Category Archives: On The Job

Book – The Lightkeepers’ Menagerie

Books, Equipment, Foghorns, Humour, Light, Lighthouses, On The Job, , , , , , ,

 The Lightkeepers’ Menagerie: Stories of Animals at Lighthouses

– by Elinor De Wire

 

 Hardcover: 328 pages

  • Publisher: Pineapple Press (March 15, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1561643904
  • ISBN-13: 978-1561643905
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches

I came across this book while doing a Google search for another author. Google Books has given a few free pages to read from this book. From these preview pages I think I will be buying the book. It sounds absolutely wonderful.

“Elinor De Wire has been writing about lighthouses and their keepers since 1972. During that time she found that hundreds of lighthouse animals wandered into her research notes and photo collection. This book is the story of all these cold-nosed, whiskered, wooly, hoofed, horned, slithery, buzzing, feathered, and finned keepers of the lights. Where else would a dog learn to ring a fogbell; a cat go swimming and catch a fish for its supper; or a parrot cuss the storm winds rattling its cage? Continue reading Book – The Lightkeepers’ Menagerie →

Canadian Government Pension Plans for Retiring Lighthouse Keepers

Government, Information, Lighthouses, Old Website, On The Job, Pensions, , , , , , , ,

All Canadian government employees who are eligible for retirement are eligible for:
The Public Service Pension Plan (PSPP)
Canada Pension Plan (CPP)
Old Age Security (OAS) pension at age 65

You are entitled to a Public Service pension (immediate annuity), if you retire:(source)

  • at or after age 60 with two (2) or more years of pensionable service; or
  • at or after age 55 with 30 or more years of pensionable service.

A Public Service pension is calculated according to the following basic pension formula:(source)

2 per
cent

 X 

number of years of
pensionable service

 X 

your average salary for the five
consecutive years of your highest-paid
service

 

Maximum Pension Payable To You Is ONLY For 35 Years Which Equals 70%.

Continue reading Canadian Government Pension Plans for Retiring Lighthouse Keepers →

Lighthouse Keepers at Chrome Key in Two Rescues – special reprint

Anti-Automation, Automation, British Columbia, Coast Guard, Incidents, Keepers, Lighthouses, On The Job, Search & Rescue, , , ,

The following article appeared in 2010 and I received permission to publish it here to show the work that lighthouse keepers do, but is not part of their job description.

This is why we need lighthouse keepers! Keep the lights manned!

Another Chrome Island rescue appeared here on my website.

*************************************

Chrome Island - photo Leslie Williamson

Lighthouse keepers key in two rescues – with permission from Oceanside Star

Nelson Eddy, Special to the Star  – Published: Thursday, December 02, 2010

The Coast Guard Auxiliary Unit 59 in Deep Bay has rescued two mariners in the last two weeks. Both times the lighthouse keepers on Chrome Island were instrumental in expediting the rescue.

The first incident occurred Saturday, Nov. 20 between 12:10 p.m. and 3:50 p.m. Continue reading Lighthouse Keepers at Chrome Key in Two Rescues – special reprint →

I Saw a Sunfish

Adult Memories, British Columbia, Fishing, Keepers, Lighthouses, On The Job, Recreation, Weather, , , , , ,
One of 19 photos from the NDR website - three short videos are also there

Last night I saw a documentary on the German TV channel NDR about searching for Sunfish (Mola mola) – Mondfische in the German language which means Moonfish – off the California Coast and off the Italian island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea.

Now, this is a website about lighthouses – why would I be writing about Sunfish?

 

Small sunfish in the water - photo Paul Howells

Well one year warm California currents moved north – as far north as Prince Rupert, BC. I am not too sure of the exact year but judging from the years with warmest sea surface temperatures 1 I would guess it to be about 1984 as I remember an assistant 2 named Roger Mogg on station at the time. Continue reading I Saw a Sunfish →

Don’t You Get Bored?

Adult Memories, Boats, Children, Fishing, Lighthouses, Medical, Medical Emergency, On The Job, Recreation, , , ,

 You know those email jokes that go around saying things like:
“How Old is Grandpa?“
And Grandpa replies, “I was born before television, penicillin, polio shots,
frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses, Frisbees, and the pill. There were no credit cards, laser beams, or ball-point pens.
Man had not invented pantyhose, air conditioners, dishwashers, or clothes dryers, and man hadn’t yet walked on the moon, etc. . . .”

*********************************

Now let’s switch to an isolated lighthouse in the 1970s, 1980s, etc. . . . and a different question:

Don’t you get bored? Continue reading Don’t You Get Bored? →

Saving Lives Part of the Job on Chrome Island – special reprint

Anti-Automation, British Columbia, Government, Incidents, Keepers, Lighthouses, On The Job, Search & Rescue, , , ,

The following article appeared in 2010 and I received permission to publish it here to show the work that lighthouse keepers do, but is not part of their job description.

This is why we need lighthouse keepers! Keep the lights manned!

*********************************

Saving lives part of the job on Chrome Island – with permission from Oceanside Star Pamela Suzanne, Smyth Special to the Star – Published: Thursday, August 12, 2010

If you ever hear your spouse say, “Oh look dear, there’s a couch in the sky,” think twice before calling mental health because every few years this happens, especially over Chrome Island.

The picturesque Chrome Island light station, off Deep Bay and Denman Island in Baynes Sound, has helped many a mariner over its rocks to warmth and safety - Photo by Pamela Suzanne Smyth

 

Since 1981, some 48 lighthouse keepers have been moved on and off the ‘yellow rock’ situated near the southern tip of Denman Island in Baynes Sound.

Recently, Adam Pardiac, 9, and sister Sarah, 13, were thrilled when their uncle Gary and granddad Cliff took them there this summer. Greeted by India, the beacon’s watchdog, and lighthouse keeper Roger Williamson, the children were shown the gardens, environmental devices and petroglyphs. Continue reading Saving Lives Part of the Job on Chrome Island – special reprint →

The Characteristics of Lighthouse Lights

Automation, Coast Guard, Equipment, Government, Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, History, Information, Keepers, Lighthouses, Mission Boats, On The Job, , , , ,

Every lighthouse light has its own characteristics – 1. the number of flashes per minute, 2. it’s range, which is dependent on intensity, lenses, and height, and 3. the number of beams from the light, plus other identifying features.

Flashes per Minute

Hand-cranked gear mechanism - Pachena Point

The number of flashes per minute is regulated by the speed of rotation which is governed by the motor turning gears to drive the light around. The old heavy Fresnel lens lights sat on a bath of mercury and rotated in the early days from a hand-wound clockwork mechanism, later to be replaced by an electric motor, and later to be replaced altogether.

Enclosed lights such as the DCB-10 and DCB-36 (originally used as airport beacons) were only driven by electricity and gearing regulated the speed of rotation.

Each light in a certain area has a unique characteristic. Continue reading The Characteristics of Lighthouse Lights →

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 →

Website – Rough Radio – Wireless on the BC Coast

Adult Memories, Advertisement, British Columbia, Construction, Equipment, Genealogy, History, Information, Lighthouses, On The Job, Operators, Photos, Radio, , , , ,

This is a promotion for my friend Frank Statham’s website Rough Radio – Wireless on the British Columbia Coast.

As I started off collecting lighthouse keeper names for genealogy records, Frank started with a collection of photographs, and with his past work as a radio operator, his interest was sparked into creating a website to help people remember the early days of radio on the BC coast. He also has been keeping a list of station personnel which you will find here.

The quotes below from Frank’s website show that lighthouses came first, but with the advent of radio, the two worked closely together, in fact sometimes so close together that they were on the same station – e.g. Estevan Point  or Pachena Point. 

“At the end of the 19th Century, the west coast of Canada was dangerous place for the movement of vessels.  There was little European settlement along the coast north of Victoria.  The only navigational aids for vessel traffic consisted of a scattering of lighthouses.”

“The 1907 Canadian Dominion Government, in an effort to provide some measure of safety for mariners, implemented a plan to provide a life saving trail along the Juan de Fuca Strait Vancouver Island, lifeboat stations, and wireless radio stations.  The first five wireless stations, Vancouver, Victoria, Pachena Point and Estevan Point were all operational by January 1908.”   Continue reading →

Some photo samples from Frank’s website below:

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