Twelve miles south of the mainland, Ship Island lies amid emerald waters and sugar white sand. It was a site of economic and military conquest by the Spanish in the 1500s, the French in 1699, the British in the 1700s, and the Union Army in 1861. It was the site of Civil War Fort Massachusetts and a quarantine station from 1880 to 1916, and served as British headquarters for the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. A brick lighthouse built in 1853 was destroyed in 1886. A wooden lighthouse built in 1886 survived Hurricane Camille in 1969, burned in a campfire in 1972, and was reconstructed in 1999. It is the southern terminus for the Gulfport shipping channel and became part of Gulf National Seashore in 1971.