Where’s the Alligator?

What’s your first thought when you hear of a place called “Alligator Reef?” A reef crawling with creepy reptiles with giant teeth and powerful jaws? So naturally, a lighthouse named “Alligator Reef Lighthouse” would be set right in the middle of all those gators, right? Pity the poor lighthouse keeper who had to get through the creatures to reach the mainland!

However, the name had another origin. Back in the late 1800s, a series of reef lights were built off the coast of Florida under the directions of then Lieutenant George Meade of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. When it came time to build the third lighthouse in 1873, situated four nautical miles off the coast of Islamorada, Florida, the 136-foot structure was named for the notorious reef it was built to warn mariners about.

Alligator Reef received its name from the Navy schooner USS Alligator, launched in 1820. Why christen a ship with the name “alligator’? Apparently, the initial design of the ship had oars which stuck out on each side and looked like little legs, like an alligator’s. Later, the clumsy oars were replaced by a screw propeller turned by hand, however, the original name stuck.

The USS Alligator’s mission was initially to stop slave ships out of the West Indies, since at that time the importing of slaves had become illegal. The next year, the ship’s focus turned toward stopping pirates from capturing ships and holding them for ransom. However, in late 1821, the USS Alligator became stuck on a reef off the coast of Florida. After hailing another ship who rescued the crew, the poor Alligator was set on fire to keep pirates from claiming her. The guilty reef was then named Alligator Reef, in honor of the ship.

Being a lighthouse keeper at Alligator Reef was not without its danger, however. Hurricanes were an annual threat to the area. The worst occurred in 1935 when over 400 people lost their lives in the nearby Keys. The Keeper’s Log from that event reveals that winds over 200 mph destroyed the lens in the tower, washed away the lifesaving boats, and soaked and damaged the keepers’ quarters. The fact that the tower still stood is a testament to the engineering feet of drilling its pilings into coral below.

 

Maybe an alligator wouldn’t be so bad by comparison.

 

The keepers said goodbye to the lighthouse when it was automated in 1963, then the light was deactivated in 2015, its job taken over by a thirty-foot tower topped by an automatic light. The lighthouse is still visible from shore, a destination for boaters, although not open to the public. And alligators are not a problem.

Do you sometimes become afraid of something because it sounds scary, then later you find out you didn’t need to be afraid? There are lots of things in our lives that are like that. But God tells us not to be afraid because He is with us.

 

Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not be afraid, for I am your God. Isaiah 41:10a