Tag Archives: lightship

What Light Is That?

What light is that? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Maybe when reading a magazine, seeing an advertisement, or watching a movie – what lighthouse is that? Where is that lighthouse?

Harbour
computer screenshot

MV5BMTQ3MDA4MDIyN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwOTg0Njk4._V1_SX214_Well this happened to me while I was watching the first of the Jason Bourne movies  – The Bourne Identity (IMDb)

Eight (8) minutes into the DVD movie (see screen shot at right) the fishboat that rescued him from the ocean enters Cassis harbour (according to the book by Robert Ludlum) and we see this green light at the end of a breakwater. Unfortunately the movie does not follow the book at all (“The novel is wildly

Cassis harbour light look likes this
Cassis harbour light look likes this

wildly different from the movie.”) and I have no idea where this harbour is located. It is definitely not Cassis harbour near Marseille, France. If you look at the film you will see as they enter the harbour there is a shipyard on the left side – there is definitely no shipyard in the photo on the right. Of the fifteen places listed in the IMDb website for the film locations, none of them apply to this harbour.

So, where is it? Do you know? If so please let me know so I can inform the readers as well.

Continue reading What Light Is That?

BC Lightships

Thomas F. Bayard Sandheads No. 16 - photograph Canadian Coast Guard

 

Canada had lightships – well, I know of one on the Fraser River – the Sandheads #16. It used to be situated at the mouth of the Fraser River. More information on the Sandheads Lightships here.

 

The website Vancouver History has this to say:

The Sandheads #16 lightship at the mouth of the Fraser, there since 1913, ended its service. This two-masted schooner had started life in New York in 1880 as the Thomas F. Bayard, a Delaware Bay pilot ship. (Thomas Bayard was a Delaware senator.) She had an interesting career, which can be read about here. The Bayard was purchased in 1978 by the Vancouver Maritime Museum, which has been restoring her to her condition as a West Coast sealer. Continue reading BC Lightships