Yes, it’s just in time for Christmas and it is red and white, just like a Canadian lighthouse. It is the new LEGO model # 5770, called Lighthouse Island. Any child would love it; any adult who collects lighthouses will want it too! Just ignore the sign on the box that says ages 8 – 12.
The following extracts taken from early Victoria, British Columbia (BC) newspapers are credited to Leona Taylor for her excellent work in indexing the papers. Full information can be found here: ”Index of Historical Victoria Newspapers“, 2007-09.
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CGS Quadra, now coaling, will probably carry a representative of the Sailor’s Union to the West Coast, when she leaves on a patrol and lighthousetendering cruise about the end of the week. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer of yesterday says: “As a reward for the heroism of Mrs Minnie Paterson in sending aid to the crew of the bark Coloma, which was drifting a wreck off the Vancouver Island coast, the Masters’ and Pilots’ Assn will present her with a handsome gold medal. The inscription on the reverse side reads: “Presented by Puget Sound Harbour No 16, to Mrs Minnie Paterson, for her heroic effort in sending assistance to the bark Coloma, Dec 7, 1906, whereby the lives of 10 men were saved by Dominion Government Steamer Quadra.’
On the reverse side is the figure of a woman fighting her way through the brush with the Latin inscription meaning ‘She hastened that she might save others.” [Colonist, 1907-02-06] Continue reading Lighthouse History – 28 (1907-02-06 to 1907-06-15)
The following article by Bella Bathhurst from the Notting Hill Editions Journal was passed to me by a BC lightkeeper. It was so well written I asked permission to reprint it here. Pay special attention to the author’s reasons for keeping lighthouses.
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Don’t Let the Lighthouses go Dark by Bella Bathhurst
– published November 10, 2011
– published with permission from Notting Hill Editions Journal
We are jettisoning lighthouses at our peril, writes Bella Bathurst, a lighthouse historian. Even in the age of GPS, they remain immensely useful, and retain deep symbolic power.
Twelve years ago, I wrote a book called The Lighthouse Stevensons about the construction of the lights around the Scottish coastline by Robert Louis Stevenson’s family. I was lucky to arrive at exactly the right moment. In 1999, the last of the British lights were being automated and the few remaining keepers were disappearing towards extinction. The men I spoke to were mostly at or near retirement age anyway; most saw the logic of their own removal even if they weren’t persuaded by its effects. At the beginning of the third millennium, you don’t need three grown men to change a lightbulb. But what none of those last keepers would ever have understood or sanctioned was the idea of the lights themselves being switched off.
Continue reading Don’t Let the Lighthouses Go Dark – special reprint
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)
A Public Service pension is calculated according to the following basic pension formula:(source)
|
2 per |
X |
number of years of |
X |
your average salary for the five |
Maximum Pension Payable To You Is ONLY For 35 Years Which Equals 70%.
Continue reading Canadian Government Pension Plans for Retiring Lighthouse Keepers
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.
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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
by Jeannie (Hartt) Nielsen (daughter of Ed Hartt, Senior Keeper on Langara 1957 – 1963)
My dad built me a 8 foot plywood rowboat on Langara. It was my pride and joy. I often rowed it in the “cut”. This was a sheltered cove where the supply workboat brought our groceries and fuel, and hooked slings onto the skyhook to bring the goods onshore.
Often the cut would become choked with kelp, fouling the workboats prop. I would take a machete, throw my boat in, and spend the warm summer days leaning over the side of the boat and chopping the heads off the kelp. They would then sink to the bottom, leaving the area clean. Continue reading My Rowboat On Langara Island
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?
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
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. . . .”
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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?
The following extracts taken from early Victoria, British Columbia (BC) newspapers are credited to Leona Taylor for her excellent work in indexing the papers. Full information can be found here: “Index of Historical Victoria Newspapers“, 2007-09.
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Victoria Daily Times – Barkentine Skagit, of Port Gamble, struck the rocks near Clo-oose at 4am. There was a bad Southwest gale and a heavy sea, with fog, at the time.
Captain Rose was drowned, as was also the cook, name unknown. The vessel is a total loss. Mate Langkow and 7 men are ashore at Logan’s place.
Skagit, bound from San Francisco to Port Gamble, is ashore and liable to become a wreck on West Coast Vancouver Island. She sailed from the Bay City on Oct 13. Continue reading Lighthouse History – 27 (1906-10-25 to 1907-02-02)
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!
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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.
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