"Sabine Pass Lighthouse"....kronk

I felt as though I was just a little too brief with my explanation. I mean, you did ask and that makes me feel good. Hmmmmm, I sound like an "ent." Stay sweet :)

Facts and figures are available on the numerous search engines, so this will be more in the way of personal observations and experience.

(Mid-summer, 1970)

After an eighty-five mile run from the "Oil City" oil and gas production fields south of Cameron, Louisiana, the cargo boat "Van Tide" passed the seaward end of the jetties headed for the supply docks in the coastal village of Sabine Pass, Texas.

I want to tell you that this child was ready to "get off that boat." Tied up at the docks just long enough to take on a load of pipe and drilling mud, our stay would be less than twelve hours, then it was back offshore again to deliver the supplies and stand-by for another seven days. Pretty demanding schedule for a seventeen year old, just out of high school. I was seriously considering "dragging-up...hehe..Well, I didn't, not that time anyway.

"Twenty-one days at sea had me "foaming at the mouth" for one of those home made Momma's burgers and a couple of cold beers at one of the local "choke and pukes." With visions of fast food and firm ground in my head, I sat on the bow cleat and took in the scenery.

The Sabine jetties extend approximately four miles into the Gulf of Mexico. Towards the seaward end of the east jetty (Louisiana), several small stone and steel buildings set atop the granite blocks. One of these supported a five-second strobe light visible for several miles. (the east jetty light) The other structures were open and in disrepair. The west jetty wall (Texas) was featureless, except for a few pilings on the seaward side where the wall touched land. Then the coastal pilots headquarters, a smallish building on piles where three forty-foot "pilot boats" were moored. The boats were used to transport local pilots to the many ships that sought entrance to the Sabine/Neches waterway and the port cities upriver. I'd seen many pilot houses before, as each seaport usually had one.

Pretty basic stuff, really, but I was relativley new to this game and everything was fresh and exciting. (even though I rarely got to disembark and explore those interesting structures)

Turning my gaze to the east side of the channel again, I caught site of the lighthouse. Set on a section of marshland called Louisiana Point (the southwestern-most part of that state) and nestled amongst large stands of green salt cedar and it's faded out-buildings, the tower looked, for all the world like a rocket ship.

"Cool," I thought and then the smell hit me. "Arrrrgh! What in the world is that?" I called to the captain.

Old Captain Stackhouse spit into his tobacco can and in a voice devoid of any inflection murmered, "Wind's coming out of the north, boy. Reckon they're boiling pogie-fish upriver at the Zapata plant." He pointed towards a pile of grey looking buildings on the Texas side of the channel, about a quarter-mile away.

"Does it always smell like that, Capt?"

*Only smells when they're boiling pogies. We'll be up-wind in a few minutes, boy. Don't get your panties all wadded-up in a knot.*

His last remark drew a chorus of laughter form the rest of the crew.

"Yeah...Ha Ha"...I made a mental note to stay well away from that part of the village surrounding the "pogie plant." (Pogies or menhaden resemble shad and can be found in huge schools in the nearshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico. They are netted and processed into fertilizer..Lordy, but they smell awful..P.U.)

Anyway......We took cargo and left after dark. I thought about the lighthouse as we cruised past, but since it was out of service (no lights) and not even the out-buildings were lit-up, all I could make out was a somewhat lighter shadow in the darkness.

I begged the captain to throw the spotlight on the structure and he did. "Wicked," I thought as the spot swept around the area and the tower that looked like a rocket ship appeared, then vanished again into the night.

I thought it was just the coolest thing. I didn't come back to Sabine Pass until 1974 and that's another chapter. *wink*

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