Monthly Archives: October 2011

What You Take For Granted – Electricity, Water, Heating

October 30, 2011Adult Memories, Equipment, History, Information, Lighthouses, Old Website, On The Jobelectricty, heating, lighthouse, litehouse, waterretlkpr

Kerosene to Electricity
In the early days of lighthouses all lighting was by kerosene lamps with wicks or mantles.

When electricity first came to the lights it was only for running the main light and occasionally for operation of the foghorn solenoids. Sometimes a knowledgeable principal keeper would wire in a light to his house – a single cable hanging from the ceiling with a small wattage bulb – usually in the kitchen.

Later came large generators and a bit more power. I say a bit more. My first lightstation at Pulteney Point had a 5 KW Kato generator run by a two-cylinder Lister diesel engine which supplied power to the main light, radio, and foghorn controls. The rest was left to be split between the three keeper’s houses. In 1969 our house was only one year old but had one electrical outlet per room and only two fused circuits per house, which of course ran the lights and electrical outlets. Continue reading What You Take For Granted – Electricity, Water, Heating →

Lighthouse History – 26 – Pachena Point (1906-10-05 to 1908-05-24)

October 29, 2011Construction, History, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Newspapers1858, 1926, BC, British Columbia, Canada, history, lighthouse, litehouse, Pachenaretlkpr

The following extracts taken from early Victoria, British Columbia (BC) newspapers are credited to Leona Taylor for her excellent work in indexing the papers. Full information can be found here: “Index of Historical Victoria Newspapers“, 2007-09.

As I was collecting this information from the newspaper archive website, I noticed that many articles were in consecutive order and applied to Pachena Point, so I collected them all together here. It is a bit long, but interesting, as it describes the building of a lighthouse from the ground up as they say. Take note of the dates at the end of each article. it surely was not done overnight. More extensive information can be obtained from the actual scanned copies of the newspapers themselves on the above website.

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Dominion Government Steamer Quadra, Captain Hackett, arrived at the government wharf last night, and will today commence loading for Pachena Point, to which the vessel will carry material to be used in the construction of the lighthouse to be built there. It is hoped, by Dec. It is anticipated that 2 days will be occupied in loading the Steamer, and she will leave without delay to endeavor to land the material before the heavy swells make landing too difficult of accomplishment. [Colonist, 1906-10-05] Continue reading Lighthouse History – 26 – Pachena Point (1906-10-05 to 1908-05-24) →

British Columbia Lighthouse Keeper Database – a work in progress!

October 27, 2011Adult Memories, British Columbia, Coast Guard, Database, Genealogy, History, In Memorium, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Old Website, Operators, Radiodatabase, dates, DB, keepers, lighthouse, lighthouse keepers, litehouse, service, stationsretlkpr

This is the information that started the whole Lighthouse Memories website. In 2005 I started to collect the names of lighthouse keepers, and the stations they had manned. Because of this list people sent me stories, documents and photos and the website was born.

Click on the photo below to see the database pages and a link to the Database.

LI Database — BC Lighthouse Keeper Database

Lighthouse History – 25 (1906-01-23)

October 25, 2011Construction, History, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Newspapers1858, 1926, BC, British Columbia, Canada, history, lighthouse, litehouseretlkpr

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(see the beginning of this tragedy in Lighthouse History – 24 . . .)

The Lost: A W Wollstein, 24, Oxford, New Zealand; John Rogers, 50, Liverpool; H G Ray, 20, Newport, Monmouth; Evan Jones, 45, Carnarvon; Martin Pedersen, 27, Norway; J Poda, 24, Denmark; P Sorrensen, 20, Denmark.
The survivors: Captain Davidson; 2nd Officer, W E Edwards; A Ericsen, carpenter; Duncan MacFarlane, steward; John Youngson, cabin boy; Alex Ferson, W Oag, J Robinson, apprentices; George Pine, Edward Hay, Jack O’Flaherty, Paul Handloss, A Gustavson, P Johnson, George Hamilton, AB’s J Dennis, Ordinary Seaman.
Captain Davidson and 16 other survivors of the wrecked British ship King David, which dragged her anchor and drifted broadside on Bajo Reef, where 2 knuckles of rock penetrated her plates and held her fast while the roiling seas listed her to starboard and rolled her so that the rocks churned the bottom out of her, arrived in Victoria on Sun, having been rescued by the Canadian Pacific Railway Queen City, Captain Townsend, after spending nearly 5 weeks on the shingle beach, sheltering in an abandoned Indian fishing camp, with big driftwood fires burning nightly, vainly seeking to attract attention. Continue reading Lighthouse History – 25 (1906-01-23) →

Search and Rescue (SAR), Canada

October 25, 2011British Columbia, Canada, Government, Information, Lighthouses, Medical Emergency, Search & RescueBC, Canada, CASARA, lighthouse, litehouse, rescue, SARretlkpr

Canadian-SAR-Regions — Canadian SAR Regions

One of the responsibilities of Canadian lighthouse keepers is to assist and help in Search and Rescue (SAR). They are part of the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) and can be called upon to assist in a search at any time, be it for missing people in boats, aircraft, or other forms of transportation.

In fact lighthouse keepers, because of their location, are ideally situated to assist in SAR activities. It is too bad that the CCG does not promote this side of lighthouse activities, and provide better training and equipment. Most of the SAR activities done by lightkeepers are done with their own equipment – be it boats, radios, scanners, survival suits, etc. More on this in another post.

SAR is a large community in Canada, but a branch of SAR that is not too well known by the public, except for those involved, is CASARA (Civil Air Search and Rescue Association).¹ Continue reading Search and Rescue (SAR), Canada →

5 Minute Management Course +

October 23, 2011Coast Guard, Government, Humour, Lighthouseshumour, lighthouse, litehouse, managementretlkpr

No matter where you work, we all like to make fun of management. It was no different on the lighthouses. In my day they went by mail, or word of mouth; now it is more rapid by email. You may have heard these before, but they are still funny.

5 Minute Management Course (for all those wishing to attain a higher position)

Lesson 1 :

A priest offered a Nun a lift.
She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg.
The priest nearly had an accident.
After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg…..
The nun said, ‘Father, remember Psalm 129?’ Continue reading 5 Minute Management Course + →

Website – Rough Radio – Wireless on the BC Coast

October 22, 2011Adult Memories, Advertisement, British Columbia, Construction, Equipment, Genealogy, History, Information, Lighthouses, On The Job, Operators, Photos, RadioFrank | Statham, genealogy, lighthouse, litehouse, radio, websiteretlkpr

This is a promotion for my friend Frank Statham’s website Rough Radio – Wireless on the British Columbia Coast.

As I started off collecting lighthouse keeper names for genealogy records, Frank started with a collection of photographs, and with his past work as a radio operator, his interest was sparked into creating a website to help people remember the early days of radio on the BC coast. He also has been keeping a list of station personnel which you will find here.

The quotes below from Frank’s website show that lighthouses came first, but with the advent of radio, the two worked closely together, in fact sometimes so close together that they were on the same station – e.g. Estevan Point or Pachena Point.

“At the end of the 19th Century, the west coast of Canada was dangerous place for the movement of vessels. There was little European settlement along the coast north of Victoria. The only navigational aids for vessel traffic consisted of a scattering of lighthouses.”

“The 1907 Canadian Dominion Government, in an effort to provide some measure of safety for mariners, implemented a plan to provide a life saving trail along the Juan de Fuca Strait Vancouver Island, lifeboat stations, and wireless radio stations. The first five wireless stations, Vancouver, Victoria, Pachena Point and Estevan Point were all operational by January 1908.” Continue reading →

Some photo samples from Frank’s website below:

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Why We Need MORE Lighthouses in British Columbia

October 21, 2011Automation, British Columbia, Canada, Coast Guard, Government, Helicopters, Information, Lighthouses, Maps, News, Planes, Search & Rescue, Ships, Transportation, Travel, WeatherBC, Canada, distances, lighthouse, litehouse, mapretlkpr

One of the arguments for destaffing the lighthouses in British Columbia (BC), Canada is that they are no longer needed because all vessels have the Global Positioning System (GPS). Canadian mariners must move into the 21st Century they say!

Have you ever looked at British Columbia? The size of British Columbia?

british-columbia-map — Note the three roads to Vancouver, Bella Bella, and Prince Rupert

British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, bordered by the Pacific Ocean. With an area of 944,735 square kilometers (364,764 sq mi) it is Canada’s third-largest province. The province itself is eleven times the size of Austria, where I live; nearly four times the size of Great Britain, two and one-half times larger than Japan and larger than every U.S. state except Alaska. ^{1 Continue reading Why We Need MORE Lighthouses in British Columbia →}

After I posted the story Building McInnes Island Ken Stewart sent me a letter with a leaflet detailing his adventures on McInnes, complete with drawings. Very interesting. See it near the bottom of the above article in PDF format complete with illustrations. – JC

The Remains of Cape St. James Lighthouse and Radio/Weather Station – filmed July 24, 2006

October 21, 2011Lighthousesretlkpr

Automated on September 01, 1992, the videos below show all that remains of a lighthouse after automation, plus a nice view around the coastline. This was a thriving community of lighthouse keepers, radio operators, weather observers, and their families.

Note the complete lack of a lighthouse (originally with a 3rd order fresnel lens) and ancillary buildings. In the second and third videos note the automated equipment with solar panels and control building. No lighthouse, no people, no problem . . . until it quits, during a week-long storm, and helicopters cannot fly!

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ua6rMh02l0 Continue reading The Remains of Cape St. James Lighthouse and Radio/Weather Station – filmed July 24, 2006 →