H

arbour Lights Lighthouses

HarbourLights.com

Wolf Trap Virginia
Harbour Lights #282

The HMS Wolfe sailed along the lower Chesapeake Bay, unaware that danger lay ahead. Concealed beneath the lapping waves and seemingly innocent passage was a sharp uprising that changed deep water into a shallow shoal. Without warning, the crew was swept off their feet with a great jolt. The ship had stuck, and it wasn’t moving. Three months later, the ship would still be standing at this very spot, unable to break free. Mariners aptly named this underwater hazard Wolf Trap after the 1691 grounding of the great HMS Wolfe.

With the increase in Bay traffic came the need for a marker at Wolf Trap. Officials established a Lightship at this spot in 1821, warning other vessels of the potential fatal hazard. For almost fifty years, Lightships were effective in guarding the shoal, but a more permanent marker was inevitably needed, so workers replaced the vessels with a screwpile light in 1870. 

The sentinel’s fourth-order Fresnel lens provided both a fixed, white light and a flash every thirty seconds. The beacon was 38 feet above mean high water, supported by wooden pilings encased in cast-iron sleeves. Its weakness was exposed in 1893, when heavy ice floes severed the dwelling from its pilings and swept it 20 miles down the Bay. It was found, still floating, two days later about a mile north of Thimble Shoal. Only its roof and lantern room were above water. Salvagers towed the wreckage to the Portsmouth depot. 

With their recent failure in mind, architects designed an entirely different sentinel for Wolf Trap, one that would resist the razor-sharp ice flows and stormy waves. A resilient Caisson foundation was laid in 1894, providing ample support for the two-story, Victorian dwelling placed above. Nearly identical to the sentinel at Smith Point, this lighthouse featured a square tower integrated with an octagonal dwelling. The tower height and focal plane were both at 52 feet, providing more than enough elevation for the Fourth order Fresnel lens to do its job.

Standing in only 16 feet of water, the beacon is situated on the eastern side of the Wolf Trap Spit, where the Rappahannock River enters the Chesapeake Bay. From this position, it has guided mariners for decades, bringing both mariners and their vessels safely home.

Wolf Trap was automated in 1971 and is an active aid to navigation. It is under the care of the U.S. Coast Guard and can be readily seen from land, but is most enjoyed from the deck of a passing ship.

| Top | Home | Archives | Copyright | Contacts |