The Harbor Courier

THE WEATHER

Today, cloudy, cool, a chance of snow and flurries late, high 41. Tonight, clearing, low 29. Tomorrow, colder, partly sunny, high 36. Weather map is on Page 18.

BEACON BLINKED IN CODE, OLD KEEPERS SAY

A light buoy flashing in fog off the north pier — The light buoy off the north pier blinked through heavy fog on Thursday evening, minutes after the beacon on Signal Hill began its unusual sequence.

A City That Still Reads Its Lights, and Why It Matters Now

By HELEN MARCHETTI

NEWS
ANALYSISNorth Pier — For most of the city, the beacon on Signal Hill is a fixture so constant it has become invisible, a light people stopped looking at decades ago.

That changed on Thursday night. Within minutes of the first irregular flash, fishermen on the breakwater were counting out loud, and by the third minute someone had a pencil out.

The habit is older than the tower's electric lamp. Families along the waterfront once kept their own codebooks, passed down with the good china, and a few still do.

One retired schoolteacher said she had taught her grandmother to count compound interest on the back of a tide table, and that reading the light was simply the next lesson.

Recalling a Winter When Not a Single Flash Was Wasted

Older residents describe the winter of 1977, when the power failed for eleven days and the tower ran on a diesel generator that was rationed by the hour.

Every flash that season carried a message: the arrival of a supply boat, a closed road, a doctor needed on the east side. Children learned the alphabet in light before they learned it on paper.

The port authority insists Thursday's sequence was a test of new control equipment. It has not explained why the test ran after dark, or why the pattern repeated exactly three times.

But unlike earlier malfunctions, which produced random flicker, this one had rhythm, and that is what has kept the waterfront talking.

Continued on Page A14

Port Officials Call It a Test; Old Sailors Aren't So Sure

This article is by Tomas Reyes, Ada Whitfield and Kenji Oduya.

The beacon atop Signal Hill, which has guided ships into the harbor since 1894, went dark at 8:41 p.m. on Thursday, then began flashing in a pattern that several former keepers said resembled Morse code.

The sequence lasted roughly twenty minutes. Port authority officials said in a brief statement that the tower's control system had been replaced this month and that the irregular signals were part of a scheduled test.

“Nothing about it was unusual from an engineering point of view,” said Paul Ostrander, a spokesman for the authority. He declined to say who had scheduled the test.

Inside the keeper's office, which has been closed to the public since 2003, workers found the logbook open to a blank page and a brass cash register that had not rung since 1987 sitting with its drawer pulled out.

Nobody could say who had opened it.

Arne Lindqvist on a bench on the north pier — Arne Lindqvist, the tower's last full-time keeper, on the north pier, where he still spends most afternoons.

Arne Lindqvist, 81, who kept the light from 1971 until it was automated, watched Thursday's flashes from his bench at the end of the pier.

“That was not a machine stuttering,” he said. “Somebody had their hand on it.” He said he recognized at least two words but would not repeat them.

The harbor master's office reported no vessels in distress, and the Coast Guard said it had received no calls. Ferry service ran on schedule.

Continued on Page A12

The container terminal at dusk on Thursday. Port officials said every crane, gate and floodlight in the harbor is switched from a single control room.

Flashes reported to The Courier as of 9 p.m. Thursday.

Chart: U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1924 (NOAA). Sources: harbor master's office; reader reports.

Why the Night Market Keeps Losing Its Coins

This article is by Ines Calloway and Robert Haines.

For three weeks, vendors at the Riverside night market have closed their tills to find them a few dollars short, always in coins and never in bills.

Security cameras have recorded nothing useful. Two stall owners say they have seen a small green creature with a weakness for loose change, though neither could describe it further.

Vendors Start Keeping Two Sets of Books

The market's manager, Dolores Fenn, has asked every stall to log each sale by hand until the losses are explained.

“If the money goes somewhere, I want to know where,” she said. Several vendors said the new records had already surprised them, though not in the way they expected.

Police said no report had been filed and described the matter as “a bookkeeping question.”

Continued on Page A16

Ferry Schedules to Shift as Winter Season Nears

By SAMUEL OKAFOR

The harbor ferry service will move to its winter timetable on November 2, reducing evening crossings on the Narrows route from six to four.

Officials said ridership after 9 p.m. fell by nearly a third last winter, and that fuel costs had risen sharply since spring.

Commuters Urged to Check Times Before Leaving

The changes will not affect morning service. The southern terminal will keep its weekend schedule through the holidays.

Riders' groups have asked the authority to post the new times at every pier, not only online, noting that many regular passengers do not use smartphones.

A public hearing is scheduled for October 28 at the Old Town library.

Continued on Page A17

NOTE TO READERS

The Arts section was printed in advance and does not include coverage of Thursday's events on Signal Hill, which is available online.

OBITUARIES A22–24

A Drummer Who Never Dropped the Beat

He built rhythms out of sixteen steps and played the same loop at every wedding in the county for forty years. He was 88. PAGE A22

METROPOLITAN

Saving the Last Tide Clock

A volunteer group wants to restore the clock that told dockworkers when to start their shifts. PAGE B1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

The Price of a Quiet Harbor

Shipping firms say fewer night crossings will cost more than the fuel they save. PAGE B6

OPINION

Leave the Light Alone

Some things should stay a little mysterious. PAGE A28

HARBOR LIGHTS GO DARK