A brick lighthouse replaced the original in 1858 – about the time Hogan was making land claims in the Ozarks. The Dry Tortugas lighthouse, along with the Garden Key lighthouse at Fort Jefferson, were the only lights on the Gulf coast that stayed in full operation throughout the American Civil War. It was decommissioned in December 2015.
Having passed Key West, the next landmark was the Tortugas. In 1825, a lighthouse had been constructed at Garden Key (one of seven Keys included in the “Dry Tortugas”) to warn incoming vessels of the dangerous reefs. All eyes on board the clipper ship Berlin searched the night’s horizon for that light.
In the early hours of the night of December 11th, as we were sailing westward of Key West, a sailor was sent aloft into the rigging, having orders to look out northwest to starboard for a lighthouse, which he was to report as soon as seen. … Later on I thought I saw a light glimmer; again I saw it, and again and again I saw it at short intervals. I reported so quietly to the ship’s officer on duty on deck at the time. He looked in the direction that I did and affirmed my observation that the glimmer on the surface of the sea was from the lighthouse we were looking for. …The Tortugas light having been sighted, orders were given to change the ship’s course to northwest for the mouths of the Mississippi.
Today, 70 miles west of Key West, lies the Dry Tortugas National Park. Per Wikipedia: Fort Jefferson National Monument was designated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt under the Antiquities Act on January 4, 1935. (Comprising 47,125 acres (19,071 ha) The monument was expanded in 1983 and re-designated as Dry Tortugas National Park on October 26, 1992 by an act of Congress.
The National Park Service webpage describes it:
The seven keys (Garden, Loggerhead, Bush, Long, East, Hospital, and Middle) collectively known as the Dry Tortugas, are situated on the edge of the main shipping channel between the Gulf of Mexico, the western Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The strategic location of the Dry Tortugas brought a large number of vessels through its surrounding waters as they connect the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Early on, the shipping channel was used among Spanish explorers and merchants traveling along the Gulf Coast.
With the key landmark sighted, and the ship’s course changed, they continued for several days:
After that we had fair skies and good sailing across the Gulf of Mexico … The distance between Key West and the mouths of the Mississippi, 550 miles, was sailed in 72 hours, at average speed of 7.1 miles an hour. The whole distance, from Liverpool to the mouths of the Mississippi, 5,250 miles, was sailed in 5 weeks and 1 day, at the rate of 146 miles per day, or 6.1 miles per hour.
I recently acquired an ex-libris copy of Hogan’s Nautical Distances. Despite his hopes in making this information available for schools that “it would lead many talented, aspiring young men to enter naval schools and academies, to prepare themselves for brilliant careers as practical seamen …” it had been checked out of the Library of St. Paul’s College, Concordia, Mo. only once, Nov. 3 – but no year noted.
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Bishop Hogan recounted his childhood memories and his voyage to America and to the priesthood in Fifty Years Ago: A Memoir, written in 1898 and published in 1907. Our companion volume to Mystery of the Irish Wilderness contains both those memoirs plus additional biographical information I was able to learn from the archives of both the Kansas City-St. Joseph and St. Louis dioceses.
On the Mission in Missouri and Fifty Years Ago: A Memoir is available on our website for $10.50, postage paid at www.beautifulozarks.com Companion volume, Mystery of the Irish Wilderness: Land and Legend of Father John Joseph Hogan’s Lost Irish Colony in the Ozark Wilderness, is also available for $9.50, postpaid.