Boston Lighthouse
Boston Lighthouse, established in 1716 on Little Brewster Island, was the first North American lighthouse. The colonial lighthouses followed the European pattern of establishing nautical aids around important commercial centers.
Early American Buoys
Buoys were rarely used in the American colonies. The only exceptions were the cask buoys in the Delaware River, recorded in 1767; and the spar buoys in Boston Harbor, recorded as early as 1780.Spar buoys, made of long cedar or juniper poles, and cask buoys were the predominant buoys in U.S. coastal waters until the 1840s.
Stephen Pleasanton
After the war of independence, the new federal government funded lighthouses and buoys. On August 7, 1789, the First Congress passed an act for the establishment and support of lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and public piers and other nautical aids. It placed their upkeep under the Department of the Treasury in general, and specifically the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury, Stephen Pleasanton.Stephen Pleasanton raised funds for the maintenance of nautical aids by levying light fees on ships entering U.S. ports. This practice stopped in 1801 when Congress began funding nautical aids directly.
Standardization of Buoys
The United States did not have a standard system of buoyage until 1848. Colors, shapes, and sizes varied from port to port. Contractors had free reign to decide the types of buoys necessary for a given area or harbor.The lack of standardization caused problems for coastal pilots. When asked to comment on buoyage to Congress in 1850, they complained bitterly. Their most common complaint was that the buoys were so small, that to see them they had to run them down.
Buoys were tended privately by contractors who relied on small boats (tenders) with limited lifting capability and sailing vessels with such limited maneuverability as to render the accurate placement of buoys impossible. Small tenders meant small buoys that were of little use to local pilots, who relied on landmarks to establish their positions. Small buoys were particularly hazardous to inexperienced or unfamiliar mariners.
The Lateral System
By 1846, Secretary of the Treasury Robert Walker admitted that buoys placed by local authorities under loose regulations, coupled with the lack of standardized colors and numbers, were practically useless. Congress, sensitive to complaints about the ATON system, began taking steps to correct the problems in 1848. It adopted the Lateral System for implementation nationwide. It is from the Lateral System that the familiar "right, red, return" has its origin.
