At Morris Island, S.C. “Major Hains noted [in reference to the Morris Island Lighthouse, a sister lighthouse of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse in size and construction techniques] …’more careful estimate places the weight [of the tower] at 3,200 tons.’ He increased the size of the base to 22 feet, driving piles at 2’8″ centers rather than 2’10”. This increased the total number of piles to 264 and distributed only 12 tons of weight per pile. He was obviously attempting to provide a strong base, since each pile could bear up to 20 tons each.” If Currituck stuck with 230 pilings then each pile bears about 13.8 tons a pile… (which, according to math above is what Morris started out with before Major Hains changed it…)
