Category Archives: Old Website

The Love of My Life – Ms. Enterprise!

Adult Memories, Equipment, Helicopters, Information, Lighthouses, Old Website, On The Job, Weather, , , , , ,

When my wife Karen and I started on Pulteney Point  in 1969 the house was supplied with a beautiful white porcelain enamel Enterprise oil cook stove. Ms. Enterprise had a “polished cast iron cook top, roomy storage drawer, even heat porcelain oven, no-fog oven window” 1 and a high shelf above the cooking surface. As the lighthouse generators ran on diesel, the stove (and oil-burning furnace) had been modified for burning this fuel.

Never having used one of these stoves before we did not not have very good luck cooking on it at first. This talent improved over the years and later we had great success with our cooking and we fell in love with our oil stove.  Continue reading The Love of My Life – Ms. Enterprise! →

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 →

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

 

 

Removal of Foghorns on the BC Coast c. 2003

Adult Memories, Automation, British Columbia, Coast Guard, Equipment, Foghorns, History, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Old Website, On The Job, Women, , , , , , , ,

 The article below was written in 2003 by Sherrill Kitson, wife of the lightkeeper Rene Kitson, and herself a qualified lightkeeper at the time.

This story will illustrate why lightkeepers, and not electronic sensors, are better weather observers. We can smell the fog, and many a mariner will back us up on that statement.

Now, all we can do is smell the fog, and hope that nobody gets hurt because there are no more foghorns.

(The text below is in a picture. If it is too hard too read, hold down the CTRL key (STRG in Deutsch) and rotate the wheel on your mouse forward or back to increase the photo size – it works on most computers and operating systems.)

 

 

The story is reprinted here with permission of Fisheries and Oceans Canada from their publication Shorelines 2003 (which does not appear to be available online – if anyone knows a link, please let me know).

Bill S-215 – An Act to Protect Heritage Lighthouses

Audio, Automation, British Columbia, Canada, Coast Guard, Equipment, Foghorns, Foreign, Government, Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, History, Information, Lighthouses, Old Website, On The Job, Worldwide, , , , , , , ,
Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act

Since April 2000 Canadian Senator Pat Carney has been working hard to get a bill through Parliament to protect Canadian Heritage Lighthouses. It passed during the week of May 7, 2008.

This bill will include buildings and equipment, including the main light on many of these stations – some being very old first-order Fresnel lenses imported from England in the early 1900s.

The normal procedure when a lightstation was unmanned was to burn it to the ground and maybe replace it with a solar-cell-charged, battery-operated, multiple-lamp array which operated only in the dark. Continue reading Bill S-215 – An Act to Protect Heritage Lighthouses →

Cougars on the Doorstep

Adult Memories, British Columbia, Keepers, Lighthouses, Old Website, On The Job, Wildlife, , , , ,

Back on February 15th 2011 I received an email from a friend. It was labeled “Why my wife refuses to start my truck in the morning.”

[nggallery id=11]

Yes, those are cougars. The email stated they were photographed outside of Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada. This is on Vancouver Island, a large island off the coast of British Columbia. There are deer on Vancouver Island – lots of deer. And where there are deer there are cougars – lots of cougars! I found this out when I moved to Kains Island lighthouse which is just off the west coast of Vancouver Island, as the next story will show you. Continue reading Cougars on the Doorstep →

Book – Lighthouse Chronicles by Flo Anderson

Adult Memories, Advertisement, British Columbia, Children, Keepers, Lighthouses, Old Website, On The Job, Stories, Women, , , , , , , ,

Lighthouse Chronicles – Twenty Years on the B.C. Lights

These are the first-hand stories of Flo Anderson and her husband Trevor and their four children as left left the city life in 1961 for a life on the British Columbia lighthouses.

They worked as lighthouse keepers for the next twenty years at Lennard Island, Barrett Rock, McInnes Island, Green Island and Race Rocks.

The book is interesting as it is written from a woman’s point of view.

Many B&W photos give illustration to the narrative.

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Harbour Publishing (1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 155017181X
ISBN-13: 978-1550171815
Product Dimensions: (9″ x 6″) 22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm
Availability: Used (Out of Stock)

A Trip by Workboat from Carmanah Point c. 1970s – Part 1

Adult Memories, British Columbia, Coast Guard, Equipment, Groceries & Mail, History, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Old Website, On The Job, Ships, Transportation, Travel, Women, , , , ,
Workboat over the side CCGS Camsell - photo John Coldwell

– by Reg Gunn (First Mate on the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir James Douglas)

To see what life was like in the workboats that delivered our groceries and took us off for holidays, check out Reg Gunn’s article Life in the Canadian Coast Guard below.

I was talking with Reg Gunn and he told me “I remember when it was first published I received favourable comments from other Coast Guarders who also had enjoyed working the workboats on the west coast.” 

His story follows.

Life in the Canadian Coast Guard

This story was originally three pages long (sorry Reg, I had to split it into two parts – WordPress restrictions) – JC). Continue reading A Trip by Workboat from Carmanah Point c. 1970s – Part 1 →

A Trip by Workboat from Carmanah Point c. 1970s – Part 2

Adult Memories, British Columbia, Coast Guard, Equipment, History, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Old Website, On The Job, Ships, Transportation, Travel, Women, , , , ,

Part 1 is available here.

It was a big one with a lot of energy. To slow down would have put us at risk of being carried forward up the shore. The stern went violently up and I felt my weight double. As I looked down the length of the boat, it was easy to see we were not in a very good position. I noted the crew were getting the pike poles ready for what ever came next. I thought to myself, this day has not improved. I knew the next thing would be the stern would go down just a fast and I would be floating in air. 

At the top I kicked in the throttle and braced with all my strength as we went down. The stern met the next swell and we shipped considerable water but not enough to kill the engine. I opened the throttle again and backed up and over the next swell. On the back of the next one I did a full powered one eighty degrees turn to get us clear. I slowed and moved over to the lee of the aerial anchor rock. We could assess our situation here and get ready to go out through the gap. 

       I looked at our passengers. They were soaked. I said, “Are you all right there?” Mrs. Pearce said, Apart from being a bit wet, we are fine. Thought you were going to put us back ashore again their Reg. I was glad when you changed your mind!”  Continue reading A Trip by Workboat from Carmanah Point c. 1970s – Part 2 →

Life at First Narrows (aka Capilano) c. 1913

Adult Memories, Automation, British Columbia, Childhood Memories, Equipment, Foghorns, History, Keepers, Lighthouses, Old Website, On The Job, , , ,

– Dorothy Mawdsley (Harris) Harrop (daughter of first light keeper, George Alfred Harris, at Capilano 1913 – 1925) (with special thanks to Alfred Harrop, grandson of George Alfred Harris, for letting me post the text of the letter.) 

First Narrows c. 1920 - photo Dudley Booth

[Father (George Alfred Harris)]. . . was given the First Narrows Light and Fog Station. I cannot remember but have a notion it was end of april 1915 when he took over. The light was first used May 17,1915 the day after my 17th birthday. The fog horn was started June 1, 1915. 

It must have been rather hard him living there by himself. I do not know the dimensions of the lighthouse but it was full of engines. Two engines were the same and were there in case one broke down, then an air compressor which was linked with belts to pulleys from the engine to the wall and then up to a higher pulley and across to the compressor, hence by pipes to the fog horns.  Continue reading Life at First Narrows (aka Capilano) c. 1913 →