From the East Coast to the West Coast, the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and Hawaiian Islands, this handsome book helps explain the lure of lighthouses in the United States. Among the most recognized structures of the maritime world, these lonely sentinels by the sea have long been the subject of paintings and photographs. Today they continue to capture public imagination as Americans flock to their sites for visits and volunteer to help preserve these endangered structures. This book covers all aspects of the subject, not only lighthouses and lightships but buoys, buoy tenders, fog signals, and their keepers. The work is as rich in historical information as it is in rarely seen photographs, and fourteen maps guide readers to the exact locations of the lighthouses. Readers are also treated to stories of shipwrecks and rescues, including the extraordinary story of Ida Lewis, head keeper of the light at Lime Rock, Rhode Island, who rescued eighteen people from the sea.

Dennis Noble served in the U.S. Coast Guard for more than twenty years. He was assigned to a number of shore stations, as well as polar icebreakers, in which he made two trips to the Antarctic and six to the Arctic. He retired as a senior chief marine science technician in 1978. Dr. Noble holds a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Purdue University and is one of only five people