Lighthouse and naval vessel urban legend
Encyclopedia
The lighthouse and naval vessel urban legend describes an encounter between a large naval ship and what at first appears to be another vessel, with which the ship is on a collision course
. The naval vessel, usually identified as of the United States Navy
and generally described as a battleship
or aircraft carrier
, requests that the other ship change course. The other party (generally identified as Canadian) responds that the naval vessel should change course, whereupon the captain of the naval vessel reiterates the demand, identifying himself and the ship he commands and sometimes making threats. This elicits a response worded as "I'm a lighthouse. Your call" (or similarly), a punchline which has become shorthand for the entire anecdote.
It has circulated on the Internet and elsewhere in particular since a 1995 iteration that was represented as an actual transcript of such a communication released by the office of the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations
. There appears to be no evidence that the event actually took place, and the account is implausible for several reasons. It is thus considered an urban legend
, a variation on a joke that dates to at least the 1930s, sometimes referred to as "the lighthouse vs. the carrier" or "the lighthouse vs. the battleship". The Navy has a webpage debunking it. Despite this, former U.S. Director of National Intelligence
Mike McConnell insisted in a 2008 speech that the story was true and that actual recordings existed. Other speakers have often used it simply as a parable
teaching the dangers of inflexibility and self-importance
, or the need for situational awareness. In 2004 a Swedish company dramatized it in an award-winning television advertisement.
Other vessels sometimes named in the transcript include the carriers Enterprise
, Coral Sea
and Nimitz, and the Missouri
, a battleship. The location of the exchange has also sometimes been claimed to be Puget Sound
, or off the coast of North Carolina
. Some versions relocate it to the Irish or Scottish coasts; in the former case the ship is sometimes identified as British, with the conversation taking place off the coast of Kerry
in 1998. There is sometimes an additional line of dialogue where the lighthouse keeper
tells the ship captain he is a Seaman First Class before the final exchange. The prefatory information sometimes notes it was released in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act
, and/or names Jeremy Boorda, the incumbent Chief of Naval Operations on the stated date.
, the daily newspaper in Norfolk, Virginia
, a city with a large naval presence, investigated the story after it had begun circulating extensively on and off the Internet in 1995. A spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet called it "a totally bogus story." Boorda's office said it had not released any such transcript on the date in question. And not only was the story an old one, the ships commonly named in it were mostly either out of service by 1995 (the Coral Sea, in fact, had been scrapped two years before) or not aircraft carriers.
Other sources the paper consulted found more flaws with the story. A spokesman for the Coast Guard
, which operates all American lighthouses, told that they had long since been automated, so there would have been no one to talk to a ship from one, if the incident had taken place in U.S. waters. He speculated that it had been circulated by members of his service to make fun of the Navy.
Four years later, in response to a report that a consultant continued to tell the story at speeches as if it were a true occurrence, Fast Company
talked to Wayne Wheeler, a former Coast Guardsman who was then head of the U.S. Lighthouse Society, an enthusiasts' group. He confirmed that it was an old story, and that in his experience with lighthouses highly unlikely.
An actual Canadian lighthouse keeper, Jim Abram of British Columbia, agreed. "I've been lighthouse keeping for 21 years," he told the magazine, "and no one's ever thought that I was in anything but a lighthouse."
The Military Officers Association of America
(MOAA) calls it "easily believable if you are not familiar with how the Navy operates or simple things such as GPS
." In addition to the historical inaccuracies with most of the ships named, the organization notes on its blog the extreme improbability that an aircraft carrier's crew would not realize they were off the coast of a landmass such as Newfoundland. The MOAA claims to receive it in forwarded email
an average of three times a day. "[After] fifty times the only interesting part about it is to see which details have been changed."
included it in a 1992 humor anthology, and Steven Covey retold it in his 1989 bestseller The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
. Covey in turn cited an issue of Proceedings
published two years earlier. They may all descend from a version found in a 1939 joke anthology starring a tramp steamer
captain and a lighthouse keeper with a working-class British accent.
Since 1995, the story continues to be told, albeit with some awareness that it is probably fictional. In 2004 Silva compass
, a Swedish maker of marine navigational equipment, dramatized it in a television ad called "The Captain". Its version was set in the Irish Sea
, with the ship called the USS Montana
No actual U.S. Navy ship has used that name since the early 20th century. and an Irish lighthouse keeper. The advertisement, filmed in English with Swedish
subtitles, won a Bronze Lion at that year's Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
.
Four years later, in 2008, retired Admiral Mike McConnell, then Director of National Intelligence
, used the anecdote at the beginning of a speech at Johns Hopkins University
. He insisted it was a true story. "I was in the signals intelligence business where you listen to the people talk and so on" he told his listeners beforehand. "This is true. It's an actual recording." When he was later questioned on this, a spokesman said those statements were meant merely to set the audience up. "It’s a technique—comedians use it all the time to get the audience to buy in".
". Felix Dennis
, in whose retelling the story, represented as true, takes place off the coast of British Columbia, calls it his "favorite story about the 'infallibility' of power." He comments:
Others, particularly those writing about management for business audiences, see it as demonstrating the need for flexibility. Barry Maher calls the intractability of some listeners the Abraham Lincoln Syndrome after the ship named in his version of the anecdote, which he also represents as true. "When the person you're dealing with refuses to let you go where you want to go, divert your course", he advises salespeople, echoing the language in the story. "Smashing into lighthouses is not a successful navigational strategy—no matter how pushy those lighthouses might be." Within a marital context, Gary Smalley
uses it to advise husbands trying to reconcile with their wives that "like the navy captain's attempts to manipulate the lighthouse, your attempts to control the situation could cause your wife to become an immovable rock and resent you more deeply."
Another exegesis of the story is the importance of situational awareness. Christian media consultant Phil Cooke
tells the story, conceding that it's fictional, and uses it to demonstrate the importance of the research he reads, and knowing one's audience in particular. "We're blind unless we know who we're talking to." "[W]hile it is [the captain']s ship, it's most definitely not his ocean" writes Russ Linden, a columnist at Governing, of the lesson offered.
Some speakers think the anecdote is an overused cliché
. Alan Stevens, president of the Global Speakers Federation, noted that Covey was still using it in speeches in 2010, and reported that the same week he heard him use it a client emailed him that two speakers at a political event she attended had used it. He tells those giving speeches to avoid not only the lighthouse story, but the boiling frog
story and the story about a young boy throwing beached starfish back into the sea. "They may have happened once, but they won't have happened to the storyteller. What's worse, they are used so often, they have lost their impact." They should instead follow his example and tell stories of things that actually happened to them or that they did themselves.
Collision course
A collision course, also known as a kamikaze run, is the deliberate maneuver by the operator of a moving object to collide with another object...
. The naval vessel, usually identified as of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
and generally described as a battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
or aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
, requests that the other ship change course. The other party (generally identified as Canadian) responds that the naval vessel should change course, whereupon the captain of the naval vessel reiterates the demand, identifying himself and the ship he commands and sometimes making threats. This elicits a response worded as "I'm a lighthouse. Your call" (or similarly), a punchline which has become shorthand for the entire anecdote.
It has circulated on the Internet and elsewhere in particular since a 1995 iteration that was represented as an actual transcript of such a communication released by the office of the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations
Chief of Naval Operations
The Chief of Naval Operations is a statutory office held by a four-star admiral in the United States Navy, and is the most senior uniformed officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Navy. The office is a military adviser and deputy to the Secretary of the Navy...
. There appears to be no evidence that the event actually took place, and the account is implausible for several reasons. It is thus considered an urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
, a variation on a joke that dates to at least the 1930s, sometimes referred to as "the lighthouse vs. the carrier" or "the lighthouse vs. the battleship". The Navy has a webpage debunking it. Despite this, former U.S. Director of National Intelligence
United States Director of National Intelligence
The Director of National Intelligence , is the United States government official subject to the authority, direction and control of the President, who is responsible under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 for:...
Mike McConnell insisted in a 2008 speech that the story was true and that actual recordings existed. Other speakers have often used it simply as a parable
Parable
A parable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive principles, or lessons, or a normative principle. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human...
teaching the dangers of inflexibility and self-importance
Egotism
Egotism is "characterized by an exaggerated estimate of one's intellect, ability, importance, appearance, wit, or other valued personal characteristics" – the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself....
, or the need for situational awareness. In 2004 a Swedish company dramatized it in an award-winning television advertisement.
Example
A commonly circulated version goes thus:Other vessels sometimes named in the transcript include the carriers Enterprise
USS Enterprise (CVN-65)
USS Enterprise , formerly CVA-65, is the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the eighth US naval vessel to bear the name. Like her predecessor of World War II fame, she is nicknamed the "Big E". At , she is the longest naval vessel in the world...
, Coral Sea
USS Coral Sea (CV-43)
USS Coral Sea , a , was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the Battle of the Coral Sea. She earned the affectionate nickname "Ageless Warrior" through her long career...
and Nimitz, and the Missouri
USS Missouri (BB-63)
|USS Missouri is a United States Navy Iowa-class battleship, and was the fourth ship of the U.S. Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Missouri...
, a battleship. The location of the exchange has also sometimes been claimed to be Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
, or off the coast of North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. Some versions relocate it to the Irish or Scottish coasts; in the former case the ship is sometimes identified as British, with the conversation taking place off the coast of Kerry
County Kerry
Kerry means the "people of Ciar" which was the name of the pre-Gaelic tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich. In Old Irish "Ciar" meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective...
in 1998. There is sometimes an additional line of dialogue where the lighthouse keeper
Lighthouse keeper
A lighthouse keeper is the person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Keepers were needed to trim the wicks, replenish fuel, wind clockworks and perform maintenance tasks such as cleaning...
tells the ship captain he is a Seaman First Class before the final exchange. The prefatory information sometimes notes it was released in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act
Freedom of Information Act (United States)
The Freedom of Information Act is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure...
, and/or names Jeremy Boorda, the incumbent Chief of Naval Operations on the stated date.
Debunkings
The Virginian-PilotThe Virginian-Pilot
The Virginian-Pilot is a daily newspaper based in Norfolk, Virginia, and serving the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, southeastern Virginia, the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and northeastern North Carolina. The flagship property of Landmark Media Enterprises, The Pilot is Virginia's largest daily...
, the daily newspaper in Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, a city with a large naval presence, investigated the story after it had begun circulating extensively on and off the Internet in 1995. A spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet called it "a totally bogus story." Boorda's office said it had not released any such transcript on the date in question. And not only was the story an old one, the ships commonly named in it were mostly either out of service by 1995 (the Coral Sea, in fact, had been scrapped two years before) or not aircraft carriers.
Other sources the paper consulted found more flaws with the story. A spokesman for the Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
, which operates all American lighthouses, told that they had long since been automated, so there would have been no one to talk to a ship from one, if the incident had taken place in U.S. waters. He speculated that it had been circulated by members of his service to make fun of the Navy.
Four years later, in response to a report that a consultant continued to tell the story at speeches as if it were a true occurrence, Fast Company
Fast Company (magazine)
Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...
talked to Wayne Wheeler, a former Coast Guardsman who was then head of the U.S. Lighthouse Society, an enthusiasts' group. He confirmed that it was an old story, and that in his experience with lighthouses highly unlikely.
An actual Canadian lighthouse keeper, Jim Abram of British Columbia, agreed. "I've been lighthouse keeping for 21 years," he told the magazine, "and no one's ever thought that I was in anything but a lighthouse."
The Military Officers Association of America
Military Officers Association of America
The Military Officers Association of America, or MOAA, is an association of 370,000 military officers, including active duty, retired, National Guard, Reserve, and former officers and their families. It is an independent, nonprofit, and politically nonpartisan organization...
(MOAA) calls it "easily believable if you are not familiar with how the Navy operates or simple things such as GPS
Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
." In addition to the historical inaccuracies with most of the ships named, the organization notes on its blog the extreme improbability that an aircraft carrier's crew would not realize they were off the coast of a landmass such as Newfoundland. The MOAA claims to receive it in forwarded email
Email forwarding
Email forwarding generically refers to the operation of re-sending an email message delivered to one email address on to a possibly different email address...
an average of three times a day. "[After] fifty times the only interesting part about it is to see which details have been changed."
History
The naval officers the Virginian-Pilot talked to said they understood the anecdote was a joke that dated back at least several decades. Barbara Mikkelson of Snopes.com found versions that predated its 1995 iteration. Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
included it in a 1992 humor anthology, and Steven Covey retold it in his 1989 bestseller The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989, is a self-help book written by Stephen R. Covey. It has sold more than 15 million copies in 38 languages since first publication, which was marked by the release of a 15th anniversary edition in 2004...
. Covey in turn cited an issue of Proceedings
Proceedings (magazine)
Proceedings is a monthly magazine published by the United States Naval Institute since 1874. The 96-page publication features articles about Naval and Military matters written by active and retired military personnel plus renowned authors and scholars of their subject.-External links:* * ** by...
published two years earlier. They may all descend from a version found in a 1939 joke anthology starring a tramp steamer
Tramp steamer
A ship engaged in the tramp trade is one which does not have a fixed schedule or published ports of call. As opposed to freight liners, tramp ships trade on the spot market with no fixed schedule or itinerary/ports-of-call...
captain and a lighthouse keeper with a working-class British accent.
Since 1995, the story continues to be told, albeit with some awareness that it is probably fictional. In 2004 Silva compass
Silva compass
Silva compass, or Silva of Sweden, aka Silva Sweden AB is an outdoors products company, most known for their high-grade compasses and other navigational equipment including GPS tools, mapping software, and altimeters for aircraft. They also offer a marine range...
, a Swedish maker of marine navigational equipment, dramatized it in a television ad called "The Captain". Its version was set in the Irish Sea
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...
, with the ship called the USS Montana
USS Montana
USS Montana may refer to:, was a that provided convoy escort duty during World War I, and was eventually renamed and reclassified Missoula , was a cargo ship during World War I and sunk by torpedo in August 1918...
No actual U.S. Navy ship has used that name since the early 20th century. and an Irish lighthouse keeper. The advertisement, filmed in English with Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
subtitles, won a Bronze Lion at that year's Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a global event for those working in advertising and related fields. The seven-day festival, incorporating the awarding of the Lions awards, is held yearly at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France...
.
Four years later, in 2008, retired Admiral Mike McConnell, then Director of National Intelligence
United States Director of National Intelligence
The Director of National Intelligence , is the United States government official subject to the authority, direction and control of the President, who is responsible under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 for:...
, used the anecdote at the beginning of a speech at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
. He insisted it was a true story. "I was in the signals intelligence business where you listen to the people talk and so on" he told his listeners beforehand. "This is true. It's an actual recording." When he was later questioned on this, a spokesman said those statements were meant merely to set the audience up. "It’s a technique—comedians use it all the time to get the audience to buy in".
Interpretations
Most commentators who have used it in speeches or books point to it as Mikkelson does, "a lesson in the unimportance of self-importanceEgotism
Egotism is "characterized by an exaggerated estimate of one's intellect, ability, importance, appearance, wit, or other valued personal characteristics" – the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself....
". Felix Dennis
Felix Dennis
Felix Dennis is a British magazine publisher, poet, and philanthropist. His privately owned company, Dennis Publishing, pioneered computer and hobbyist magazine publishing in the United Kingdom...
, in whose retelling the story, represented as true, takes place off the coast of British Columbia, calls it his "favorite story about the 'infallibility' of power." He comments:
Others, particularly those writing about management for business audiences, see it as demonstrating the need for flexibility. Barry Maher calls the intractability of some listeners the Abraham Lincoln Syndrome after the ship named in his version of the anecdote, which he also represents as true. "When the person you're dealing with refuses to let you go where you want to go, divert your course", he advises salespeople, echoing the language in the story. "Smashing into lighthouses is not a successful navigational strategy—no matter how pushy those lighthouses might be." Within a marital context, Gary Smalley
Gary Smalley
Dr. Gary Smalley is a family counselor, president and founder of the Smalley Relationship Center and author of books on family relationships from a Christian perspective.- Biography :...
uses it to advise husbands trying to reconcile with their wives that "like the navy captain's attempts to manipulate the lighthouse, your attempts to control the situation could cause your wife to become an immovable rock and resent you more deeply."
Another exegesis of the story is the importance of situational awareness. Christian media consultant Phil Cooke
Phil Cooke
Phil Cooke is a media consultant focused mainly on the Christian market, as well as a vocal critic of contemporary American and American-influenced Christian culture...
tells the story, conceding that it's fictional, and uses it to demonstrate the importance of the research he reads, and knowing one's audience in particular. "We're blind unless we know who we're talking to." "[W]hile it is [the captain']s ship, it's most definitely not his ocean" writes Russ Linden, a columnist at Governing, of the lesson offered.
Some speakers think the anecdote is an overused cliché
Cliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
. Alan Stevens, president of the Global Speakers Federation, noted that Covey was still using it in speeches in 2010, and reported that the same week he heard him use it a client emailed him that two speakers at a political event she attended had used it. He tells those giving speeches to avoid not only the lighthouse story, but the boiling frog
Boiling frog
The boiling frog story is a widespread anecdote describing a frog slowly being boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death...
story and the story about a young boy throwing beached starfish back into the sea. "They may have happened once, but they won't have happened to the storyteller. What's worse, they are used so often, they have lost their impact." They should instead follow his example and tell stories of things that actually happened to them or that they did themselves.
See also
- Detroit River LightDetroit River LightThe Detroit River Light, also known as Bar Point Shoal Light, was first established as a lightship in 1875. The current sparkplug lighthouse was built in 1885. It sits in Lake Erie, south of the mouth of the Detroit River, from land and about from the Ambassador Bridge in the Detroit River. It...
- Elbow of Cross Ledge LightElbow of Cross Ledge LightThe Elbow of Cross Ledge Light was a lighthouse on the north side of the ship channel in Delaware Bay on the east coast of the United States, west of Egg Island Point. It was destroyed by a ship collision in 1953 and replaced by a skeleton tower on the same foundation.- History :This light was...
, a New Jersey lighthouse that was hit by a ship in 1953 - Moreton Bay Pile LightMoreton Bay Pile LightMoreton Bay Pile Light was a pile lighthouse positioned at the mouth of Brisbane River, in Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia, marking the entrance to the port of Brisbane. The light's early history was closely related to the dredging of the Brisbane River. It was established in 1884 as a result of...
, an Australian lighthouse twice hit by ships. - List of Internet phenomena
External links
- The Obstinate Lighthouse at Snopes.com
- The Lighthouse Joke at navy.mil