Category Archives: History

Lighthouse History – 28 (1907-02-06 to 1907-06-15)

Construction, History, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Newspapers, , , , , , ,

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.

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CGS Quadra, now coaling, will probably carry a representative of the Sailor’s Union to the West Coast, when she leaves on a patrol and lighthousetendering cruise about the end of the week. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer of yesterday says: “As a reward for the heroism of Mrs Minnie Paterson in sending aid to the crew of the bark Coloma, which was drifting a wreck off the Vancouver Island coast, the Masters’ and Pilots’ Assn will present her with a handsome gold medal. The inscription on the reverse side reads: “Presented by Puget Sound Harbour No 16, to Mrs Minnie Paterson, for her heroic effort in sending assistance to the bark Coloma, Dec 7, 1906, whereby the lives of 10 men were saved by Dominion Government Steamer Quadra.’ 
On the reverse side is the figure of a woman fighting her way through the brush with the Latin inscription meaning ‘She hastened that she might save others.” [Colonist, 1907-02-06] Continue reading Lighthouse History – 28 (1907-02-06 to 1907-06-15) →

Don’t Let the Lighthouses Go Dark – special reprint

Anti-Automation, Automation, Construction, Foreign, Government, History, Lighthouses, Reprint, United Kingdom, , , , , ,

The following article by Bella Bathhurst from the Notting Hill Editions Journal was passed to me by a BC lightkeeper. It was so well written I asked permission to reprint it here. Pay special attention to the author’s reasons for keeping lighthouses.

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Don’t Let the Lighthouses go Dark by Bella Bathhurst
– published November 10, 2011

 – published with permission from Notting Hill Editions Journal

We are jettisoning lighthouses at our peril, writes Bella Bathurst, a lighthouse historian. Even in the age of GPS, they remain immensely useful, and retain deep symbolic power.

Twelve years ago, I wrote a book called The Lighthouse Stevensons about the construction of the lights around the Scottish coastline by Robert Louis Stevenson’s family. I was lucky to arrive at exactly the right moment.  In 1999, the last of the British lights were being automated and the few remaining keepers were disappearing towards extinction. The men I spoke to were mostly at or near retirement age anyway; most saw the logic of their own removal even if they weren’t persuaded by its effects.  At the beginning of the third millennium, you don’t need three grown men to change a lightbulb.  But what none of those last keepers would ever have understood or sanctioned was the idea of the lights themselves being switched off. 

The Skerryvore Lighthouse, 10 miles south-west of Tiree, in the Hebrides

Continue reading Don’t Let the Lighthouses Go Dark – special reprint →

Lighthouse History – 27 (1906-10-25 to 1907-02-02)

Construction, History, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Newspapers, , , , , , ,

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.

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Victoria Daily Times – Barkentine Skagit, of Port Gamble, struck the rocks near Clo-oose at 4am. There was a bad Southwest gale and a heavy sea, with fog, at the time. 
Captain Rose was drowned, as was also the cook, name unknown. The vessel is a total loss. Mate Langkow and 7 men are ashore at Logan’s place. 
Skagit, bound from San Francisco to Port Gamble, is ashore and liable to become a wreck on West Coast Vancouver Island. She sailed from the Bay City on Oct 13.  Continue reading Lighthouse History – 27 (1906-10-25 to 1907-02-02) →

The Characteristics of Lighthouse Lights

Automation, Coast Guard, Equipment, Government, Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, History, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Mission Boats, On The Job, , , , ,

Every lighthouse light has its own characteristics – 1. the number of flashes per minute, 2. it’s range, which is dependent on intensity, lenses, and height, and 3. the number of beams from the light, plus other identifying features.

Flashes per Minute

Hand-cranked gear mechanism - Pachena Point

The number of flashes per minute is regulated by the speed of rotation which is governed by the motor turning gears to drive the light around. The old heavy Fresnel lens lights sat on a bath of mercury and rotated in the early days from a hand-wound clockwork mechanism, later to be replaced by an electric motor, and later to be replaced altogether.

Enclosed lights such as the DCB-10 and DCB-36 (originally used as airport beacons) were only driven by electricity and gearing regulated the speed of rotation.

Each light in a certain area has a unique characteristic. Continue reading The Characteristics of Lighthouse Lights →

What You Take For Granted – Electricity, Water, Heating

Adult Memories, Equipment, History, Information, Lighthouses, Old Website, On The Job, , , ,

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

Kerosene lamp with wick

 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)

Construction, History, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Newspapers, , , , , , , ,

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!

Adult Memories, British Columbia, Coast Guard, Database, Genealogy, History, In Memorium, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Old Website, Operators, Radio, , , , , , , ,

lighthouse-clip-art_422123_sm

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)

Construction, History, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Newspapers, , , , , , ,

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.

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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) →

Website – Rough Radio – Wireless on the BC Coast

Adult Memories, Advertisement, British Columbia, Construction, Equipment, Genealogy, History, Information, Lighthouses, On The Job, Operators, Photos, Radio, , , , ,

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:

 [nggallery id=17]

Lighthouse History – 24 (1906-01-20)

Construction, History, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Newspapers, , , , , , ,

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.

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Clayoquot, Jan 19 – When interviewed today, one of the crew of King David said: “We left Salinas Cruz, Mexico, in ballast on Oct 1 and went along fairly well until we got off the Vancouver Island coast, and then we struck a series of southerly and southwesterly hail and snow squalls. We finally drifted into Nootka on Dec 10, and in trying to beat out again struck Bajo Point. All the crew got ashore safely. The sailmaker, Donald McLeod, who is over 60 years of age, went insane when the vessel struck. After getting on the beach 2 men were despatched to find signs of habitation. Returning after 2 days search, they reported meeting a man, who informed them there would be no steamers up the coast till Mar 1. On hearing Continue reading Lighthouse History – 24 (1906-01-20) →