Saving Canada’s Lighthouses
Like a lot of people I am on the ever popular, and some would say addicted to, the ever popular social network facebook. While browsing through my account on a mid-June day I was invited to by a local Liberal Member of Parliament to join the “Protect Nova Scotia’s Lighthouses” group. Being a lover of Nova Scotia’s nautical history and the well being of its future, I joined. I soon learned that the site is an attempt to make the public aware of our minority federal government’s sinister plan to further dampen the spirit of Atlantic Canada. “The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has declared close to one thousand lighthouses “surplus to its needs. This removes the federal government’s responsibility to maintain iconic structures like Peggy’s Cove and Cape Spear lights”
Once reading this I was immediately reminded of the sad plight of the Eddy Point lighthouse in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia and fear its fate could be a forerunner to the future of all our lighthouses. The Eddy point light was first lit in 1851 as a modest yet steadfast lantern in a window. Through time as shipping increased the light evolved into a fully operational lighthouse complete with a light keeper’s house, on the south entrance of the Strait of Canso. In the 1989 the once proud pre-confederation lighthouse that stood guard over the southern approach to the Strait of Canso and the northern approach to Chedabucto Bay was lost in the name of automation. That piece of Canadian history was thoughtlessly destroyed and replaced by a generic fibreglass tower.
Nova Scotia was once said to be situated on a drowning coast and proof came in erosion of the concrete pad the new beacon was perched on. But rather than move the ‘new and improved automated beacon’ back onto firmer ground where the original lighthouse sat, it was removed from the shoreline completely and trucked to New Brunswick! Now the bright light that guarded mariners for 138 years through countless storms, hurricanes and any other element that Mother Nature could conjure up is gone.
The irony of the loss of the Eddy Point lighthouse is the growing amount of shipping done through the narrow strait. Aside from using the strait to transit from the North Atlantic Ocean to Montreal, Toronto and even Chicago, there are many ships that use the strait to offload shipments of coal, gravel and oil. For the locals its common place to wake up, look out the window and see a 500 000 t super tanker anchored in front of their house. There is also a designated anchorage for oil tankers in nearby Inhabitants Bay, located right in front of the bare spit of Eddy Point. The oil cargo is then transferred from the super tankers to the smaller tankers and re-directed for ports in the United States. Another ironic twist was learned by me the hard way. While transiting from north to south through the nearby Canso Canal in a 16 foot open sailing dinghy in fog with only a handheld GPS, handheld VHF radio compass and charts I called the Canso Canal to report my position. I informed them that I had a radar reflector and asked if they could see me on their radar. I was absolutely stunned to learn that the Canso Canal, which transits an average of 2,069 ships, with an average gross tonnage of 1.88 million tons pass through the Canso Canal each year, is not equipped with radar. So much for relying on electronic navigation.
One of my favourite lighthouses is the Sambro Island lighthouse. Commissioned in 1758 it is the oldest functional lighthouse in both North and South America. In 1994 a group of lighthouse enthusiasts visited this island and were concerned with the condition of the light and light keeper’s houses. With automation came the abandonment of a light keeper in charge of the daily maintenance of the lighthouse. This group formed a non-profit society to help care for all of Nova Scotia’s lighthouses. The Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society played an instrumental role in restoring the brilliance of the Sambro Island lighthouse in 2008 to commemorate its 250 birthday. As an enthusiast I wanted to not simply read about Sambro Light, I wanted to visit this relatively inaccessible historic site. Again my surfing on facebook brought me to the annual Sou’ Wester days festival which included guided tours to the lighthouse. While waiting for the ferry ride over to the island I was handed a brochure which reads “Lighthouses are fundamental to Nova Scotia’s heritage. Though they are automated and de-staffed, many still stand sentinel along the coast. Others have been demolished or replaced by steel masts. We cannot assume the remaining lights will survive, for new electronic navigation systems make lighthouses less necessary. The NSLPS takes a leading role in protecting these historic lights, We promote and support awareness and preservation of Nova Scotia lighthouses, assist community groups in leasing or taking ownership of lighthouse sites, provide access to written research and photographic documentation, initiate oral history research and monitor the status of historic lighthouse sites.”
When reading Don Ledger’s book Swissair Down; A Pilots view of the crash at Peggy’s Cove, Nimbus Publishing 2000 It is surmised that the pilots of the ill fated MD-11 that lost all electronic aid due to fire in the aircraft in all probability used the Peggy’s Cove lighthouse and Yowlers light on Paddy’ Head to calculate their last known position before crashing into Mahone Bay killing all 229 people aboard. As Ledger states on page 136 “Because of the flight path Flight 111 followed from Paddy’s Head Island, I believe that they were navigating in reference to the light on either East Ironbound Island, or, and more likely initially, the light on Green Island.”
Hopefully that scenario will never play out again but one can plainly see that lighthouses are important beacons of life not only for those who sail the sea but also those who fly the sky.
