Another artist that will get your lighthouse blood running is Graham Scholes. He just loves lighthouses and has artwork of southern and northern BC lightstations. Click the photo below for a link to his website.
The following video came in an email today and it brought back memories of the ravens that lived near my old lighthouse at McInnes Island. Ravens are very intelligent!
Orion constellation (south)
I was on the early morning shift for most of my time there. I loved it! Every morning very early (about 03:00) I walked from the house up through the trees in the dark with coffee cup in hand for the first weather report of the morning. It was such a delight if the sky was clear to see the constellations I recognized. One could almost tell the time by their position in the sky, especially with Orion, the hunter. Continue reading The Wise Raven→
The Cloo-Stung was a catamaran of the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) used for delivery of personnel and supplies to Prince Rupert area lighthouses in protected waters. The groceries were delivered to the Coast Guard base in Prince Rupert from the local stores. These were then packed in slings (large canvas or net circles with ropes attached to allow them to be attached to a hook) and loaded onto the Cloo-Stung. Continue reading Groceries at Green Island c.1975→
If you do not know what Mise Tales is then please see Mise Tales One.
One or two things have come to mind. A friend wrote and asked if I had ever heard such and such a story about a crazy lighthouse keeper who killed himself.
Reading his story brought to mind another story that I had heard or read about at one time, but a Google search cannot seem to find any reference to either one.
Anyways, here are the two stories about crazy lighthouse keepers. If anyone can help in locating the source, or more information, please contact me.
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Tale Number One from my friend.
Bob says:
I was again browsing your multi-faceted site and got to wondering if you had ever chanced on the story of a supposed suicide wherein a keeper bludgeoned himself to death by repeatedly running headfirst into a brick/stone/concrete wall?
The instance as it was told to me almost fifty (50) years ago was that a headkeeper on an unnamed light on the Pacific Coast went mad and performed the terminal skull-smashing in the presence of his assistant keeper.
It was related that the assistant keeper was a recent immigrant from Eastern European background with very little English language capabilities and who, by dint of his Eastern Bloc Soviet state upbringing, was also very fearful of any form of police or military authority. Continue reading Mise Tales Three→
Here is a continuance of the tales of Juanita (Swanson) DuLong. Somewhere around the early 1950s, probably after a year at Fiddle Reef lighthouse the family was moved to Sisters Island. Juanita says:
Sisters Island
Fiddle Reef’s plumbing was a cistern and hand pump. Cold water only.
Sisters was a little tamer and had a bathroom. When we arrived we found the tub full of coal. The running water was cold only . A reservoir on the wood and coal stove heated enough water for small tasks.
At that time the lighthouse tenders also burned coal. The smoke could be seen well off.
While on the subject of heat, Dad nearly took a finger off chopping kindling. Mom patched it up, and a doctor later told her he “couldn’t have done it better himself”.
Here there were more and bigger buildings. I actually had a bedroom instead of my little pallet in the angle of the hallway (on Fiddle Reef). I cannot remember much about the day to day station workings, but I do remember the foghorn had a very brassy sound. Continue reading Sister’s Island c. early 1950s→
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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Up to the time of going to press this morning no further word had been received regarding the accident to Tees reported to have struck a rock in Kyuquot Sound.
There was much anxiety regarding Tees since early yesterday. Northwestern en route to Seattle from AK, caught a wireless message from Tees. It was brief, stating only: ‘Tees struck rock. Kyuquot Sound.’ The message was transmitted to Estevan and thence to Victoria. United States Steamship Tahoma was at Neah Bay and when Tatoosh heard the news at 4:30am this vessel was notified and proceeded at once to the scene, being due at 11pm at Kyuquot. Mr E J Haughton, Superintendent of the Dominion Wireless Stations, sent a message to tug William Jolliffe of the Fisheries Protection service, which was off Quatsino. C P Edwards of Ottawa, who is on board making a visit of inspection to the coast Stations, has fitted a set of apparatus on the tug and sent a message reporting Jolliffe would reach the scene about 5pm. British Columbia Salvage Co sent the salvage Steamer Salvor with a wrecking crew, and Captain W H Logan, special agent of London Salvage Assn, was a passenger. Salvor is due at Kyuquot this morning. Steamer Newington of lighthouse service, last reported from Clayoquot 2 days ago, has also gone to render assistance. Continue reading Lighthouse History – 39 (1911-11-30 to 1912-04-10)→
Photos of British Columbia lighthouses by Cyril R. Littlebury in the years 1922 to 1932 with thanks to Dudley R. Booth for permission to publish – please visit Dudley’s new website at Historic Photos. There are many more photos there besides lighthouses.
When Dudley Booth developed some old negatives his father gave him he found a treasure trove of scenes from 1920s and 1930s Vancouver.
A lot of contacts that I have made with this website have given me permission to use some of their lighthouse photos and art to illustrate my stories. Quarter Master Design is one of these. Perusing the website today, I decided that instead of showing selected items to wet your appetite, I would print a copy of their home page for you to see. Click on the picture above to go to the website of Eric Nevatie at Quarter Master Design – beautiful!
In June 22, 2011 I published an article about the Triple Island 3rd order lens which has now been replaced with a flashlight (see the article).
I have never spent any work time on Triple Island, but I have landed there once or twice with the Coast Guard helicopters as a passenger. I never did have any time to explore.
Triple Island - distant from Prince Rupert
There are two lighthouse keepers on Triple Island who rotate every twenty-eight (28) days with two other keepers. I always wondered what it would be like to live there in this day and age.
One of the keepers, my friend Glenn Borgens, has sent me some wonderful photos of the inside of the Triple Island lighthouse that I am going to share with you. For twenty-eight days, it looks like a comfortable place to live and work. Continue reading Triple Island – Inside the Lighthouse – 2012→
Groceries being loaded at Coast Guard Base - photo John Coldwell
Some of you may wonder why the number of stories about re-supplying the lighthouses exceeds the others on this site by a large margin (lots more coming!). Next to the family and job, the arrival of the mail and groceries was the most important event in the life of the lightkeeping family.
Imagine no telephone, no television, no two-way radio, possibly no AM radio, and no contact with the outside world except what you saw going by your window. The post was and still is the most important contact to the real world. Continue reading Groceries and Mail on a Lighthouse→
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.
A lot of contacts that I have made with this website have given me permission to use some of their lighthouse photos and art to illustrate my stories. Quarter Master Design is one of these. Perusing the website today, I decided that instead of showing selected items to wet your appetite, I would print a copy of their home page for you to see. Click on the picture above to go to the website of Eric Nevatie at Quarter Master Design – beautiful!
