Bob Akerstrom (October 02, 1936 – September 28, 2004 in Prince Rupert, BC) was known by all as “Rotten Robert”. It was an affectionate term for one of the best relief keepers we had in the Northern District of Prince Rupert.
Bob was always welcomed on every lighthstation because of his work and his sense of humour.
The wives often said that he left the house neater and cleaner than before he came.
Bob worked relief on Triple island, Green Island, Langara Point, McInnes Island, Addenbroke Island, Egg Island, and many other lighthouses on the North Coast.
Donald Graham (1947 – October 10, 2003) was a Cultural Conservation Coordinator for the Province of Saskatchewan prior to becoming a British Columbia lightkeeper in 1976. He worked at Bonilla Island in Hecate Strait, at Lucy Island near the mainland and east of the northern Queen Charlottes and finally at Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver. With an M.A. in history and adept at political science, he spearheaded the partially successful campaign to curtail replacement of manned lighthouses with strictly automated signals. His two books, Keepers of the Light and Lights of the Inside Passage, reveal that many of B.C.’s lightkeepers were under-paid working class heroes. The first title won the second Roderick Haig-Brown B.C. Book Prize in 1986. Graham continued to live at the Lighthouse Park light station after it was officially ‘de-manned’. Graham was also noteworthy for claiming on CTV national news that the Allies had deliberately shelled the Estavan Point Lighthouse on the West Coast of Vancouver Island in 1942 to whip up war fever. This attack, blamed at the time on a Japanese submarine, led to the expulsion of Japanese Canadians from the West Coast. Don Graham died of cancer in October, 2003. – ABC Book World
Books published by Don Graham relating to lighthouses include
Keepers of the Light: A History of British Columbia’s Lighthouses and Their Keepers. Harbour Pub. Co., 1985. Lights of the Inside Passage: A History of British Columbia’s Lighthouses and Their Keepers. Harbour Pub. Co., 1986.
When a water taxi took the latest Coast Guard retirees from Friendly Cove to Gold River on May 3rd, a lightkeeping era ended. Over their 42 year career on the lights—the last 33 at Nootka lightstation—B.C.’s senior keepers Ed and Pat Kidder have seen many technical and political changes.
Two of the lights they tended have been destaffed. Ed was 19 and Pat 18 when they brought their newborn son Dean to Gallows Point in Nanaimo Harbour. The light was an Aladdin-type that sometimes smoked when the pressure changed, and blackened the tower walls.
At Quatsino Sound’s Kains Island, the only way off was from the rocks by the ship’s surf boat. “When they said ‘jump’ you jumped,” Pat recalls.
At Carmanah, everybody “the boss and the wife and the kids,”rode up and down in the coast’s longest highline (350 feet).
Following Scarlett Point Ed rotated two week shifts at Sandheads Light by Steveston. Pat, Dean and their daughter Petronella lived in Nanaimo.
On May 3rd [2003], while forty (40) staff from the Coast Guard Base at Huron Street and the Bartlett red crew watched, Senator Pat Carney presented Ed Kidder with a Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal, one of 17 awarded to veteran lightkeepers for their role in keeping B.C.’s coast safe for mariners.
“Lightkeepers keep people connected,” said Carney, “and no one has done that better than Ed and Pat Kidder.” Article and photographs by Shirley Hewett
Pat and Ed with Siamese cat Sheba Nootka Sound from the Lightstation. and toy poodle MachoNootka Sound from the Lightstation.
Dave Page (1957 – 2002) was an Electrical Technician at the Prince Rupert Coast Guard Base. Dave was well-loved by all the staff at the CG Base because of his quiet and friendly manner. He was also a very good friend to all of the lighthouse keepers as he would not hesitate to do a favour for them on his many trips to maintain the lighthouse equipment. He went out of his way to help and won the respect of all. He is very much missed. – John Coldwell (one who remembers and misses Dave)
Bill Bemister (1944 – 1999) was an Assistant Keeper on Triple Island lighthouse. He was a bit “rough around the edges” but a great guy. Bill died in a fire on his boat in Port Edward, British Columbia (near the town of Prince Rupert, BC) – Chris Mills (one of many friends who worked with Bill)
As Albert has not too many words written about him, perhaps these short memories will add some colour to his life. – retlkpr
Alaska King Crab
Cooked Alaska King Crab – photo David B. Fankhauser website
While on Pine Island, Al [Bartle] and Ralph [Emerich] put down a crab trap off the highline and put chicken scraps in the trap. The next morning they pulled up the trap and had an Alaska King Crab. Great eating! They did not know that the King crabs came this far south.
– Jean (Bartle) Konkle (Daughter of Albert Bartle, Relief Keeper)
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Eagles Bathing
Eagles bathing – photo Jim Robertson – Wildlife Photography website
While on Scarlett Point, Vivian Hunt, a First Nations person that lived on the island about ½ mile down from the lighthouse took us for a hike up the mountain on a trail that he had hand cut with a machete, to a small lake. While there we witnessed over 50 Eagles having a bath in the fresh water after feeding in salt water. That island [Scarlett] is a gorgeous site. Al [Bartle] caught a 20 lb. red snapper right off the rocks in front of the lighthouse.
– Jean (Bartle) Konkle (Daughter of Albert Bartle, Relief Keeper on Scarlett Point c. 1973)
Fish for Dinner
Sandheads lighthouse – now automated
Dad (Albert Bartle), when he was on Sandheads lighthouse (no women allowed), which has no room to do anything except walk around the boardwalk around the lighthouse, would put down a bucket on a rope and passing fish boats would fill the bucket with salmon, cod, crabs, shrimp, etc. He always said that it was much easier than going fishing. – Jean (Bartle) Konkle (Daughter of Albert Bartle, Relief Keeper at Sandheads c. 1970s)
Walter (Walt) Tansky ( – ) was my first principal lighthouse keeper at Pulteney Point and I couldn’t have had better. When we first started as assistant lighthouse keepers we had no idea whom we would be “bunking” with. Walt was my idol as to what I wanted to be when I became a principal keeper. Walt also ran a HAM rig with the call sign VE7APR – John Coldwell (with many fond memories of Walt, his wife Joyce and the family)
Ed Hartt (January 23, 1920 – March 16, 1995) was head keeper at Lawyer Island, Triple Island and Langara Point during his tenure as a lighthouse keeper. – Jeannie (Hartt) Nielsen (daughter of Ed Hartt)
Captain William (Bill) Mills Exley (January 08, 1920, Vancouver, BC – April 24,1994, Victoria, BC) was a friend to all the lighthouse keepers he met. Bill joined the Coast Guard as a mess boy on the Estevan in 1939 and retired 45 years later as District Area Supervisor (DAS), Victoria. He was a tough boss but was respected by all who learned from him. See his biography below. Bill’s ashes were buried at sea.
Bill was Second Mate on the old “smokey joe” CGS Estevan under that legendary master mariner, Capt Harry Ormiston (1889-1971), when I joined the (then) Victoria District Marine Agency as the (then) Superintendent of Lights in June 1956, a post I held until Oct 1959. His seamanship, acquired and polished during his many years of sailing with Harry, was absolutely superb, a true credit to his mentor. Among my happy, solid memories of Bill was his skillful handling of the Estevan’s sturdy work boats then used to take supplies ashore at lightstations, often in heavy seas. (No choppers in those days). Not once in my time did he ever misjudge the swells, damage a work boat, or dump its cargo in the water. Nor did he ever cause me to be dunked when I used to jump from the bow onto wet slippery seaweed-covered rocks when doing an annual lighthouse inspection – or when scrambling back on board afterwards.
Captain Exley, as he was when I last met him (his guest for lunch on the CGS Sir James Douglas while visiting Victoria in 1964), was a man I greatly admired and respected – as he was indeed by the lightkeepers who knew him and the ships’ crewmen who served with him. It was my privilege to have known him, enjoyed his friendship and sailed several thousands of West Coast nautical miles with him. – John Bathurst
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Bill’s first love might have been the sea..,but as superintendant of Lights he soon became an avid helicopter passenger and particularly liked low flying.
As pilots we had a wonderful rapport with him and consequently we made every effort to comply with his numerous requests and I for one appreciated the fact that he never pressured us to fly when we considered for instance that the weather precluded flying, but he expected us to give it a try if conditions were marginal, and that was fair enough.
One example was when he “desperately” wanted to interview and eventually fire a troublesome assistant lighthouse keeper at Pine Island lighthouse. As we both approached Pine the usual summertime band of fog was really heavy (Pine was calling it 1/4 mile visibility), below our limits, but we headed out hover taxying you might say, riding the swells, the sea being my only reference. Our only concern being that we might bump into a ship!
Anyway we made it, picked up the assistant and headed back through the same soup, saw a hole in the fog climbed like an elevator and rode several miles back to Port Hardy on top of the fogbank.
On arrival there Bill Exley turned to me and said “Let’s never do that again!” It was pretty hairy all right. – Ivor Roberts (aka Ivor the Driver)
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– thanks to Karen Waugh for the bio
I always considered Bill Exley a Leader! – retlkpr
Bob Collins (February 06, 1914 -September 29th, 1993) was Principal Keeper on Kains Island (Quatsino). He ran a HAM radio rig with the call sign VE7AOI. Bob was known far and wide as the “King of Kains”. He was a very reserved man and at times very hard to get along with, but he had a heart of gold when you got to know him as I did over many home-brew beers! I learned everything about the operation and maintenance of highlines from him. This knowledge really paid off in later years. – John Coldwell (not a friend, but a student of Bob)
