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Interview With A Lightkeeper

Tyler: How could the boats tell one lighthouse from another?

Mr. Thornhill: Every boat carried a navigational book which had lighthouse information in it. Our lighthouse station was plain white with red trim. Each lighthouse has a certain colour or stripe pattern to help distinguish it. Each foghorn and light signal is also different. Our foghorn had a pattern called 27/3 and that meant that it would blow for 3 seconds and be silent for 27 seconds. Our light would rotate and flash every 10 seconds. Our kids got so used to the constant light that even today, one of our daughters keeps a light on in her bedroom all night long. We also had flags to use to signal bad weather or other important information. In the beginning, we had to learn to form messages and letters of the alphabet with our bodies.

Tyler: Did you have any tragedies while you worked at the lighthouse?

Mr. Thornhill: We had one boat that ran up onto the rocks. It was a French boat called "The Miquelon" and there were six men on board. They all got safely to shore and stayed at our house that night. It was a beautiful, clear night but it was a freak accident because the automatic pilot malfunctioned. We also had a bit of a personal tragedy. I bought a brand new car and the kids (Wayne and Brenda, I think) got into it, and accidentally hit it out of gear, which was easy to do back then. The car went down over the cliff and we lost it. The kids were okay thank goodness, but we lost a car that wasn't even a year old.

Tyler: Did anything exciting happen while you lived at the lighthouse?

Mr. Thornhill: : Our youngest daughter, Kim was dedicated 1969 at the lighthouse because she was a baby then. Our son Wayne was also married at the lighthouse and had his reception there.

Tyler: Did any of your children follow in your footsteps as a lighthouse keeper?

Mr. Thornhill: We had one son that did a short time as a lighthouse keeper, but he didn't really enjoy it. I think as much as the kids enjoyed growing up at the lighthouse, they really didn't enjoy the isolation.

Tyler: Do you ever go back to see the lighthouse?

Mr. Thornhill: I was out at the lighthouse about two months ago, but it is really different now. Both houses have been torn down, and there is a helicopter landing pad where our house used to be. The lighthouse was just a steel frame when I left it, but now it is framed up with wood. It is a tourist attraction now because fossils have been found there and it is called Fortune Head Ecological Reserve.

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