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The Jersey Shore

I deliberately left my SLR camera back at my sister’s house in Forked River. This was to be just a pleasant stroll along the beach by a lighthouse. It is a good thing that my iPhone has a decent camera.

This is what I first photographed

 I should have known it would come with a plaque.

The essential information is that this is an historic lighthouse build before the Civil War. It’s claim to fame seems to be that it was the first lighthouse to be equipped with a Fresnel Lens. This French invention means that the lens is thinner and can shine light to a greater distance. But there was something else about the lighthouse that caught my eye – A statue to a Civil War hero. What was he doing here?

Lt. General George Gordon Meade is a long way from Gettysburg and General Grant. It appears that General Meade is responsible for building this Barnegat Lighthouse. Who Knew?

What is known about General Meade is that he was a civil engineer, which explains how he knew about building a lighthouse. We also know that his defensive tactics at Gettysburg was responsible for repulsing General Lee and his army. Unfortunately, the history books fault Meade with not following up and pursuing the Confederates causing the war to last longer.

As I walked around the lighthouse, I saw another plaque. This one recalling an historic event way before the Civil War.

Captain Andrew Steelman was a hero and then he was dead. First notice that this event takes place on 25 October 1782. The surrender at Yorktown that ended the Revolutionary War took place on 19 October 1781. That’s a year later! What? Didn’t Jersey get the memo?

Apparently, there were still some British Loyalist who continued to fight, John Bacon was one of them.

The following description of what occurred is from the 1960 book Smugglers' Woods, by Arthur D. Pierce.

"Monmouth County annals include a long list of Bacon's plunderings and brutalities. His blackest moment, however, was the night of the Long Beach Massacre. On October 25, 1782, Captain Andrew Steelman of Cape May and twenty-five men on the privateer [ship] Alligator captured a British cutter from Ostend headed for St. Thomas. This vessel, apparently far off course, had run aground on Barnegat Shoals. Steelman and his men labored the whole day to unload her cargo on Long Beach. By nightfall all hands were dead-tired and curled up among the dunes to rest. In the dead of night Bacon and his followers sailed over from the mainland, crept up on the Americans, and slew them while they slept. Captain Steelman and a number of his men were killed instantly; those who attempted to rise were hacked with bayonets; and of the twenty-five in Steelman's crew only five managed, somehow, to escape alive."

A dastardly deed, indeed.

But wait – there’s another stone maker I stumbled upon.

This a U.S. Merchant Marine WW II Memorial Marker. The inscription reads:

This monument is a memorial to the U.S. Merchant Marine of World War II and to the Merchant Mariners and Navy Armed Guard who served together aboard cargo ships, troop transports, and oil tankers that delivered war material to our troops overseas. 820 of these vessels were lost and became steel coffins. Enemy submarines attacked and sank most of them, taking brave heroes to watery graves some within sight of this great lighthouse. This then is their cemetery.

“May the deep sea where they
sleep now rock them gently
rock them tenderly
to the end of time”
Joseph Conrad

American Merchant Marine Veterans

There are other markers along the beach here, but they all deal with the ecology of the area. I have to remember to bring my camera no matter where I go because statues and markers are everywhere! If you have a beach statue or plaque that you would like to share with us, please send the pic and the story to ontheroadtohistory@gmail.com.