Friday October 18 2013

Looking Back: Lighthouse Life

A feature from October 1938, by Gilbert W Moore

IF it is a true saying that one half of the world does not know how the other half lives, it is also true that many members of the Church of Scotland do not know the conditions in which many of their fellow-members live and work.

Round the north and west coasts of Scotland, in many a lonely island, there are members of the Church employed as lightkeepers. Often they have to face difficulties and dangers. If they are situated in one of the remote islands the only food they can obtain is tinned. Most of these men are loyal members of the Church, and when it is possible they attend the services. They give a great welcome to the minister whenever he can pay them a visit.

The training of a lightkeeper is fairly severe. At the age of twenty-one a young man may enter the Northern Lighthouse service after passing a medical and elementary examination. If he is successful, he is sent out to various stations as a supernumerary there to learn his work. After three months or so of hard training he is qualified for an appointment as an assistant keeper.

The assistant keeper has a house of his own which he must look after himself unless he is married or has a housekeeper. He remains an assistant for an indefinite period, promotion being dependent on the number of retirals. The retiring age is sixty or sixty-five, when a lightkeeper can retire with a pension.

There are four classes of lighthouses. There are first the gas or one-man stations where men about retiring age are placed, as the work is very light. The lightkeeper at such a station lights the lantern at sunset and is then free to go to bed. If any breakdown occurs he is wakened by an automatic alarm.

Then there are the two-man stations, where there is usually no fog signal to attend to. If there is a fog signal it is an automatic gun which requires no attention once it has been started, thus making the work of the lightkeeper much easier.

At three-men stations, fog horns are operated by engines. This makes the work much heavier; as a man is required to look after the plant. When the horn is operating, each man keeps his watch as it comes round.

The fourth class of station is the rock station, where four men are employed - three living on the rock at one time, and the fourth being ashore. They are relieved at some places every fortnight and at others once a month. This arrangement makes the routine one month ashore and six weeks on the rock. All the stations except the rocks have houses where the wives and families of the lightkeepers live.

During the winter months work in a lighthouse is not heavy. It consists merely in keeping the lantern clean. Winter is apt, however, to prove very monotonous, especially when the weather is stormy and the lighthouse is lashed by wind and sea. It is even dangerous to be a lightkeeper on some of the lonelier islands during the winter. Last winter one of the lightkeepers on the Pentland Skerries was drowned. He had gone to meet a boat which was bringing food supplies when a large wave washed him off the rock and he was never seen again.

In the spring the lightkeepers have to tackle the problem of spring-cleaning. Work beings about the middle of March, according to the weather. First, painting is done in the engine-room, tower, and houses. When the weather improves, about the beginning of May, the outside work is begun. The tower has to be limewashed and painted, and it takes a steady nerve to tackle some of the higher towers.

Most lightkeepers have a hobby of some kind. Bird life can be studied, as many of the rocks are haunts of sea-gulls, puffins and other kinds of sea birds. Wireless too has brought happiness to many lightkeepers who are placed in the lonely outposts and who may have no other communication with the outside world for weeks on end.

The Church cannot do too much for her members who are lightkeepers. All honour is due to them for their keenness and efficiency, for on them depends the safety of many lives. It is a tradition of the service that, no matter what happens, the light must never be allowed to go out. All night long round our coasts the guiding lights gleam through storm and darkness, leading many a ship to her desired haven in safety.

Looking Back menu