St Jacques Island Lighthouse

1907

1907

Canada

Inspector John T. Nevill

4th order

Fixed

Inactive

White light that was alternately steady for 7 seconds and then eclipsed for three seconds.

Cast iron circular tower

The pre-fabricatedd rounded rectangular sections of the cast iron tower.

The lighthouse is located on the northern shore of Fortune Bay.

A lighthouse for the community of St. Jacques was socio-economically important because of the growing importance of fishing. Indeed, from the mid-1800s when families first moved from Grand Bank to participate in herring fishery and by 1891 Burkes and Young had a fishing firm. With its prosperity, it became the parish seat for Roman Catholic communities of inner Fortune Bay and a convent school was set up in 1894. In 1894, Inspector John T. Nevill took note of this and thought that since it was a short distance offshore from the mouth of the harbour at St. Jacques and consisted of two hummocks linked by a low neck, the Island was suitable. Further it was accessible and a light there would be useful for making the harbour and would have a commanding range over Fortune Bay. Although it would not be until 1907 that the lighthouse was constructed, and the light was activated in the spring of 1908. This nevertheless proved critical as the local fishing fleet tripled in size by the early 20th century.

Beyond its importance to its community, the lighthouse illustrates the expansion of the lighthouse system along the Newfoundland coast and the reliance of the British colony’s economy on aquaculture. Indeed the lighthouse’s cast iron appearance demonstrates a mass construction across the coastline of inexpensive, easy to make lighthouses. Further, the lens and rounded rectangular sections that were manufactured in England also illustrates the colony’s relationship with industrial England.

The lighthouse was a circular iron tower, 12m tall on the southeast end of the island along with a keeper’s dwelling. There is a small window a third of the way up the shaft and a rounded iron door at ground level. Further, there is a crow’s nest gallery.

The lighthouse has however undergone several modifications over the years. Initially, the light was a fourth order Fresnel lens from the Chance Brothers and provided a white light that was alternately stead for 7 seconds and then eclipsed for three seconds. The light had a focal plane of 40m. However, the light was changed to a fixed white in 1930. Additionally, the keeper’s dwelling was re-built in 1950. Further, a landing boom was installed in 1918 and a fog alarm was fitted in 1929 in a white flat-roofed engine room powered by air compressed by oil engine. The fog alarm gave a 2 second blast every 45 seconds as needed. Besides the iron tower, a 1960 keeper’s dwelling, a 1970 generator building, and 1970 and 1999 equipment buildings remain standing on the island today.

There have been many keepers and assistants over the years. Starting with P.O. Burke from 1908 to 1912, followed by Isaac Burke from 1916. Joseph Penney was lightkeeper from 1929 to at least 1935 when the fog alarm was installed and was responsible for the light and the fog alone until his assistant Thomas Harry Young came in 1935. Later, Eric Fiander served as assistant to Keeper Hubert Myles by at least 1963. Both men resided in dwellings on the island alongside Fiander’s three small children and wife.

A tragic incident involved a storm starting on December 19th that buffeted the station with 100mph winds for two days. Myles was on leave and left his 17-year-old nephew Hughie with the Eric. The waves struck Eric’s dwelling with 7 inches of ice. Eric made twice daily radio calls to the Department of Transport office at Burin at 10:30 on Friday and at 11:00. The men checked the lighthouse, fog alarm building, and a boat shed, on the beach that joined the two lobes of the island. The wind had blown over the shed used to store the boat’s engine and other equipment. After lunch, the men took rope to secure the toppled shed until the storm passed. Around 3:00pm, Katherine Fiander, thought she heard Eric calling her above the wind calling, she checked the basement where it sounded to be coming from and it was empty. She prepared their dinner, but they did not return. She had to start the generator but decided against it when looking at the ice-coated lifeline that linked the dwelling and powerhouse. She kept the children warm by playing and went to bed. They still had not returned in the morning, so she went to the powerhouse and started the generator to get some heat to the house. She grasped the lifeline, bent into the wind, and went across the station grounds. She gave the handcrank several spins before giving up. She did not know compression levers had to be pulled before cranking the engine. She returned to entertain the children and found an old kerosene lamp that gave some heat. On the second night, she scanned the grounds. At noon a boat passed the island, and she waved a towel as a distress signal to no avail. Later, she saw two friends from Coombs Cove looking for Eric. High water marks on the cliffs near the beach provided evidence that the seas swept the men away. The body of Hughie was recovered on the beach the next day, but Eric was never found. Katherine moved to Rose Blanche and gave birth on September 13th to her late husband’s son, Eric Bruce, but he died in his sleep over a month later. In 1968, staffing of the station was changed to a four-person rotational shift system.

Alex Hickey formed the non-profit St. Jacques Island Heritage Corporation and submitted a business plan to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Three years of meetings and negotiating culminated in the lighthouse be signed over to the non-profit. The corporation successfully petitioned for it to be declared a heritage lighthouse under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act of 2008 in 1989. As of 2019, it is just one of sixteen lighthouses in Newfoundland and Labrador to have this designation. A floating dock was installed in 2019 to help with the corporation’s plans to develop the keeper’s dwelling as a tourism rental facility and artist retreat that will generate funds for the preservation of the station.

Canadian Coast Guard

St. Jacques Island Heritage Corporation

Open

Closed

Latitude: 47.473889, Longitude: -55.406389

https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=1317

https://alexhickey.com/2017/09/22/st-jacques-island-lighthouse/

https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=3903

https://www.ibiblio.org/lighthouse/nflw.htm

ARLHS CAN-669; CCG N-118; Admiralty H0304; NGA 2292.

Online sources

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