- bringing a little life into your lights
Facing the Sea: Lightkeepers and Their FamiliesBy Harold Chubbs and Wade KearleyForeword by Lorne HumphriesGenre: History: GeneralImprint: Flanker PressFormat: Hardcover, 132 pages, colour photos and illustrationsPub Date: October 2013Price: $34.95ISBN-10: 1-77117-301-7ISBN-13: 978-1-77117-301-8Shipping Weight: 0.9 kg About this BookIn Facing the Sea, authors Harold Chubbs and Wade Kearley have captured an important era in the maritime […]
The photo at the left shows the lamp, lens, mercury bath bearing, and winding apparatus which was installed on the Pachena Point lighthouse in February 1908. The lens is a 1st order Fresnel lens made by Chance Brothers of Birmingham England – one of the largest sizes possible, and it all sits on a wooden […]
The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) carries lighthouse keepers and their supplies (groceries, mail, household goods, etc) usually by ship or helicopter. This story describes the inner workings of the Canadian Coast Guard light icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier as told by my friend Abe Van Oeveren. I have been on several ships and they are indeed […]
A friend, Brian Waddington (aka Gups-Y-Bees) and I, he an ex-lighthouse keeper from Ivory Island many years ago, have a common friend on my old lighthouse at McInnes Island. The friend is Colin Toner and he has been on McInnes for a few years, but the following experience as related below and the same on Brian’s […]
Something Even Better than working on a lighthouse? In an email with an ex British Columbia (BC) lighthouse keeper he mentioned that he was going to work in Alberta, Canada as a Fire Tower Lookout! What does that have to do with lighthouses? A lot from many people’s perspective! Both jobs have the isolation and romance […]
One of the things a lightkeeper notices on the shoreline are the different changes, be they strange fishing floats, bloated dead fish, defeathered seabirds, massed clumps of seaweed or the profligate carcasses of the By-the-wind-sailor. I had seen many beaches littered with the pale blue bodies of the By-the-wind-sailor and thinking they were the nefarious Portuguese […]
I wrote an article entitled I Love Nightshift awhile ago. It is true, and now I know why I felt so healthy working on the lighthouse – lack of electric lights! It may not be for all people, but it did work for me. Working the night shift was done mostly in the dark as […]
I published a report January 04, 2012 on the building of McInnes Island lighthouse in 1953 based on the adventures of Ken Stewart who was part of the construction crew. I updated that post later with more information in the form of a PDF file. When I arrived with my family in the winter […]
This is a past and very notable lifesaving rescue by two BC lightkeepers, Lynn Hauer and assistant lightkeeper Wolfgang Luebke who were at Chatham Point lighthouse at the time. ****************************** We sleep with the radios always on, and ‘with one ear open’. At 3 AM on April 30, 2012 I was awakened by the […]
As I stated in my post The Lighthouse as a Sovereignty Symbol, put a lighthouse on your disputed territory and it is yours, or something to that effect. Now here is another ongoing dispute coming to light again – Canada vs USA. According to my theory above, Canada wins! – retlkpr *************************** Machias Seal Island […]