A large pot of tea would have already been prepared

August 24, 2016 4:06 PM

The light had to be wound up like a giant grandfather clock every 30 minutes. Every 20 minutes we pumped up the air pressure to the paraffin. This was a subtle ruse to keep us awake and alert, as was the little hammer that banged away on the brass every second through the night. At the highest level the light itself burned and the giant mirrors, the reflectors, turned like a slow-motion merry-go-round supported on a huge bath of mercury. To light the paraffin you had to cause a mini explosion in the light room, allowing a small cloud of paraffin vapour to form in the air, shielding your face while igniting the gas with a burning taper.
posted by Chrysostom (36 comments total)

This is not relevant to my interests. But it's a fantastic read.
posted by uosuaq at 4:19 PM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]

Just the microvacation I needed this afternoon, thank you.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 4:20 PM on August 24, 2016 [4 favorites]

Just the microvacation I needed this afternoon, thank you.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 6:20 PM on August 24

Almost, but not quite, hugely eponysterical. Light vessels are the Enterprise to lighthouses' Deep Space Nine.
Yes, I view everything through trek shaded glasses.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 4:27 PM on August 24, 2016 [8 favorites]

Oooh, a mercury bath! Thankfully, those were rare: most of the lighthouses in the US used carriages with brass wheels, which had their own problems, but didn't result in long-term contamination of the lantern rooms (and the rest of the lighthouse).

The downside of the brass wheels is that if the power went out for some reason, or the keeper forgot to wind up the counterweight keeping it going, the wheels would begin to warp under the several-hundred-pounds of weight of the lens.

This guy's lighthouse tour sounds relatively pleasant, actually. Cape St. Elias Lighthouse, in Alaska, was considered so remote and dangerous that it was a hardship posting in the US Lighthouse Service: if you did a year there, you got a year off on full salary.
posted by suelac at 4:31 PM on August 24, 2016 [6 favorites]

And this weekend past was the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend, when - in an eerie echo of the birds in the FPP - radio amateurs travel to lighthouses and lightships to talk to each other for reasons never adequately explained. The business of temporarily establishing a radio station at a particular location is called activation; similar events exist for islands, peaks and any country which doesn't have much of an amateur population. It's taken remarkably seriously, and more than one archaeological or scientific mission to a remote lump of geography or distant antiquity has been a bit peeved to find that the radio guys got there first.

Having recently moved to within a few hundred yards of a Scottish lighthouse, this was the first year I could have taken part - but circumstances, alas. Next year, I shall try harder. I will not however manage the style of one local ham, who visits a number of lighthouses on the coast and islands hereabouts on his ten metre yacht.
posted by Devonian at 4:37 PM on August 24, 2016 [7 favorites]

This was great, thanks.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:46 PM on August 24, 2016

Thanks for this, it's exactly what I come to Metafilter to find.
posted by rock swoon has no past at 4:48 PM on August 24, 2016 [5 favorites]

Just dropping in to plug Boston Light, the last "manned" lighthouse in America. I put quotes there because it's actually womanned, the lighthouse keeper being one Sally Snowman of the Coast Guard Auxillary. They do regular tours, where they'll let you up into the light room and you can watch the big Fresnel lens go round and round. Totally worth it if you like lighthouses and happen to be nearby.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 4:51 PM on August 24, 2016 [3 favorites]

Really lovely.
posted by not_the_water at 4:55 PM on August 24, 2016

the last "manned" lighthouse in America

Kind of. Ms. Snowman is a historian rather than a keeper, but she is at least employed by the Coast Guard. There are many occupied lighthouses around the US, but they are inhabited by caretakers, members of non-profits, and property managers. Sometimes the public can rent a lighthouse for a week's vacation.

However the beacons themselves, and the historic lenses (where they are in place), are maintained by the local Coast Guard units rather than any civilians living on the grounds. The buildings are often kept up by other entities, if the light station has been leased out to a state park or a local non-profit. (Sometimes both: Point No Point in Washington State is leased to Kitsap County, who then sublet it to the US Lighthouse Society.)
posted by suelac at 4:59 PM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

I just went on a mini-tour of the lighthouses of the southern Oregon coast this weekend. Thanks for this post!
posted by curious nu at 5:08 PM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]

And here are some lighthouses you probably don't want to visit.
posted by Devonian at 5:20 PM on August 24, 2016 [11 favorites]

On the other hand...
posted by rock swoon has no past at 5:20 PM on August 24, 2016 [8 favorites]

Before anyone starts to think too dreamily of the life of a lighthouse keeper, I suggest you listen to the first half of this episode of the Futility Closet podcast, which examines the an event that happened one night in 1900 on an island lighthouse in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, that involved the sudden disappearance of every man on the island.
posted by chambers at 5:30 PM on August 24, 2016 [4 favorites]

Here's another good piece on the Flannan Isles Mystery.
posted by Chrysostom at 5:38 PM on August 24, 2016

And here's an entire Metafilter discussion of the Flannan Isles mystery.
posted by baf at 5:44 PM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

I now have visions of the turning light from offshore . wonderful piece!
posted by AlexiaSky at 5:50 PM on August 24, 2016

We should bring back these jobs and the fire watch towers as well. We made a terrible cultural mistake in automating away these positions.
posted by humanfont at 5:59 PM on August 24, 2016 [7 favorites]

What, humanfont, we should have government-funded wilderness hermits?

We should.
posted by The Gaffer at 6:47 PM on August 24, 2016 [10 favorites]

We should bring back these jobs and the fire watch towers as well

Fire watch towers are still a thing.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:23 PM on August 24, 2016

And here are some lighthouses you probably don't want to visit

Two nuclear generators missing in Arctic (2013)
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:30 PM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh, that was so lovely. Thank you.
posted by rtha at 7:50 PM on August 24, 2016

The light had to be wound up like a giant grandfather clock every 30 minutes. Every 20 minutes we pumped up the air pressure to the paraffin. This was a subtle ruse to keep us awake and alert, as was the little hammer that banged away on the brass every second through the night. At the highest level the light itself burned and the giant mirrors, the reflectors, turned like a slow-motion merry-go-round supported on a huge bath of mercury. To light the paraffin you had to cause a mini explosion in the light room, allowing a small cloud of paraffin vapour to form in the air, shielding your face while igniting the gas with a burning taper.

It's the Galvanick Lucifer!
posted by not that girl at 8:40 PM on August 24, 2016 [4 favorites]

Really great, thanks!
posted by pt68 at 9:39 PM on August 24, 2016

Also, this is what I think of, now, any time lighthouses are mentioned.
posted by curious nu at 10:14 PM on August 24, 2016 [4 favorites]

Before I go to the link, this sounds not dissimilar to how you "encouraged" domestic plumbing and heating to provide you with a hot bath, back in 1970s rural England.

{checks link} Oh.
posted by Wordshore at 2:16 AM on August 25, 2016

This is from about twenty years ago, looks like he expanded it into a full memoir about ten years ago.
posted by octothorpe at 5:13 AM on August 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

This is about as close as you can get to traditional lighthouse keeping in the US now. Not a bad gig, really, and you don't have to refill the kerosene lantern every 30 minutes, either.
posted by suelac at 6:37 AM on August 25, 2016

As a lover of the ocean and an avid listener of the Shipping Forecast, this has made my day.
posted by Kitteh at 7:03 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

And a friend just emailed - she's running a drama/writing workshop in a Shetland lighthouse right now.

How does Metafilter even DO that?
posted by Devonian at 7:10 AM on August 25, 2016 [5 favorites]

My next post will concern how an everyday guy in Pittsburgh wins $100 million.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:23 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

Wonderful.
posted by AwkwardPause at 8:01 AM on August 25, 2016

Previous post on Bird Fallout, for anyone else who thought the anecdote about the migration sounded familiar.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 8:17 AM on August 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

I spent a little time with the Fair Isle keepers in the early 1990s. Fair Isle has two lighthouses (both Stevenson built), since it's a particularly bad place to wash up on. One side of the island is sheer cliffs, and has never had any recorded wreck survivors. The other side is a bit more survivable, but during winter survivors would be a trial for the island's limited food supplies. Despite a protected harbour and regular flights, Fair Isle has been known to be cut off for weeks by bad weather.

The lights had been converted to halogen beams, so no clockwork and glass. The keepers always knew the time no matter where they were on the island. Unlike the rest of the island, the lighthouses had 24 hour electrical power, Many of them were excellent musicians, as there were regular off hours. The Northern Lighthouse Board sent regular supplies for maintenance. In true island fashion, any leftovers were re-used creatively. One of the keepers drove an elderly Saab, protected from the corrosive salty air by annual layers of NLB-spec exterior paint.
posted by scruss at 8:22 AM on August 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

This is about as close as you can get to traditional lighthouse keeping in the US now.

Dude, that is TOTALLY the opening to a horror story.
posted by happyroach at 9:16 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

I am not sure what would be worse, having that birdtastrophe happen your last night at the lighthouse, or the first (excluding the part about cigarettes, anyway).
posted by ckape at 9:05 PM on August 25, 2016