Lightkeeper

“ Would it do for light-house-keepers to be men who trembled at the storm, and turned pale when their tower shook, and forgot to light the lamp, when the lightning's forked tongue was darting hither and thither? May a light-house-keeper put his own life and health first, and his duty next? Must he allow anxiety for a sick child, or sorrow for a dying wife, to withdraw him for one evening from his work? No. All that is required of a faithful soldier is required, in even a greater degree, in the keeper of a lighthouse. ”

“ THE LIGHTHOUSE-KEEPERS.
The life of a lighthouse-keeper is not without a certain monotony; but it must be greatly cheered by the reflection that it is devoted to a high and holy service. There is about it a certain heroic simplicity—it is so completely separated from the commonplace aims and concerns of the work-day world; and it is characterized, moreover, by an austere regularity which reminds one of the existence formerly led in grotto and cavern by saint and hermit, though its end is much more useful, and it is in itself of far greater value to mankind. ”

“ The duties of the lighthouse-keepers must be performed with the greatest regularity. The glasses of the light-room and the optical apparatus are carefully cleaned every morning; the lamps are supplied with oil, the wicks trimmed or renewed, the machinery oiled and adjusted, and everything prepared in readiness for the evening. At sunset the lamps are lighted, and one keeper takes his watch until midnight, when he is relieved by another, who maintains the vigil till sunrise, when the lamps are extinguished. ”

“ He will tell you that his gallant barque is always ready for the tempest. And yet its deck is sometimes washed by the waves, and when the sea strikes against its broadside, the roar is like the discharge of a piece of artillery.
On board every lightship the life of the crew is much the same. On Sunday, at dawn, the lantern is lowered, and the lamp-lighter cleans and prepares his lamps for the next night’s work. At eight o’clock everybody must be on the alert ”

“ From these requirements we may infer what kind of life is led by the lighthouse-keeper, and what are its leading requisites: temperance, cleanliness, honesty, conscientiousness, zeal, watchfulness. At different stations it varies considerably in its lighter occupations. In the rock [279] lighthouse—such as the Eddystone—the keeper’s chief amusements are necessarily reading and fishing: the only capability of exercise is within the circle of the outer gallery, or on the belt of rock surrounding the lighthouse base ”

“ They are then compelled to shut themselves up, as closely as possible, in a tower darkened by the wreathing fog, or by the foam of swelling [288] waves, which envelopes it like a rent veil. On fine summer days, like the English light-keepers, they amuse themselves with fishing. If their abode is not encircled by rocks on which they can stretch their lines, they knot around the lighthouse tower, at a certain height, and immediately above the entrance, a stout rope, suspending some forty or fifty lines, each about four feet long. ”

“ At the lighthouse of Bréhat a wild duck forced its way through two rows of mirrors and fell upon the lamp. A thousand of these birds were on one occasion caught by the crew of a British lightship, who made them into a gigantic pie. It is necessary to defend with trellis-work the lights most exposed to visits of this kind.
SEA-BIRDS ATTRACTED BY THE RAYS OF A LIGHTHOUSE.
Fortunately, all sea-birds are not so dangerous. Some of them even render to the navigator a service like that which the goose of the capitol, according to Livy, once rendered to the Romans. ”

“ The plight of the lighthouse-keeper in a gale is unenviable, but it is far and away preferable to that of the lightship crew under similar circumstances. The tower may bow slightly like a tree before the storm, and the waves may cause it to shiver at times, but that is the only movement. On the lightship the crew appear to be tossed, rolled, and spun, in all directions simultaneously. The deck becomes untenable, but the men in the performance of their duties have to grope and crawl from point to point, holding on grimly with both hands when an angry sea douches them. ”

“ All that became known was, that about two o’clock in the morning of the 2nd December, 1755, the light-keeper on duty, going into the lantern to snuff the candles, found it full of smoke. The lighthouse was on fire! In a few minutes the wooden fabric was in a blaze. Water could not be brought up the tower by the men in sufficient quantities to be thrown with any effect upon the flames raging above their heads; the molten lead fell down upon the light-keepers, into their very mouths,53 and they fled from room to room, the fire following them down towards the sea. ”

“ The danger-signal may be one of many kinds—a misty, star-like glimmer thrown from a buoy dancing on the waves, the radiant orb from a lightship bobbing up and down and swinging rhythmically to and fro, a fixed flare-light, or dazzling, spoke-like rays revolving across the sky. If sight be impossible owing to fog, he must depend upon his ear for the measured2 tolling of a bell, the shriek of a whistle, the deep blare of a siren, or the sharp report of an explosive. ”

“ Cast your glance upon the interior of that immense diamond which we call a dioptric apparatus. The first object which strikes our attention is the lamp. As the fire which shone on the summit of the edifice was the soul of the pharos, so the lamp is the soul of the modern lighthouse. It was to this lamp Teulère first directed his attention, when he brought the catoptric system to perfection; and it was to this lamp that Arago and Fresnel addressed themselves when engaged, in their time, in improving the work of Teulère, Argand, and Borda. ”

“ It is, of course, impossible that a keeper’s family should be accommodated in a sea lighthouse, which consists of a single tower. They are, therefore, lodged on shore, near the port which keeps up the communication between the lighthouse and the mainland. In such a station life to many minds would be wearisome and monotonous. The wind sometimes blows with so much violence that the keepers can with difficulty breathe. ”

“ It was in vain that ships were dispatched towards the rocks; a raging sea invariably prevented their approach. One of them returned, on a certain occasion, with the singular intelligence that her crew had observed a man standing upright and motionless, in a corner of the outer gallery, with a flag of distress floating beside him. But whether he was alive or dead, none could say, or even imagine. Every night the gaze of the inhabitants of the shore was anxiously directed towards the lighthouse, to see if the lamp was kindled ”

“ Each of the two (or three) light-keepers has a house for himself and family, both being under a common roof, but entering by separate doors. The principal keeper’s house consists of six rooms, two of which are at the disposal of the visiting officers of the Board, whose duty in inspecting the lighthouse or superintending repairs may call them to the station; and the assistant has four rooms, one of which is used as a barrack-room for the workmen who, under the direction of the foreman of the light-room works, execute the annual repairs of the apparatus. ”

“ THE LIGHTHOUSE ON THE ROCKY HEADLAND.
When he has overpassed the first line of defence, the navigator encounters a second circle—“secondary-lights”—composed of lighthouses of the second and third orders, indicating secondary capes, reefs, and sand-banks, to which it is prudent to give a good offing. When the mouth of a river or the entrance of a port is only accessible by narrow channels, whose direction an experienced and veteran pilot can hardly determine by night, other lights of the same class are placed in the line of the channel, and point out the exact course which should be taken. ”

“ It indicates to the keepers their duties, and prescribes to them the nature of their daily work. As for their mode of life, it is much the same everywhere, only more or less agreeable according to the stations. In France the lighthouses served by a single keeper are intrusted to married men, who live in the establishment with their family. Not only does such an arrangement ameliorate their lot, but it also gives the assurance that in case of need they will immediately be replaced in attendance on the lamp—a task so easy that it can be discharged by a woman or even by a child. ”

“ It is getting cool. Perhaps we had better go down," said the keeper, shrugging his shoulders. While within the lantern he glanced at the lamp, and then descended to the kitchen. Without the twilight deepened. Out of the gloom towered the lighthouse, bearing aloft its guiding, warning rays. The keeper was in the kitchen, trimming an old lantern which had done him much faithful service. That small visitor, Bart, had gone with Dave up into the lantern, anxious to see the working of the lamp.
The keeper lighted his lantern, and then started for the fog-signal tower. ”

“ She flutters like an exhausted bird, in and out of the narrow lighthouse. The lighthouse-keeper sees the danger, and hurries down. She wants to throw herself into the water. He climbs down the rocks and seizes hold of her. Already before, this son of the people had found time to give her a love poem to read. The storm lasts three days, and for three days she remains there. On the fourth day the fishermen return to fetch her, and the lighthouse-keeper is furious. By this time she is no better than a very ordinary fisher girl. She is deathly pale, but insists on leaving him. ”

“ The light-keepers had sighted the tug with the relief-vessel, and were anticipating keenly their return to civilization, when there was a crash! A cliff of steel reared above them like a knife-edge; a vessel had blundered into them, cutting their home in two. The next moment they were shot pell-mell into the water as their craft sank beneath their feet.
On a calm day, when the lightship is riding quietly at anchor, and the members of the crew, maybe, are beguiling the tedium by fishing, a passer-by on a liner is apt to consider the life one of quietness and enjoyment, albeit monotonous. ”

“ A great blazing lamp burns brilliantly in the center of the lantern of the tower, and all that part of the radiation from the flame which would naturally have beamed upward, or downward, or laterally, or back toward the land, is so turned by a curious system of reflectors and polyzonal lenses, most ingeniously contrived and very exactly adjusted, as to be thrown forward in one broad and thin, but brilliant sheet of light, which shoots out where its radiance is needed, over the surface of the sea. ”

“ We are apt to look upon the lighthouse as completely a modern invention, but a little reflection would convince us that the early navigators, in their arduous struggle against the ocean, could not have failed to establish some sure indications by which to guide their adventurous course. Undoubtedly, the first rude signal would be no more than a huge fire blazing on the wave-washed promontory, or on the summit of hoary hill or grassy mound nearest to the more dangerous parts of the shore. ”

“ The flame generally used in reflectors is derived from an Argand lamp, with wicks an inch in diameter. The burners are sometimes tipped with silver to prevent the wick from being wasted by the great heat which is evolved. They are also fitted, in many of the Scottish lighthouses, with a sliding apparatus of accurate shape, by which they can be removed from the interior of the mirror at cleaning time, returned exactly to the same place, and locked by means of a key. ”

“ We know that when the gray curtain of the fog hides the light, the hoarse scream of the steam-siren or brazen clang of the fog-bell will echo over the water, and warn the sailor against hidden dangers. For always and everywhere the light-house keeper is a brave, honest, faithful man ”

“ Who the devil is going to keep a loblolly-boy like you in grub and grog for nothing?"
I fell senseless and bleeding on the upper deck, or roof of the lighthouse.
I must have lain long thus; for, on recovery, I found that darkness had set in, that the beacon was lighted, and its three lamps, from the cavity of their vast reflectors, were again shedding their radiated lustre far across the heaving waves of the darkened sea. There was no moon visible, but a few tremulous stars were shimmering through the gauze-like vapour that veiled the gloomy sky. ”

“ But the age that has produced the Great Eastern can also point to the Skerryvore and the Bishop Rock lighthouses, to the Electric light, and to a first-class Lighting apparatus.
Whatever the future in store for the English lighthouse system, one thing is certain, that it cannot, and was never meant to supersede seamanship. No amount of lighting will dispense with the necessity for eyes, no extent of warning is so good as the capacity for grappling with a danger. ”

“ This keeper remarked that the centre of the flame should be exactly opposite the centre of the reflectors, and that accordingly, if he was not careful to turn down his wicks in the morning, the sun falling on the reflectors on the south side of the building would set fire to them, like a burning-glass, in the coldest day, and he would look up at noon and see them all lighted! When your lamp is ready to give light, it is readiest to receive it, and the sun will light it. ”

“ The brilliant glare attracts enormous flocks, which flit to and fro. As the monster flaming spoke swings round, the birds, evidently blinded by the glare, dash with such fury against the glass panes of the lantern as to flutter to the floor of the gallery with broken necks and wings, while large numbers, dazed or killed, fall into the water. The birds are of all species, and at times may be picked up by the basketful. Then the light-keepers are able to secure a welcome change in their dietary. ”