LITTLE BREWSTER ISLAND, Mass. (AP) – During colonial times, Boston’s seaport was the busiest of the 13 colonies though maritime trade and travel were an all-too-often dangerous form of transportation. To guide ships to safety through the night, a stone lighthouse was erected on a small island nine miles off the coast of Boston.

Built in 1716, the Boston Light was the first lighthouse in North America. In 1859, a lantern room housing a 12-sided, revolving glass lens was installed at the top of the structure.

For the first time in nearly 150 years, Boston Light’s lens is undergoing repair by two of just a six lighthouse lens restoration specialists in the nation.

Joseph Cocking and Nicholus Johnston are spending 13 hours a day 89 feet above Boston Harbor in a tiny space with dizzying prisms and heat that can reach over 100 degrees.

“It’s not glorious or glamorous but it’s necessary,” Cocking, 53, of Orange Park, Fla., said Monday.

Loose prisms, unstable alignment and dulled rotation wheels left the lens sorely in need of repair.

Today Boston Light is the only remaining U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse in the country that employs a full-time staff. At least one volunteer U.S. Coast Guard auxiliarist must remain on the island along with a full-time civilian keeper.

Sally Snowman, 55, is the 70th keeper of the light. Three years ago, she became the first female keeper in the structure’s nearly 300-year history. The National Park Service brings visitors to Little Brewster Island.

To greet visitors, Snowman dresses in 18th century postcolonial clothing, including a white bonnet and a floral lace dress.

“When I mow the lawn or paint the fence, I’m in work clothes,” said Snowman, who lives on the island five days a week. She spends the remaining two days each week with her husband in Plymouth.

During the two weeks Cocking and Johnston are spending inside the 12-foot-in-diameter lens room, the two are replacing decaying putty that holds 336 curved prisms in a bronze structure. They had to level the pedestal that supports the 1,500-pound lens, and glue, file, and polish chipped prisms. Many of the prisms have been damaged by years of keepers who once had to carry buckets of kerosene oil or whale oil to light the lighthouse’s lamp. Today, the lamp is powered by 1000-watt quartz light bulbs.

From inside the 7-by-6-foot lens, bright light shines through the prisms to create a brilliant, yet dizzying kaleidoscopic view of the Boston Harbor and neighboring islands. When magnified by the prisms, strong sunlight can become dangerously hot.

“I’m up there and I’m the ant,” jokes Johnston, 44, of China Grove, N.C..

Cocking and Johnston met each other while working in the Coast Guard and decided in 1990 to try their hand at fixing lighthouse lenses for the first time in St. Augustine, where a teenage boy shot a rifle at the lens four years earlier. They spent over four years researching the ins and outs of lighthouse lenses, and called countless glass manufacturers to find replacement prisms.

“You take your time and you learn how things come apart,” Cocking said.

Since that job, the two retired from the Coast Guard and have devoted the past 16 years to full-time lighthouse lens restoration, repairing more than 100 lenses. Last year the two recovered two lenses damaged by Hurricane Katrina in Biloxi, Miss. and New Orleans. Cocking said the lenses are in storage, awaiting approval for restoration funding.

Neither Cocking nor Johnston seem to mind their relatively solitary occupation. During their stay, they have no plans to visit Boston, which is just a one-hour boat ride away.

“It’s nice that your cell phone doesn’t work up here,” Cocking said.

While most ships today rely on Graves Light to help navigate Boston, Snowman says Quincy-bound oil tankers, lobster and fishing boats as well as pleasure boaters still rely on Boston Light for safety. Boston Light flashes a white light every 10 seconds, and on clear nights shines 27 miles into the distance, according to Snowman.

“Even with GPS or radar, electronics can fail you,” said Coast Guard Auxiliarist Jim Healy. “You have to use electronics in conjunction with lighthouses and buoys.”

Cocking and Johnston feel lucky to have found their dream job. The two say their calling requires extreme patience, mechanical ability and a passion for history.

“It’s good to be a steward to our history,” Johnston said.

AP-ES-08-14-06 1757EDT