Category Archives: History

Reprint – The Lighthouses of British Columbia

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In February 2012 I wrote an article on the seawater sample collecting from the BC lighthouses here My story discussed the duties and .trials a lightkeeper had while obtaining the samples. This story details the use of the information collected from a scientist’s point of view.

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The Lighthouses of British Columbia

by Allan Roberts

Not only are British Columbia’s lighthouses picturesque, and important for navigational purposes, but they also collect oceanographic data! You can access sea surface temperature (SST) and surface salinity data at the following website:

www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/oceans/data-donnees/lighthouses-phares/index-eng.htm

This website also has photographs of the lighthouses. (See below.)

Figure 1. Race Rocks (48.180 N, 123.320 W). Photo credit: Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Photograph obtained from: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/oceans/data-donnees/lighthouses-phares/index-eng.htm

Figure 2. Amphitrite Point (48.550 N, 125.320 W). Photo credit: Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Photograph obtained from: www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/oceans/data-donnees/lighthouses-phares/index-eng.htm

I’ve compiled and plotted some of the data from the Race Rocks and Amphitrite Point lighthouses. Race Rocks (Figure 1) is near Victoria, while Amphitrite Point (Figure 2), on the west coast of Vancouver Island, is closer to Bamfield. The data plotted in Figure 3 are monthly averages for October, covering the years 1936 to 2011. The plot shows an evident contrast in SST and surface salinity between the two sites.

Figure 3. October averages for surface salinity plotted versus October averages for sea surface temperature. The data are from two different lighthouses: Race Rocks (48.180 N, 123.320 W) and Amphitrite Point (48.550 N, 125.320 W). Race Rocks is near Victoria, while Amphitrite Point is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Data are not plotted for 1940 and 2007, because of missing values. Graphics produced with R (R Core Team, 2012). Data source: Fisheries and Oceans Canada, www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/oceans/data-donnees/lighthouses-phares/index-eng.htm (accessed Oct. 9, 2012).

A peculiarity of the lighthouse data is that they are not collected at the same time every day, as explained on the lighthouse data website: “Sampling occurs at or near the daytime high tide” (Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 2012).

If you want data for ocean bottom temperature and salinity (as opposed to surface temperature and salinity), such data are available through NEPTUNE Canada, and through the VENUS network (NEPTUNE Canada, 2012; VENUS, 2012).

Citations

Fisheries and Oceans Canada. 2012. Website. Accessed Oct., 9, 2012:http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/oceans/data-donnees/lighthouses-phares/index-eng.htm

NEPTUNE Canada, 2012. Website: www.neptunecanada.com

R Core Team, 2012. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.

VENUS network, 2012. Website: www.venus.uvic.ca

Chris Mills – Canadian Lighthouse Photographs

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Canadian Lighthouse Photographs

New website is coming.
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/ketm/
is no longer online. 


Chris Mills
1121 Ketch Harbour Rd.
Ketch Harbour, Nova Scotia  B3V 1K7

 

 

British Columbia | Nova Scotia | Prince Edward Island | New Brunswick | Newfoundland

Chris Mills served as a lighthouse keeper for the Canadian Coast Guard on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

He is currently co-chair of a committee which is recruiting Members of Parliament in support of a private members bill to protect lighthouses.  To see how you can help, visit this site:  Canada Needs a Lighthouse Protection Act.

Photographs and enlargements are for sale. Contact Chris Mills for price information.
All photographs and slides in the collection are identified, dated and signed.

Chris Mills is also author of the book on Nova Scotia lighthouses Lighthouse Legacies available from Amazon.ca


Sambro Island restoration project

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Some of these photos may be viewed at the Lighthouses of British Columbia site.

Green Island (1994, 1995) 250 colour photos, 70 colour slides in collection. All aspects of the station and island documented — aerial views, sea views, night views, details of light and lighthouse, lightkeepers, Coast Guard helicopters, surrounding islands and seascapes.

 

Langara Island (1994, 1996) 250 colour and 25 black and white photos, 180 colour slides in collection. All aspects of station documented — aerial views, night views, detailed views of 1913 First Order Fresnel Lens (manufactured by Chance Brothers), light tower and lantern, lightkeepers, dwellings, interior of engine room, old cabin on island, face carved in tree, shoreline views, lightkeeper’s goats, stormy seas.

 

Triple Island (1994) 24 colour photos in collection. Aerial views, third order Fresnel lens, lightkeeper, detailed views of lighthouse structure, interior of workshop and engine room.

 

Bonilla Island (1994) 250 colour photos in collection. Many aspects of station — aerial views, sea views, night views, shoreline views (including Japanese glass fishing floats), lightkeepers, dwellings, engine room interior, light tower. (NOTE: this collection will be expanded during Sept/Oct 1996)

 

Boat Bluff (1994-1996) 160 colour photos in collection. All aspects of station — aerial views, sea views, night views, details of light tower, fog horns , engine room, main light (including views of keeper inspecting light at night, inspection of light and bulbs during day), views of station and mountains from 1000 foot hill across the channel from lightstation, snow views, old hand fog horn, three modern plastic lenses, sunrise views, surrounding bays and inlets, Santa and Mrs. Claus visit 1994. (NOTE: Available as of Dec. 1996 — selection of a further 200 colour and b&w prints taken during August 1996, including Coast Guard ship and work crews supplying station.)

 

Ivory Island (1994-1996) 600+ colour and 36 black and white photos, 100 colour slides in collection. All aspects of the lightstation — 30 aerial views, sea views, night views, lighthouse, keepers, dwellings inside and out, engine room, main light, surrounding area, beaches, salmon fishing, snow, totem poles, artist and photographer at work at the lightstation, Coast Guard helicopters, sunsets, shoreline and forest, various tidal life (sea stars, crabs, etc.), local minor beacon lights, 25th annual Santa and Mrs. Claus visit December 1995.

 

McInnes Island (1994, 1995) 48 colour photos, 22 colour slides in collection. Aerial views, lighthouse structure, radio room, keeper, detail of lantern and main light, large thunder cloud formations.

 

Dryad Point (1995) 32 colour photos in collection. Aerial views, light tower, main light, keeper and daughter, keeper and main light, dwelling. (NOTE: This collection will be expanded during 1997)

 

Addenbroke Island (1994) 14 colour photos in collection. Aerial views.

 

Egg Island (1994) 10 colour photos in collection. Aerial views.

 

Pine Island (1994) 3 colour photos in collection. Aerial views.

 

Scarlett Point (1994) 2 colour photos. Aerial views.

 

Point Atkinson (1994) 14 black and white photos in collection. Light tower, keeper and main light, station dwellings and exterior of radio/engine room.

 

Brockton Point (1994) 5 black and white photos in collection. Light tower.

 

Porlier Pass (1994) 32 colour photos in collection. Two light towers (Porlier is a range light station), main lights, boat and boathouse, lightkeeper, dwelling, interior engine room and fog horn building, Coast Guard hovercraft. (NOTE: The old front range light was demolished Feb. 1996 and replaced by a fibreglass tower and the lighthouse was automated shortly after.)

 

Fisgard (1994) 6 colour, 2 black and white photos in collection. Light tower and detail of gothic style window in old keepers dwelling.

 

Sheringham Point (1994, 1995) 20 colour photos in collection. Light tower, abandoned dwelling, sunset, old Fresnel lens at local museum.

 

Amphitrite Point (1995) 9 colour slides in collection (prints available). Lighthouse structure, old keepers dwelling.

 

Lennard Island (1995) 52 colour photos, 25 colour slides in collection. Traveling to island by boat, keeper in boat, keeper in lighthouse, keeper and wife on station grounds, dwellings, radio room, engine room, details of two fog horn systems, including traditional diaphone horn taken out of service Oct. 1995, light tower, station grounds.

 

Cape Scott (1996) 23 colour photos in collection. Aerial views.

NOVA SCOTIA

Some of these photos may be viewed at the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society site.

Baccaro Point
Bear River
Beaver Island
Black Rock Point (new lighthouse)
Black Rock Point (old lighthouse)
Boar’s Head
Brier Island
Cape Forchu
Cape George
Cape Sable
Chebucto Head
Fort Point (LaHave River)
Fort Point (Liverpool)
Fourchu Head
Gabarus
George’s Island
Grand Passage
Hampton (Chute Cove)
Horton Bluff
Jerome Pont
Louisbourg
Low Point
Maugher’s Beach
Medway Head
Peggy’s Cove
Point Aconi
Port Greville (old light, now at Canadian Coast Guard College, Point Edward, N.S.)
Port Medway
Prim Point
Rouse Point
Sable Island (east light)
Sable Island (west light)
Sambro Island
Scatarie Island
Schafner Point
Seal Island
Sydney Range (front light)
Sydney Range (rear light)
Western Head
Battery Point
Betty’s Island
Canso Locks
Cross Island (comprehensive collection including automation day)
Eddy Point
Mosher’s Island
Seal Island (comprehensive collection)
Seal Island Lighthouse Museum

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Blockhouse Point
Borden Range (front light)
Borden Range (rear light)
Cape Bear
Cape Tryon
Brighton Beach Range (front light)
Brighton Beach Range (rear light)
East Point
Murray Harbour Range (front light)
New London Range (rear light)
North Rustico
Panmure Island
Point Prim
Souris East
Summerside Range (front light)
Summerside Range (rear light)
Woods Islands
Woods Islands Range (front light)
Woods Islands Range (rear light)

NEW BRUNSWICK

Cape Spencer
Cape Tormentine
Fish Fluke Point (Grand Harbour)
Gannet Rock (comprehensive collection: 700+ prints and slides)
Great Duck Island
East Quoddy (Head Harbour)
Letite
Long Eddy
Long Point
Machias Seal Island (comprehensive collection)
Mulholland Point
Southwest Head
Swallowtail

NEWFOUNDLAND

Cape Anguille
Cape Ray
Cape Saint Francis (dwelling only)
Cape Saint Mary’s
Cape Spear
Lobster Cove Head
Rose Blanche (old stone lighthouse)

Mise Tales Twelve

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For an update on what a Mise Tale is then please see Mise Tales One.

Do You Want to Buy a Foghorn?

Aberdeen’s Torry Coo on the market for £5,000
Buyers lining up for foghorn

Published: 28/09/2012 Evening Express

A famous foghorn in Aberdeen has sparked a bidding war between prospective buyers desperate to own a piece of Scottish history.

And property agents revealed several offers made for the much-loved Torry Coo in Aberdeen were “well in excess” of the asking price.

The Northern Lighthouse Board put the 110-year-old horn and store building on the market in July with a price tag of £5,000, but several mystery bidders want to get their hands on the Category A listed structure. Continue reading Mise Tales Twelve →

Three Skeleton Key – A Lighthouse Play

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Three Skeleton Key is a one act play I have never heard about before today. It was written as a short story by George G. Toudouze and was first published in 1937 in English.

 

This is a short story about three men who operate a lighthouse miles offshore of the South American coast.  They love their job untill one day a strange ship arrives.  Suddenly they are unsure if they will survive to see the next day.

Setting

This story is set on a “key” or small island several miles offshore of French Guianna in the early 1900s.  Lighthouse operators whould spend months at a time isolated out on their tiny islands without any contact with the rest of the world. Continue reading Three Skeleton Key – A Lighthouse Play →

Reprint – Presentation of a Lifetime Membership from Lightkeepers UCTE Local 20232 To Jim Abram

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B.C. lightkeepers honour their champion

By Kristen Douglas – Campbell River Mirror
Published: September 25, 2012 2:00 PM 
Updated: September 25, 2012 2:13 PM

[media url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN7SZCsEERY” width=”400″ height=”350″]
Strathcona Regional District director and former lightkeeper Jim Abram was honoured with a lifetime membership to the B.C. Lightkeepers Union Friday morning at the Cape Mudge Lighthouse on Quadra Island. Pictured from left, Abram’s son Jesse, daughter Melissa Abram, granddaughter Cleo Abram-Veloso, Abram’s wife Wendy, and Jim Abram, gather around to look at the commemorative plaque presented to Abram on behalf of the union.
 

Under cloudy skies, with the imposing Cape Mudge lighthouse looming in the background, former lightkeeper Jim Abram vowed to keep fighting for lightkeepers – the eyes and ears on the ocean. Continue reading Reprint – Presentation of a Lifetime Membership from Lightkeepers UCTE Local 20232 To Jim Abram →

Reprint – Photo Gallery: Sutton Bridge Lighthouse Renovation Restores View Which Inspired Sir Peter Scott

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Work continues on the Peter Scott Lighthouse near Sutton Bridge - owners Sue and Doug Hilton. Picture: Matthew Usher.

Photo gallery: Sutton Bridge lighthouse renovation restores view which inspired Sir Peter Scott

By DAISY WALLAGE Monday, July 30, 2012
– with permission from EDP24 online

With an endless sky, tantalising glimpses of the The Wash and wildfowl flying overhead, this stunning, sometimes lonely view was lost for decades as time took its toll on east bank lighthouse at Sutton Bridge.

Now, after months of loving restoration, visitors can finally climb to the top and bask in the uninterrupted views that so inspired the artist and conservation pioneer Sir Peter Scott more than 70 years ago.

The view from the top. Picture: Matthew Usher.

Owners Sue and Doug Hilton bought the lighthouse, on the mouth of the River Nene, in November 2010 and are steadily achieving their goal of opening a museum and visitor centre at the site as well as restoring the landmark tower itself.

New, locally crafted steel handrails on the lighthouse stairs will allow visitors to explore beyond Sir Peter’s living room to his second floor bedroom and the lamp room during a series of open weekends next month. Continue reading Reprint – Photo Gallery: Sutton Bridge Lighthouse Renovation Restores View Which Inspired Sir Peter Scott →

Poetry – The Lighthouse Keeper Wonders

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This is too good not to reprint. The Lighthouse Keeper Wonders by Edgar Guest (Wikipedia article on Edgar Guest). This is one the better lighthouse poems. I sometimes wonder too – all those beautiful lighthouses destroyed because of automation.

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The Lighthouse Keeper Wonders
by Edgar Guest (1881 – 1959)

The light I have tended for 40 years
is now to be run by a set of gears.
The Keeper said, And it isn’t nice
to be put ashore by a mere device.
Now, fair or foul the wind that blow
or smooth or rough the sea below,
It is all the same. The ships at night
will run to an automatic light.

The clock and gear which truly turn
are timed and set so the light shall burn.
But did ever an automatic thing
set plants about in early Spring?
And did ever a bit of wire and gear
a cry for help in darkness hear?
Or welcome callers and show them through
the lighthouse rooms as I used to do?
‘Tis not in malice these things I say
All men must bow to the newer way. Continue reading Poetry – The Lighthouse Keeper Wonders →

A Lighthouse Novel for Young Adults by Nell Wise Wechter

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Two children’s books by the same author came across my desk today. Both books are available in paperback and in an omnibus e-book collection. The author is Nell Wise Wechter,1 a native of the Carolina Coast. She wrote the young adult novel Taffy of Torpedo Junction and Teach’s Light. Click the links for book reviews from UNC.

The books and the e-books are available from Amazon worldwide. A special offer by the University of North Carolina Press (UNC) makes the e-book a better buy as it includes the two books for a special price.

I just ordered the e-book omnibus collection as a special present for my fiancé on my Kindle. It sure makes ordering books easy.

A quick note on each book:

Taffy of Torpedo Junction by Nell Wise Wechter

A longtime favorite of several generations of Tar Heels, Taffy of Torpedo Junction is the thrilling adventure story of thirteen-year-old Taffy Willis, who, with the help of her pony and dog, exposes a ring of Nazi spies operating from a secluded house on Hatteras Island, North Carolina, during World War II. – UNC

Teach’s Light – Tale of Blackbeard the Pirate by Nell Wise Wechter

The legend of Teach’s Light has been handed down by the people of Stumpy Point village in coastal North Carolina for nearly three centuries. – UNC

 

What is lighthouse about these books? The North Carolina coast is host to a raft of lighthouses!

Please let the readers know what you think of the books. I will also add a note later when I have finished them.

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FOOTNOTES:

1 About the Author

The late Nell Wise Wechter, an Outer Banks native, was a widely admired author, storyteller, historian, and journalist. As a schoolteacher near Cape Hatteras during World War II, she could look out her classroom window to see ships being sunk by the Germans. Her story of Taffy was inspired by these real events and the courage of the people who lived through them.

DOTC Opens Bidding for P246-M Lighthouse Repair Project

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This article appeared in the Business Mirror (Philippines). Take a look at why they are refurbishing old lighthouses:

Lighthouses serve as aids to navigation, working as visual guides to ports and harbors especially for fishermen and even for larger types of vessels already equipped with global positioning system.

Any more questions why Canada’s lighthouses cannot be retained?

The amount in the title is 246 million Philippine Pesos (PHP) or about $5,904,000 Canadian Dollars (CDN).

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Published in the Business Mirror (Philippines) on Thursday, 02 August 2012 20:17 Lenie Lectura / Reporter

“The DOTC is inviting providers to participate in the open and transparent bidding process for the P246 million procurement of aids to navigation equipment,” said the agency in a published bid notice. (The amount is 246 million Philippine Pesos (PHP) or about $5,904,000 Canadian Dollars (CDN).)

The government will procure in bulk the lighting and other component of this project to efficiently utilize its funds.

The civil works for the project will be bid out separately.

The DOTC and the PCG will repair and upgrade 194 lighthouses. Lighthouses serve as aids to navigation, working as visual guides to ports and harbors especially for fishermen and even for larger types of vessels already equipped with global positioning system.

In particular, the PCG listed lighthouses in the following areas where repairs and upgrade should be carried out at the soonest time possible. These are the lighthouses in Northern Luzon, National Capital Region, Southern Tagalog, Palawan, Bicol, Western and Eastern Visayas, Southwestern, Northern and Southeastern Mindanao. Continue reading DOTC Opens Bidding for P246-M Lighthouse Repair Project →

Reprint – Lighthouses To Get a Facelift

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If India can do it, why cannot Canada? India is refurbishing thirteen (13) lighthouses! Canada is demolishing hundreds! Why is India doing it? For tourism! Tourism is not important to Canada? 

India is doing this even though they have just installed a new Automatic Identification System (AIS) for most vessels on their coast. Lighthouses are still needed they said.

What happens when most of Canada’s beautiful lighthouses are demolished and the next government in ten years decides they are needed. Build more? Not likely knowing the Canadian government mentality. You will have a light atop a pole. So much for history!

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Lighthouses to get a facelift

from the Hindu Business Line

Chennai, India, August 05, 2012 

Some of the famous lighthouses in the country are getting a facelift.

The Government plans to develop 13 lighthouses into tourism spots through the private-public-partnership.

IL&FS has prepared a feasibility report on the project which is likely to cost over Rs 300 crore.

The iconic lighthouse on the Marina beach in Chennai and the Mamallapuram lighthouse, are among the famous lighthouses that will get a facelift. The lighthouse on Marina will house a lighthouse museum, said the Union Shipping Minister, G.K. Vasan. Continue reading Reprint – Lighthouses To Get a Facelift →