– from Jeannie (Hartt) Nielsen (daughter of Ed Hartt, Senior Keeper on Langara 1957 – 1963)
Smells Growing up on a total of five different west coast lighthouses I remember certain things that were common to them all. The best day was always supply day (see also the Groceries & Mail Categories). When we were on Langara lighthouse in the early years (1957 – 1963) we received supplies every three months. I can remember the first thing I listened for in the early morning of landing day was the clicking sound of the damper in the chimney of the kitchen’s oil stove. When I heard that I knew that there would be no supplies landed that day as the wind was too high.
One December I heard that dreaded sound twenty (20) days in a row, and each day the ship tried to bring our groceries. We would watch as it would come into view just off Langara Rocks. They would assess the landing conditions, then we would watch with growing dispair as it turned back to the safety of a nearby harbour. Finally on the 21st day, the supply tender (itself running out of provisions) was able to deliver our supplies. Continue reading I Remember . . . c. early 1960s→
I received the following in an email today. Based on yesterdays’s MCTS announcement, I think this applies. Government thinking sometimes is so adverse to public wishes that I think government ministers must live in another universe.
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The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that; “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.
However, those in government will apply a more advanced strategy to solve the same problem.
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.
9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse’s performance.
10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance.
11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
And of course….
13. Promoting the dead horse to a Civil Service supervisory position.
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.
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.
This one looks a bit rough
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.
Drift bottle
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).
I came across this article that shows the life on an Australian lighthouse starting in 1971. A wee bit different than Canada I must say.
What got my attention were the requirements for a lighthouse keeper:
The job requirements of a lighthouse keeper were a car licence, an ability to climb to heights and an ability to get along with the other lighthouse keeper . . .
The article is worth reading to illustrate the differences between Canadian and Australian lights (wildlife, for one), plus, on the page is a reference and a link to an ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) website which is exploring some of Australia’s iconic lighthouses.
This new site is called Shining a Light and is an excellent documentary on some of Australia’s lighthouses. The map above shows the lighthouses mentioned.
Merry Christmas to all my readers and their families. I hope that Christmas brings you all a very happy time, and that the New Year of 2012 is fantastic!
As a Christmas gift to me, please pass along the address of this webpage lighthousememories.ca to all your friends and family and work associates.
Thank you, and Merry Christmas!
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Remember the lighthouse keepers – they are on duty for you 24/7, just like police, firemen, air traffic controllers, and numerous other essential services.
– 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→
– Roy Carver (son of C. E. Carver on Kains Island November 1933 – July 1944)
Roy Carver told me he “was born at the Bancroft Nursing Home at 705 Cook Street in Victoria, BC in mid 1930s. This nursing home was set up for expectant mothers that lived in out of the way places with no doctors, like his mother Evelyn Carver. They could come to the home a month before the due date and stay a few days or a week before returning home.”
Quatsino Lightstation c. 1930s - photo BC Archives
And Roy definitely did live in an out of the way place with his parents, and later his sister. His father was Clarence Edgar Carver who was the principal lightkeeper, fog alarm operator and radio beacon operator on Quatsino Lighthouse (aka Kains Island) during the period 1933 to 1944. Kains Island is located far up the western side of Vancouver Island on Quatsino sound. Nearest neighbours were six (6) miles (9.7 kilometers) away at the small fishing village of Winter Harbour. Continue reading Life on Kains Island 1933 – 1944→
Environment Canada (EC) has a cooperative/volunteer climate network weather collection project called COOLTAP.(Cooperative Online Temperature and Precipitation Entry System). It is a web-based Data entry system website where daily weather data is entered and used. All that is required is an internet-connected computer to input the data.
NOAA (USA) uses a similar data collection program called COOP Here is a PDF file on NOAA, COOP and the integration of COOLTAP. This data is used for both weather forecasting/climate prognosis and drought control.
Weather box, aka Stevenson Screen, used to record temperatures
British Columbia lighthouse keepers, as employees in the Pacific and Yukon Region (PYR) of Environment Canada also work in this program as well as performing their many other duties. Continue reading COOLTAP→
March 15, 2014 – I was notified by Ghislain Bonneau today that he is no longer interested in maintaining his website so I have removed all links to his webpage which now no longer exists.
Ghislain Bonneau found my website while looking for photos of BC lighthouses. He is a Canadian painter using oil on canvas as his medium. I love his rendition of the west coast seas. Because of the oil medium, the water looks wet – almost like you could get your hand wet by touching it.
October 03, 2012 – A new painting by Ghislain showing Cox Bay near Tofino, British columbia. In the background left is the Lennard Island lighthouse, a common topic for Ghislain as he lives in the area.
#101 Lennard Island, 30″ x 48″ oil on canvas, 2011
On the left is a painting of Lennard Island lighthouse which is very well done – I think even the lighthouse keeper on Lennard Island would like this one. The viewpoint is a common one in many photos of Lennard Island as it is easily accessible for making photos.
Below is one of many videos that Ghislain has made while on the west coast. This one shows the view towards Lennard Island lighthouse, and a quick view of the lighthouse at the end.
More west coast videos can be seen on his webpage here.
#88 Trial Island, 18″ x 24″, 2007
Another lighthouse painting he has done is of Trial Island, off Victoria, BC. It shows the lighthouse with a heavy bank of cloud behind, early morning sunrise – painted from a photo taken from the golf course.
#90, Trial island, 18″ x 24″, 2007
Another painting of Trial Island. Trial island is right on Ghislain’s doorstep. I like the former painting of Trial a lot better. I find the house in this painting looks like a round Dutch windmill house, rather than the stark, straight-sided, Canadian lighthouse buildings.
#96, Ocean West, Ucluelet, BC
On his website, Ghislain has many other art works besides paintings. Myself, I like the oil paintings best, but you decide. My last contribution to this artist is a painting that I really like. This is where the oil paint makes the water look wet. Love it!
If you see something you like, contact Ghislain Bonneau. He says he is not selling anything right now, but it never hurts to ask.
Amphitrite Point – photo Ghislain Bonneau
The newest painting (2012) from Ghislain is this one of Amphitrite Point lighthouse (automated). I love the lighthouse lantern, the way it is lit from inside without showing the lamp. Well done!
To make the paintings Ghislain takes many photos. A collection of his photos are available here. Please respect his wishes and use them for personal use only. They make lovely screensaver photos.
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→
