| Merrill Shell Bank Light | |
| Location: | Mississippi Sound south of Pass Christian |
| Coordinates: | 30.2425°N -89.2489°W[1] |
| Yearbuilt: | 1860 (first house) 1883 (second house)[2] |
| Automated: | 1932 |
| Yeardeactivated: | 1945 |
| Foundation: | Screw-pile |
| Construction: | square wooden house |
| Focalheight: | 42feet |
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]