page_title: Orville E. Babcock
section_title: Mosquito Inlet lighthouse and drowning
hierarchical_section_title: Orville E. Babcock / Inspector of lighthouses (1877–1884) / Mosquito Inlet lighthouse and drowning
caption_attribution_description: English: Ponce Inlet Lighthouse at Ponce Inlet, Florida
context_page_description: Orville Elias Babcock was an American engineer and general in the Union Army during the Civil War. An aide to General Ulysses S. Grant during and after the war, he was President Grant's private secretary at the White House, Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds for Washington D.C., and a Florida-based federal inspector of lighthouses. Babcock continued to serve as lighthouse inspector under Grant's successors Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, and Chester A Arthur.
  A native of Vermont, Babcock graduated third in his class at West Point in 1861, and served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers throughout the Civil War. As Assistant Engineer and aide-de-camp for district commander Nathaniel P. Banks, in 1862 Babcock worked on fortifications to aid in defending the nation's capitol from Confederate attack. Babcock later served as aide-de-camp for Ulysses S. Grant and participated in the Overland Campaign. He was promoted to brevet brigadier general in 1865 and continued on Grant's staff during Reconstruction. In 1867, Babcock warned Grant of a white supremacist insurgency that used Confederate symbolism to intimidate blacks in the South.
context_section_description: The Mosquito Inlet Lighthouse project started in 1883, and Babcock was the supervising engineer.  On June 2, 1884, Babcock and his associates were on duty and were aboard the government schooner Pharos to deliver construction supplies when they became anxious to return to land because a sudden storm created hazardous ocean conditions.  The captain decided not to cross over the inlet bar during the storm because the construction supplies weighed down the ship, and he feared grounding it.  As the storm worsened, Captain Newins of the nearby Bonito led seven men in a rowboat to the Pharos in order to retrieve the passengers. In debating whether to wait out the storm on the Pharos or try to make land, Babcock told his associates that since Newins and his crew had rowed safely to the Pharos, they should be able to row to shore on tidal floods created by the storm.
  After eating their lunch on the Pharos, Babcock and his associates boarded a rowboat and started for the shore. As they approached the inlet bar, swells capsized the boat several times, and it took on water. Babcock was thrown clear, but another person on the boat attached him to it by a lifeline. The boat and crew were battered by waves, oars, and other debris, and Babcock's lifeline was torn loose from the boat, which resulted in his drowning death. Upon reaching the shore, others who had been in the boat recovered Babcock's body and unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate him. Three others, including two of Babcock's associates, were also killed; the bodies of Babcock's associates, Levi P. Luckey and Benjamin F. Sutter, were recovered several days later, but the body of the fourth victim, a member of the boat's crew, was not found. The lighthouse construction project continued after Babcock's death, and was completed in 1887.
caption: Mosquito Inlet Lighthouse
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