore structures, while also illustrating the dedication of the lighthouse keepers and their families who served in these isolated waters.
Congress first authorized a navigational light at Harbor Island Bar on March 3, 1835, appropriating $5,000 for a light vessel to mark the shoal. By 1838 a lightship had been placed on station. The vessel, measuring seventy-two tons, carried a lantern equipped with a single lamp containing nine cylindrical wicks mounted forty feet above the water.
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Life aboard a lightship was demanding. Unlike shore-based lighthouses, lightships were constantly exposed to wind, waves, and storms while remaining anchored in one location. Nevertheless, Harbor Island Bar’s lightship faithfully marked the shoal for more than two decades.
The coming of the Civil War brought an abrupt end to this service. In 1862 the Lighthouse Board reported that all the light vessels south of Cape Henry, including those in North Carolina waters, had been removed, sunk, or destroyed by Confederate forces. Harbor Island Bar’s lightship was among those lost. Temporary lighted vessels were eventually placed at several important stations, including Harbor Island Bar, but a more permanent solution was already being considered.
Even before the war, the Lighthouse Board had recognized that many lightship stations in North Carolina’s shallow sounds could be replaced economically by screw-pile lighthouses. These innovative structures consisted of iron piles with screw-like foundations that could be twisted into the soft bottom. They were particularly well suited to the shallow waters and muddy bottoms of the North Carolina sounds.
Taking advantage of the need to rebuild after the war, the Lighthouse Board erected permanent screw-pile lighthouses at several former lightship stations, including Harbor Island Bar. Construction was completed in early 1867, and on April 1 of that year the new lighthouse displayed its light for the first time.
A Notice to Mariners issued on March 16, 1867 described the structure. The lighthouse stood in only three and one-half feet of water approximately 230 yards south-southeast of the middle bar buoy. Its iron foundation was painted red, while the dwelling and tower were white. A fifth-order Fresnel lens displayed a fixed white light visible for about eight miles. The focal plane stood thirty-five feet above ordinary tides.
The first head keeper was Gayer Chadwick, a veteran lighthouse keeper who had previously served aboard the Harbor Island Bar Lightship from 1849 to 1853 and later at Cape Lookout Lighthouse. Chadwick earned an annual salary of $500, while assistant keeper Jeremiah Fielding received $300. Chadwick resigned after only a few months, and William B. Physioc succeeded him in July 1867.
Like many North Carolina screw-pile lights, Harbor Island Bar Lighthouse consisted of a keeper’s dwelling elevated above the water on iron piles. Routine maintenance was a constant necessity. Reports from 1868 and 1869 describe extensive repainting of the ironwork, dwelling, and lantern to combat the corrosive effects of saltwater and weather.
The lighthouse stood in a dynamic marine environment where currents continually altered the surrounding shoals. By 1879 inspectors discovered that erosion had deepened the water around the structure, exposing portions of the wooden piles beneath their protective iron sleeves. The exposed timber was vulnerable to attack from marine borers, commonly called shipworms.
To save the station, workers undertook a remarkable engineering project. Divers cleaned the exposed piles and installed large wooden forms around their bases. These forms were then filled with concrete, creating protective blocks measuring six feet square and five feet high. Sandbags were placed atop the concrete to prevent waves from washing away the material before it hardened.
After spending the money to preserve Harbor Island Bar Lighthouse, the Lighthouse Board ordered it and Southwest Point Royal Shoal Lighthouse to be discontinued on August 1, 1880, likely as a cost-saving measure. Reaction to the abandonment of the lighthouse was passionate and swift. Citing the station logbook, one man said an average of 150 vessels passed the lighthouse each month, though most of them were small craft. Concerned citizens met on Cedar Island on August 12 and appointed a committee to draft resolutions of protest, one of which read that the discontinuance of the light was an outrage and an infringement upon the local watermen.
Five years later the Lighthouse Board reported that the structure had become so dilapidated and insecure that relighting it was impracticable. Yet the need for a navigational light remained critical, prompting Congress to appropriate $20,000 in 1886 for a replacement lighthouse.
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Borings conducted in 1887 confirmed that another screw-pile structure could safely be erected near the old one. Construction began in earnest during 1888. Iron components were contracted for at a cost of $5,000, while the wooden superstructure was framed at the Lighthouse Service depot in Baltimore.
A construction crew departed Baltimore aboard the tender Jessamine in April 1888, towing a launch and two scows loaded with building materials. Arriving at Harbor Island Bar on April 30, the crew began work immediately. Remarkably, the new lighthouse was substantially completed within a month.
The new light first shone on June 10, 1888. The structure differed considerably from its predecessor. Its iron screw-pile foundation was painted brown and supported a square white dwelling with a brown roof, green shutters, and a black lantern. A fifth-order light produced a red flash every ten seconds, visible for approximately eleven and one-half nautical miles. A mechanically operated fog bell struck a single blow every ten seconds during periods of reduced visibility.
At the same time, workers dismantled the old lighthouse. Most of its foundation piles were broken off below the waterline, although one central pile was left standing to mark the location of the former structure.
Harbor Island Bar Lighthouse continued to serve mariners through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. New fifth-order lamps were installed in 1899, and various repairs were carried out to maintain the station.
In 1904 the light’s characteristic changed from a flashing red fifth-order light to a fixed red sixth-order light.
Like many offshore lighthouse stations, Harbor Island Bar became known for the lifesaving efforts of its keepers. Isolated though they were, keepers frequently rendered assistance to vessels in distress.
Keeper Alonzo J. English and his assistants became particularly noted for such service. During a powerful hurricane on September 2–3, 1913, English and assistant keeper John M. Stowe protected government property entrusted to their care despite severe conditions throughout the North Carolina sounds. In September 1914, English assisted in towing the disabled United States mail boat Viola to safety. The following year he and assistant Crawford R. Austin helped free the lumber schooner M. L. Davis after it grounded on a nearby bar.
Subsequent keepers continued this tradition. William Newton floated and towed the stranded schooner Lacy in January 1917. Arthur Midgett assisted the schooner Admiral in 1918 and, together with assistant keeper Randolph P. Fulcher, rescued the disabled gas boat Thomas Ward in 1921 after it had lost its rudder.
No family is more closely associated with Harbor Island Bar Lighthouse than the English family, whose service exemplified the multigenerational traditions of the United States Lighthouse Service.
Alonzo James English was born in Carteret County, North Carolina, on November 14, 1850. After marrying Cora Newton in 1876, he entered lighthouse service in 1890 as an assistant keeper at Northwest Point Royal Shoal Lighthouse. Five years later he transferred to Brant Island Shoal Lighthouse, where he was promoted to head keeper in 1900.
In 1911 English was assigned as keeper of Harbor Island Bar Lighthouse. His long experience made him well suited for the remote station, where he oversaw operations and participated in numerous rescues. He remained at Harbor Island Bar until his death from pneumonia on April 5, 1916.
His eldest son, James E. English, followed him into lighthouse service. James served at both Thimble Shoal Lighthouse and Brant Island Shoal Lighthouse before requesting a transfer to Harbor Island Bar so he could work alongside his father. The transfer was approved on March 28, 1916, and was scheduled to take effect on April 16. Tragically, Alonzo died eleven days before the transfer became effective.
James nevertheless served at Harbor Island Bar for approximately seventeen months before moving on to other stations. His career eventually included service at Cape Lookout Lighthouse, Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, Cape Henry Lighthouse, Cape Charles Lighthouse, and Beaufort Harbor lights. He retired in 1945 after decades of service. The family’s lighthouse tradition continued into another generation when James’s daughter, Ella Mae English, married William H. Keagle, who served as assistant keeper at Cove Point Lighthouse.
The age of resident lighthouse keepers came to an end at Harbor Island Bar in 1922. That year the station was converted to acetylene illumination, allowing the light to operate automatically without a resident crew. Keeper Arthur Midgett and assistant Randolph P. Fulcher became the station’s final personnel. The characteristic was changed from fixed red to flashing white, and the keepers were withdrawn.
Assistant Superintendent Vincent personally supervised installation of the new acetylene equipment while the tender Holly serviced stations throughout the Carolina sounds.
Further modernization followed in the summer of 1929 when a fifteen-man work party of the Fifth Lighthouse District dismantled the wooden keeper’s cottage and erected a metal tower in its place in just under ten days. The new light had a candlepower of 230 and stood atop the remaining brown screw-pile foundation with a focal plane of thirty-seven feet above the surrounding water.
The end came in 1936. On July 28 of that year newspapers reported that Harbor Island Bar Light had been discontinued. The tower and illuminating apparatus were removed, leaving only the foundation piling and deck. The remaining structure continued to serve as a daymark and was thereafter known as Harbor Island Bar Beacon. The foundation remains standing to this day.
For nearly a century, first as a lightship and then as a lighthouse, Harbor Island Bar marked the hazardous shoals guarding the boundary between Pamlico Sound and Core Sound. Though its light has long been deactivated, its history remains intertwined with the maritime commerce of North Carolina’s sounds and with devoted lighthouse families such as the Englishes, whose service helped guide countless mariners safely through these waters.
