The lantern was already very warm from the flaming lamps and the hot rising sun when Mrs. Mabrity began turning down the wicks to extinguish the flames. When the lamps had cooled, she took off the glass chimneys and then removed the fifteen lamps from the candelabra in preparation for dismantling them for cleaning. It was a chore that would take all morning. There was so much glass to clean and so much brass to polish! And the silvered fifteen-inch parabolic reflectors had to be wiped down also. Then, cotton cowling covers had to be placed over them. Fifteen lamps had to be emptied and cleaned and the wicks trimmed. Then the lamps had to be reassembled and returned to their places on the candelabra. The brass oil reservoir chambers were polished and refilled and the wicks reset for the evening lighting.
Today, as on many other occasions, swarms of insects had filled the lantern, dying in the heat of the lamps. Now Mrs. Mabrity swept out piles of their dead bodies. Almost every day, Mrs. Mabrity also cleaned the lantern windows, inside and out, to remove the heavy salt spray which covered the seaswept lighthouse almost constantly. On some days, the wind made the exterior cleaning on the tiny, narrow outside gallery a bit hazardous, but today, the calm, warm sun had made it almost a treat to be out on that high, narrow balcony, so high above the sea. Finally, when everything in the lantern at the top of the tower was cleaned and ready for the night's duty, Mrs. Mabrity descended the wooden spiral staircase, sweeping the blow-in sand away as she went down.
It was nearly noon that day when she finished her chores. The heat of this unusual October day was oppressive. There had been hardly a breath of air all morning, and the seas were flat and calm. The wavelets on the beach here at the lighthouse on Whitehead's Point, at the southern tip of the Island of Key West, murmured quietly as Mrs. Mabrity wiped away the heavy sweat from her brow and went in her little frame keeper's dwelling to prepare a noontime meal for herself and her son Miguel. It was an idyllic, if hot, summer-like day. It would hardly be noticeable when, late in the afternoon, the seas, punctuated by erratic waves, began to build around the island. It could not be known then that at that moment, a severe tropical hurricane was sweeping across Cuba, preparing to devastate Havana, only ninety miles to the south, and that its course would soon be set for Key West. As dusk approached, Mrs. Mabrity may have noticed the sudden drop in her barometer as storm clouds began to gather. She may have realized that a major storm was approaching. The day had certainly been what was known as a "weather breeder," a day so calm and sultry that bad weather must certainly follow. But, like many other Key Westers, she had been through many storms before, including the severe hurricanes of 1835,1841, and 1842. Through all of these, although there had been much damage elsewhere, the sturdy old lighthouse had survived with little problem. As a heavy red sun sank beneath leaden clouds on its way towards the horizon, Mrs. Mabrity and Miguel climbed the lighthouse tower and prepared for lighting the lamps. The cotton covers were removed from the reflectors, and the glass chimneys where lifted one by one as the previously prepared wicks were lighted and adjusted to the right height.
When the lighting of the fifteen lamps was completed, Miguel descended and left his mother. She liked to linger in the lantern and enjoy the view. Now she looked from her high vantage point over towards the west and the now-hidden sun. She could see, in the gathering gloom, the construction site of the new, huge, brick fort which was being built on a large sandbar just off the southwest end of the island, a quarter of a mile away from the lighthouse on Whitehead's Point. The masons had made quite a bit of progress on the fort during this year, a necessary defence project in the light of the current problems with Mexico. The fort would be named after a hero of the war, General Zachary Taylor. The red sun peeked out briefly from between the clouds as it set. Now, Mrs. Mabrity looked towards the south from her lighthouse lantern. A dark, menacing line of black storm clouds were gathering. It looked very ominous. She glanced back towards the fort as the sun disappeared and wondered how this new fort would weather the storm which was now quickly approaching Key West from the south.
After dark, the winds increased drastically, the waves beat monstrously against the beach of the shore, and soon everyone knew that another major hurricane was on the way. At dawn on October 11th, Mrs. Mabrity was again in the lantern of the lighthouse performing her extinguishing duties, but this morning was quite different from the hot, idyllic morning of the day before, for now a major storm was raging. With rains pelting the lantern's storm panes and the wind howling around the iron lantern, Mrs. Mabrity did only those chores which were necessary and then descended the tower to see to her family. Although it was 10 a.m. dark clouds made the day seem like night. The winds were now very violent, and a number of people, realizing that the brick light tower was probably safer than their seaside frame homes, began arriving at Mrs. Mabrity's lighthouse. Then, the hurricane hit. It lasted all day and until after midnight that night.
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