Port Sanilac Light placement and the unique shape were dictated by and created because of budgetary constraints (Congress appropriated only half the money requested). Designed by Eleventh District Engineer Captain Charles E. L. B. Davis, the design has been called "both unique and architecturally significant in its elegance." The tower is white with a red roof. This "handsome" lighthouse shares its design with only one other, Ile Aux Galets, also known as Skilligallee Island Light, on Lake Michigan. The Port Sanilac Light tower is capped with a cast iron lantern room, which still houses a fourth order Fresnel lens manufactured by Barbier and
U.S. Army Engineer Port Repair ship Engineer Port Repair Ship Crew. The first crew to arrive in the European Theater of Operations aboard the "Junior N. Van Noy" was the 1071st Engineer Port Repair Ship Crew. The Engineer Field Manual (FM-5-5) states: f. The engineer port repair ship is divided into a headquarters section and an operating section. It maintains channel markings and other aids for pilots, and removes bstructions from channels or ship berths. Section VI of FM-5-5 provides evidence the ship was organized as an Army Engineering unit with seamanship training differing in organization from a typical naval or commercial ship. A superseded organization