One notable feature in connection with the work was the utilization of electricity for the operation of the derrick, which was driven by a petrol motor coupled thereto. This was supplemented in times of pressure with another derrick, driven by current generated on the steamer, from which a cable trailed to the rock. Altogether 4,180 tons of masonry were transported to the rock and set in position. During the seven years the work was in progress, from the first landing to the final withdrawal of the workmen, 449 landings were made and 2,937 hours of work put in. The largest annual aggregate of labour was in 1911, when 70 landings were made and 400 hours turned to useful purpose. The tower, which is of imposing appearance, has six floors for the convenience of the keeper, stores, etc. The apartment immediately beneath the lantern contains the fog-signalling apparatus, which comprises a siren driven by air which is compressed for the purpose by means of a fourteen horse-power petrol motor. The signal is as follows: Three blasts of one and a half seconds’ duration with intervening intervals of one and a half seconds, followed by a silent period of fifty-two and a half seconds, one cycle thus being emitted every minute. The light, which is thrown from an elevation of 110¼ feet above high-water, throws groups of three red flashes at intervals of fifteen seconds, and has a maximum range of twenty miles in very clear weather.
In accordance with the terms of the donor’s will, the light is named after the rock upon which it stands, and therefore is known as the Jument of Ushant lighthouse. The benefactor’s second wish is also respected in the inscription wrought in the solid granite, which translated runs: “This lighthouse was built with the legacy of Charles Eugène Potron, traveller, and member of the Geographical Society of Paris.” The sum set aside by this benefactor of humanity, however, did not defray the entire cost of the lighthouse. As a matter of fact, the total outlay on the undertaking was more than twice the sum left for the purpose, totalling 850,000 francs—£34,000, or $170,000. The Government decided that the munificence of its citizen offered the opportunity to carry out the first instalment of the scheme it had in view upon the most complete lines—hence the heavy disbursement. Nevertheless the origin of the Jument lighthouse is almost unprecedented in the annals of lighthouse engineering, and it probably ranks as the first important light which has been built in accordance with the terms, and with funds, left by a will.
CHAPTER XII
THE GUARDIAN LIGHTS OF CANADA’S COAST
The phenomenal commercial expansion of the Dominion of Canada, which has brought about an amazing development in the maritime traffic with that country on both its seaboards, naturally has been responsible for the display of striking activity in the provision of aids to navigation. Both the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines bristle with dangers of a most terrible nature; the innumerable islands and precipitous flanks of rock recall the wild ruggedness of the western coast of Scotland or the forbidding Atlantic shoreline of France and Spain.
When the ships of Britain first traded with Canadian shores, shipwrecks and ocean tragedies were numerous; there is no escape for a ship which is caught on those pitiless coasts. The early settlers, therefore, did not hesitate to provide ways and means of guiding navigators to safety. Their first lights were primitive, comprising bonfires fed with wood, of which ample supplies abounded, pitched on prominent headlands; and these flickering rays, when not obscured by smoke and fog, served to speed the ship safely on her way.
The British pioneers, naturally, did not hesitate to improve upon these uncertain crude methods of warning, in course of time, by the erection of more substantial lights. These for the most part comprised timber-frame dwellings, used by the family entrusted with the maintenance of the light, from the roof of which a wooden tower extended, similar in design to the buildings favoured for a similar purpose in the United States. Many lights of this class are still doing faithful service to-day, and although one might anticipate the destruction of such a beacon from fire, yet, owing to the unremitting care displayed by the families associated with the upkeep thereof, this awful fiend has not been responsible for the temporary extinction of many lights in the country’s history.
Photo by permission of Lieut.-Col. W. P. Anderson.