Last updated: September 28, 2016
Person
Charles Haywood Fulcher
National Park Service
Quick Facts
Significance:
Assistant Keeper of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Date of Birth:
1878
Date of Death:
1942
Charles Haywood Fulcher began his career with the U.S. Lighthouse Service in 1903 in Baltimore, MD, transferring to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in 1906, where he served as assistant keeper until 1920. Fulcher was one of the longest serving keepers at Cape Hatteras.
During his tenure at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Fulcher witnessed the Navy radio station pick up a distress signal from the Titanic in 1912, the 1913 installation of incandescent oil vapor lamps at the lighthouse which greatly increased the strength of the beam, and the sinking of the Diamond Shoals Lightship by a German U-Boat in 1918.