Published in 1875, this book laid down the rules and regulations for Lighthouse-Keepers. It was the LAW!
Download the complete book here in PDF format (13.3 MBs – right click the link for more options)
If you wish to print the book, the published size was 6.5″ x 9.25″ (16.5 x 23.25 cms.)
– Roy Carver (son of C. E. Carver on Kains Island 1933 – 1944)
One of the daily duties of a light house keeper was to estimate the wind speed during each day and record it, along with other meteorological observations and measurements, which also included sea water temperature, and a sample of sea water which was taken at a depth bellow the surface, weather permitting of course.1
The small glass bottles with cork stoppers of sea water were stored in wooden boxes with many little squares, one for each bottle. These boxes would be shipped out when the supply ship re-supplied the station once a year, usually in July. As far as I know Father never did find out what happened to the bottles of sea water after they left the station.2
For an individual to estimate wind speed is a pretty tall order, especially on the edge of an island. If the wind is blowing in your face one would judge the wind speed higher than if it was blowing from behind you (behind the island), so wind speed estimating was not very accurate, even with the crude wind speed indicating instruments supplied at the station. Continue reading The Wind Speed Indicator Episode c.1935
– Roy Carver (son of C. E. Carver on Kains Island 1933 – 1944)
The Civil Service Commission (CSC) of Canada was a very imposing body of bureaucrats who controlled the hiring and firing of government employees. It was a bit intimidating when I applied in 1969, and from the evidence on the documents that have been given to me, it was equally, if not more so, in 1933.
Clarence Edgar Carver applied for temporary employment as a lighthouse keeper on Quatsino lighthouse (aka Kains Island) and was accepted.
Continue reading Before the Manuals – Applying for the Job c.1930s
– With thanks to Harry F. Mathews and his Harry’s Old Engine website for permission to reprint this old information on how to fire-up the old Fairbanks Morse gasoline engines of the 1900s.
The following text is borrowed with permission from Harry’s Old Engine website. I never had the chance to work with these monstrous engines and found this information very interesting and wanted to pass it on here. Remember, he is referring to a farm engine, but I imagine the lighthouse engines were also close to 32 Hp. Continue reading Fairbanks Morse Type “N” Gasoline Engine c. 1900s
– a letter written by Dorothy Mawdsley (Harris) Harrop (daughter of first light keeper, George Alfred Harris, at Capilano 1915 – 1925), with special thanks to Alfred Harrop, grandson of George Alfred Harrop, for letting me post the text of the letter.
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This letter is a bit long, as people were prone to write a lot before the advent of computers. If you have the time, this is a fascinating story of life way back then. – JAC
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Perhaps my grandchildren will take time to read this when I am long gone. We came to Vancouver in 1909. I had just turned my 13th birthday. My father could not get work of any description. He had a Chief Engineer Ticket from Liverpool [UK] but owing to the B.C. laws he was not allowed to work as an engineer even on a small tug in the inlet. It must have been very hard on both my father and my mother. Continue reading Life on First Narrows Lighthouse and Fog Station c. 1915+
One early morning I was out on the water trolling for salmon from my 12 foot (4 metre) aluminum boat. The sun was just rising and I had just completed and transmitted my first weather of the morning. By the time I had a coffee ready, loaded rods and lures into the boat and lowered the boat into the water via the highline it was probably about 04:30.
At the time I did not have the money for a gas outboard so was using 12 volt Evinrude 2HP electric motor for trolling. Becauseof winds and tide this was only good on a a flat calm day which this was. As the sun rose it became warmer and I could see better. Behind me in Catala Passage the water began to boil and the herring gulls started to appear from nowhere. It was a herring ball!1 (a.k.a. bait ball as there are many types of small fish that ball up when attacked) Continue reading Killer Whale Attack at McInnes Island Lighthouse!
McInnes marked – view Larger map
On one of our beachcombing trips Roger Mogg and I headed up this narrow deep inlet on the East side of Price Island, just a few kilometres from McInnes Island Lighthouse. (see interactive map above – red marker is McInnes Island; Price Island is NE a bit and labelled as such) Continue reading Death on Price Island
In late [27th] May of 1990, the container vessel Hansa Carrier encountered a severe storm in the north Pacific Ocean (approx. 48°N, 161°W) on its passage from Korea to the United States.
During the storm, a large wave washed twenty-one (21) forty foot (40 ft.) shipping containers overboard. See this video of damaged cargo ships and cargo being lost.
[media url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HFARxn73dk” width=”400″ height=”300″]
Five of these 20-metre containers held a shipment of approximately 80,000 Nike® shoes ranging from children’s shoes to large hiking boots. It has been estimated that four of the five containers opened into the stormy waters, releasing over 60,000 shoes into the north Pacific Ocean.
That winter of 1990, hundreds of these shoes washed ashore on the beaches of the Queen Charlotte Islands , western Vancouver Island , Washington and Oregon.
After hearing of the accident, oceanic scientist Curtis C. Ebbesmeyer seized the opportunity and established links with beachcombers and formed a network of people reporting the landfall of the contents of this spill.
When Oregon newspapers began running the story, the Associated Press picked it up, and the word spread. The publicity resulted in many additional reports of the finding of Nike shoes on Pacific beaches. Dubious about some of the reported finds, Ebbesmeyer decided to confine his study to only those shoes found in groups of 100 or more. Even with this restriction, he accounted for approximately 1300 shoes from the more than 60,000 released.
Despite a year in the ocean, much of the footwear was in fine shape and wearable after a washing. Unfortunately, the shoes were not tied to one another so that matching pairs did not always reach the beach together.
“I remember this very well as I could never find a matching pair!” – retlkpr
Each shoe, however, had an identifying serial number, and with information obtained from the manufacturer, Ebbesmeyer was able to determine that the shoes were indeed from the Hansa Carrier.
The accident turned into a scientific gold mine. With information on the locations where the shoes were found, Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Jim Ingraham were able to use the spill to test and calibrate their ocean current model. In the past when researchers have released a multitude of drift bottles1 to provide data for testing models, only about one or two percent of the drift bottles are typically recovered. Thus, the accidental release of approximately 61,000 shoes and the recovery of approximately 1600 shoes (2.6%) provided data as good as any pre-planned study.
Ebbesmeyer and Ingraham used the OSCURS (Ocean Surface Currents Simulation) computer simulation model to determine where and how the shoes may have drifted after the containers were swept overboard.
The model suggested that the main landfall would have been around the northern tip of Vancouver Island and the central coast of British Columbia approximately 249 days after the spill.
The first reports of shoe landfalls came from Vancouver Island and Washington approximately 220 days after the spill. A large number of shoes were recovered in the Queen Charlotte Islands and northern Oregon suggesting that when the shoes neared the North American coast some were diverted north and others south by coastal currents.
In the summer of 1992 (two years after the incident), shoes were reported arriving at the northern end of the Island of Hawaii. After reaching North America these shoes may have continued southward along the California coast and then been pushed off the coast by currents moving westward to Hawaii.
The rest of the story is on the website of Keith C. Heidorn (aka the Weather Doctor).
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This also happened with rubber ducks (aka friendly floatees)!
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FOOTNOTES:
1 See the story by Jeannie Nielsen about finding, and getting paid for the Drift bottles.
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Check the Wikipedia article on the Hansa Carrier and other incidents of a similar nature.
And if you are interested, this is where the other 57,000+ shoes probably ended up!
This is a never-ending story. as more and more stuff is dumped into the ocean every year. See the story on the Japanese Tsunami debris.
Take a look here for what you can beachcomb in the next few years – more Nike® shoes, Lego, etc.
– Narrated by Sharlene Macintosh with help from her cousin Zellie Chamberlin Sale (granddaughters of Howard Frazer Chamberlin, lighthouse keeper c. 1930 – 1941)
My grandfather was Howard Frazer Chamberlin who was lightkeeper at a few lighthouses around Vancouver Island – Nootka , Pine Island , Quatsino , Trial Island come to mind – my Mom knows them all. His brother, Charles Benjamin Chamberlin was also assistant at Nootka.
My Mom, Mina Peet (née Chamberlin) was born in Oct 1933 while her Dad was a lightkeeper. He originally did various jobs such as farming, prospecting, trapping, and logging with horses. He had a sawmill at Coombs, BC and he was injured while logging with horses on Vancouver Island. He was put into hospital where he met my grandmother Dora Anna Wordsell who was a nurse.
They married December 12, 1928 in Nanaimo, BC. They had three daughters: Connie (who died in 1985), Pearl, and Mina. The first child, a son, died up near Prince Rupert, BC right after birth, so my grandmother was sent the next time to New Westminster, BC to give birth (at a real hospital) where her parents lived, and the second two times to Victoria, BC. Continue reading Howard Frazer Chamberlin Family Adventures c.1930s
– Betty Healey (Wife of Arthur Healey – Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Pachena Point Radio station (VAD) 1949 – 1955)
– forward by editor Tom Racine (from his website History of Spectrum Management in Canada)
D.O.T.’er Arthur Healey was officer-in-charge at Pachena Point Marine Radio Station from 1949 to 1955. With his wife Betty and three children, Ann, John and Michael who were then 12, 8 and 7 years of age respectively, he spent six years at this isolated post. He went from there to Alert Bay and last summer took over as officer-in-charge at Victoria Marine Radio.
Access to Pachena Radio, which was closed down in 1958 after 45 years of operation, was by lighthouse tender, or Bamfield lifeboat, and then by workboat through the surf to the bonnet-sling; then highline up the cliff. If one was a good hiker, it was possible to trek the nine miles from Bamfield to Pachena, and that was how the Healey’s first got there.
Today, living once again in a large urban community, Mrs. Healey recalls the rewarding experiences shared by the family during that six year period. The children are now young adults: Ann is married and the mother of four children; John received a Bachelor of Education degree last year and is now teaching at Burns Lake, B.C., and Michael, working towards a Master’s degree in zoology at UBC, plans to go to Europe for Ph.D. studies. Continue reading A Posting to Isolation – Pachena Pt. 1949 – 1955