Merrill Shell Bank Light

Merrill Shell Bank Light

undated photograph of Merrill Shell Bank Light (USCG)
Location	Mississippi Sound south of Pass Christian
Coordinates	30°14′33″N 89°14′56″W / 30.2425°N 89.2489°W / 30.2425; -89.2489[1]
Tower
Constructed	1860 (first house) 1883 (second house)[2]
Foundation	Screw-pile[1]
Construction	square wooden house[1]
Automated	1932
Light
Deactivated	1945
Focal height	42 ft (13 m)[1]

The Merrill Shell Bank Light was a screw-pile lighthouse which once stood on its eponymous shoal in the Mississippi Sound, west of Cat Island and south of Pass Christian, Mississippi. It was replaced by a skeleton tower on the same foundation.

The shoal was first marked by the hull of the former revenue cutter McLane serving as a lightship beginning in 1847, but this was replaced by a screw-pile light in 1860. The light was extinguished by the Confederates but was undamaged, and was re-lit in 1863. The house was damaged by fire in 1880, and was utterly destroyed in 1883 by another fire; it was rebuilt the same year.^[3] In 1932 it was automated, and in 1945 the house was removed and replaced by a skeleton tower on the same foundation.^[4] This tower was damaged by the hurricanes of 2005 and was discontinued in 2007.^[5]