In the early 19th century, sea trade between Canada and Europe increased rapidly and so did wrecks and disasters at sea. By 1840 major lights had been placed on Seal Island at the entrance to the Bay of Fundy, NS, at several places along the coast of Newfoundland and at the entry to the St Lawrence River. Lights were used on the Great Lakes at Mississauga (1804) and at Gibraltar Point on Toronto Island (1808). The upper Great Lakes remained in darkness until increasing trade forced the lighting of shore lamps throughout the region in the latter half of the 19th century.

 [ send green star]

On the Pacific coast it was not until 1860 that the first 2 lighthouses, at Race Rocks and Fisgard, near what is now Victoria, came into service. In the latter half of the 19th century, lights were used along the outer coast of Vancouver Island and the entryways to Victoria, Vancouver and Prince Rupert. Inland waters, such as the Saint John River, Red River and Lake Winnipeg, were marked with lights and buoys by the early part of the 20th century. In arctic waters, beacons were installed in the 1930s, with the opening of the port of Churchill.

The first lighthouses were bonfires on the ends of points at harbour entrances, later replaced by towers with similar beacons on top. Candles were used in the 18th and early 19th centuries, but it took many to make even a dim light. Oil lamps with wicks were used extensively by 1800. Eventually, whale oil and a variety of vegetable, fish and seal oils were used in different places, according to the availability of supplies and equipment.

 [ send green star]

The invention of kerosene by Abraham GESNER in Nova Scotia in 1846 led to the production of good-quality kerosene lamps, used extensively in Canada from the 1860s because they were cheap, reliable and efficient. The invention of the mantle lamp and experimentation with various oils produced lighthouses of considerable brilliance by the beginning of the 20th century. Electric lights came to lighthouses in Canada around the end of the 19th century and gradually replaced other forms of illumination.

Parabolic reflectors of polished steel or silvered copper greatly increased the effectiveness of lighthouses in the early 19th century. Reflecting systems are known as catoptric systems. Simple lens systems (dioptric) and combinations of refracting prisms and concentrating lenses (catadioptric) came into use in the mid and latter part of the 19th century. By 1800 along the coasts of Europe there were such numbers of lighthouses that it became necessary to invent a system of identifying them. An apparatus was attached to the light to produce a different pattern of flashes for each lighthouse. This sequence is noted in the List of Lights for each area. By 1890 the revolving light mechanisms were floated in mercury and driven by clockwork with great weights, which were wound up by the keeper at 2- to 4-hour intervals.

 [ send green star]

In the 1970s electrification was virtually complete. Modern mercury-vapour and xenon bulbs were so powerful that simple optics of pressed glass or plastic replaced the great revolving masses of glass and prisms. The new lamps revolved in the same way as airport beacons and lights on tall buildings. Automation has replaced the traditional lighthouse keeper. The man living with his family at a light station in a remote place has been replaced by the helicopter and the travelling technician who changes or charges the bulbs and batteries. Bulbs are changed automatically, and remote lighthouse stations are fitted with automatic standby equipment in case something goes wrong.

Between 1970 and 1996, 264 lighthouses were automated. During that quarter-century, some lighthouses that were obsolete for navigational purposes were transferred to Parks Canada, local authorities or private groups interested in protecting them. At the end of the 20th century, only one lighthouse - at Machias Seal Island - remained staffed, for sovereignty reasons.

 [ send green star]

Along Canadian coasts, where lighthouses must be seen against snow or rocks and where complicated coastlines result in many lighthouses within short distances along the shore, distinctive patterns are painted on the towers in order to distinguish them from one another. These daymarks have great variety, ranging from a red cross at Head Harbour, NB, to black-and-white horizontal stripes at Race Rocks, BC.

Construction materials vary with the time of building and local conditions. Wooden lighthouse towers are characteristic of the Canadian lighthouse service. Superb examples are to be found at East Point, PEI, Pachena on the outside of Vancouver Island, and at Gannet Rock on the entrance to the Bay of Fundy. The last, despite its exposed position, has stood since 1831.

 [ send green star]

Stone towers at Race Rocks, Cove Island (near Collingwood, Ont) and on Île d'Anticosti were built with what was available nearby and were as much as 30.5 metres high. Lighthouses were sometimes built of brick, and for a period in the late 19th century cast-iron plates were hauled ashore from ships and bolted together to produce the lighthouses at Ferryland, Nfld, and Cape North, NS. The latter is now on the grounds of the Canadian Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa.

Reinforced concrete towers were built in many places in Canada in the 20th century, the most distinctive being built around 1910, with central towers up to 30.5 metres high and with flying buttresses; examples are the beautiful towers at Father Point, Qué, Caribou Island in Lake Superior, and Estevan Point on the outside of Vancouver Island. Steel caissons are set into the riverbed at Prince Shoal and White Island Reef in the St Lawrence River, and an open-steelwork tower is on Pigeon Island in Lake Ontario. Even fibreglass towers have been tried on the Magdalen Islands and in inland waterways.

 [ send green star]

Canadian lighthouses are set in a great variety of environments - in the rain forests of the Pacific coast; in the middle of a downtown park, such as Brockton Point in Vancouver; and on the tops of high-rounded points of islands so thoroughly windswept that the lighthouses are held down by steel guy wires, as at Gull Island. Although often starkly functional in setting and design, the lighthouse has become a romantic symbol both of the country's maritime greatness and of safe haven.

However, these icons of Canada's maritime history are threatened with destruction. Their demise began with lighthouse automation, when the federal government deemed many of the older structures too costly to maintain. Dozens of lighthouses, keepers' dwellings and ancillary buildings were torn down, burned, vandalized or sold and relocated away from light station property. Since the early 1990s, preservation societies have worked to save some of Canada's lighthouses on the grounds that these structures, like railways stations and grain elevators, have special significance to Canadians and played an important role in our history. In 2008, after nearly 10 years of successive bills introduced to the legislative process, Bill S-215, An Act to protect heritage lighthouses, was passed by Parliament. In Canada, 22 lighthouses have the highest level of federal heritage protection.

 [ send green star]

According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, there are approximately 750 structures that could be defined as lighthouses. Of those, roughly 250 are "postcard" lighthouses, some of which have protection as heritage sites. Those that are defined as "navigational aids" meet the broader definition of lighthouse. All provinces except Alberta and Saskatchewan have lighthouses, as follows: Newfoundland: 72; Nova Scotia: 160; Prince Edward Island: 56; Quebec: 59; Ontario: 104; New Brunswick: 78; Manitoba: 2; and British Columbia: 52.

Author DAVID M. BAIRD

 [ send green star]

First lighthouse at Pencarrow Head

George was one of Wellington's first settlers, arriving from England on board the New Zealand Company ship Cuba on 3 January 1840. His future wife, Mary Jane Hebden, arrived just over a month later on board the Duke of Roxburgh. They married in November that year.

 [ send green star]

Later that year the Bennetts' two-and-a-half year old daughter Eliza died. Her death can probably be attributed to their poor living conditions, which C. R. Carter observed first hand on an 1853 visit:

 [ send green star]

The Bennett children

Mary stayed on at Pencarrow and took over manning the light. She probably had little alternative. At the time of George's death she had five children and was pregnant with another. It would have been difficult for her to find another position, and widows' pensions were not introduced until 1911. And despite George's earlier complaint, the position may have been comparatively well paid. Certainly after Mary's official appointment as lighthouse keeper in 1859 her salary of £125 pounds per annum (plus firewood) compared well to the £20 or £30 per annum a domestic servant could expect at the time.

 [ send green star]

Mary's assistant keeper, William Lyall, was less impressed with a woman being appointed lighthouse keeper. A year later he complained that he could not ‘undertake another winter with the help of a woman only'. He asked that something be done, but ‘without disadvantage to Mrs Bennett'. His request appears to have been ignored. In 1864 Marine Board officials reported that both Mary and Lyall had held their ‘respective offices' since 1859 and had ‘apparently conducted their duties in an orderly and efficient manner'. According to family sources, Mary returned to England with her children in 1865.

The family's connection to Pencarrow did not end there. In 1871 the Bennetts' three sons returned to New Zealand. William, the youngest, perhaps forgetful of the deprivations of lighthouse life, joined the lighthouse service in 1880 and was appointed an assistant keeper at Pencarrow. He and his family lived there until 1885, when he was transferred to Portland Island, Mahia. He left the service two years later.

 [ send green star]

Later keepers

Because of a policy that ensured keepers were transferred between lighthouses every three years, no other keeper or family would stay at Pencarrow as long as the Bennetts did. As a result far less has been written about the experiences of the keepers that followed them.

Houses near Pencarrow Lighthouse

Certainly, their living conditions improved over time, the government finally erecting new residences in 1871. But these could not prevent the loss of another keeper's child during the 1890s: Evelyn, the seven-month old daughter of Sidney and Sarah Woods, died of dysentery and convulsions on 9 March 1896. There is no further record of significant improvements to the residences until they were renovated and repaired during the 1940s.

 [ send green star]

On 1 January 2009 Pencarrow Lighthouse at the entrance to Wellington Harbour celebrated its 150th anniversary. New Zealand’s first permanent lighthouse, Pencarrow was also home to this country’s first – and only – female lighthouse keeper, Mary Bennett.

The lighthouse was an essential safety aid for vessels visiting the harbour, but Wellington settlers had to struggle for years to get it built; many ships and lives were lost before it was finally opened in 1859. If building the lighthouse was difficult, operating and maintaining it was equally challenging. Over the following decades, numerous keepers and their families lived and worked in primitive conditions on the isolated, windswept headland.

 [ send green star]

Port Nicholson c.1843

The leader of the New Zealand Company's first expedition, Colonel William Wakefield, was the first to suggest a beacon or lighthouse would ease entry into Wellington harbour. The expedition's ship, the Tory, had struggled in on its first visit on 20 September 1839 – and ships carrying the Company's settlers were due within months. But Wakefield took no action to remedy the situation; nor did Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson after he proclaimed sovereignty over the country in May 1840.

 [ send green star]

The following month Hobson extended an ordinance to Wellington giving its borough council the power to erect beacons and lighthouses. This was an opportunity for local action on a grander scale, but the ‘oorly endowed’ council actually stood little chance of achieving anything. Its elections were only held in October 1842 and by December 1843 the power had returned to the colonial government, the British government having disallowed the ordinance. The colonial government agreed to fund a replacement beacon in 1844. But it proved entirely inadequate – it was only visible from about eight kilometres in good weather. The Pickwick, the Tyne and the Maria were all wrecked before the colonial government was convinced of the need for a lighthouse visible at night and in poor weather.

First lighthouse at Pencarrow Head

Following the wreck of the Maria on 23 July 1851, when 26 lives were lost, a public meeting was held and a deputation sent to Governor George Grey. He agreed to advance money for a lighthouse and keeper's accommodation, to be funded by an extra duty on spirits. But while the extra duty was imposed, all the settlers received was a temporary keeper's cottage (and keeper, George Bennett), with a light placed in its window. Plans for the lighthouse, drawn up by Edward Roberts of the Royal Engineers' Department in 1852, were put on hold.

 [ send green star]

Pencarrow Lighthouse arrived in Wellington on 21 June 1858 on board the barque Ambrosine. The 480 packages were initially unloaded at Rhodes and Company's wharf. They remained there for a number of months, the provincial government having unsuccessfully tendered for a vessel to transfer them to Pencarrow Head.

Finally in September 1858 the local brigantine Caroline was used to transfer the packages. This took a number of days, and once ashore the packages still needed to be hauled up the hillside to the lighthouse site. A tramway with a steam-driven winch was reportedly used to haul up the heavier parts.

 [ send green star]

Pencarrow Lighthouse, 1880

Despite these delays, Edward Wright, who was supervising the lighthouse's construction, made good progress. By 20 October 1858 the provincial government was able to advise the general government that the lighthouse would be ready by 1 January 1859 and ask that a notice be issued to mariners. The government agreed to publish the notice amid murmurings that this did not indicate support for the province's actions.

On New Year's Day 1859, almost 20 years after Wakefield had first raised the need for a light, Pencarrow Lighthouse was lit for the first time. Wellington's settlers celebrated not only the facility they had long demanded, but also the opening of the first lighthouse in New Zealand.

 [ send green star]

The surrounding area

Aside from maintenance to the tower and changes to the light mechanism, the lighthouse itself has hardly changed in 150 years. But there were significant additions to the surrounding area, particularly to address the ‘constant problem' of fog.

In 1898 an audible guncotton fog signal was erected beside the lighthouse. Another New Zealand first, it produced explosions of guncotton at 15-minute intervals whenever the light from the lighthouse was obscured by fog. This system was replaced with a compressed-air diaphone signal in 1927; this gave a blast of three seconds every minute.

 [ send green star]

Lighthouses at Pencarrow Head

In 1906 a second lighthouse, which would become known as Lower Pencarrow, was erected at the bottom of the Pencarrow cliffs. It was designed to be used when fog, or cloud, obscured the upper level light, and also to work with the upper light as a day mark.

Baring Head lighthouse under construction

In latter years the presence of the fog signal would prove more significant to those living at the lighthouse than the light itself. Its presence ensured an ongoing role for a keeper after a new automated lighthouse at Baring Head became operational in 1935 and Pencarrow was used solely as a day mark.

 [ send green star]

Keepers and their families lived on land at Pencarrow Head from 1852, before the permanent lighthouse had even been erected. Members of the Bennett family, the first lighthouse keepers, had to put up with ‘temporary' accommodation until they left in the 1860s. It wasn't until 1871 that the government erected new residences for the keepers. These remained largely unchanged until the late 1940s, when they were renovated and bath and wash houses were added. Other structures erected at the station over the years included a schoolhouse, cowshed and store.

When the fog signal was automated in 1959 it took away the need to have staff permanently stationed at Pencarrow. In 1960 the last keeper was transferred from the station and three years later the station buildings, including the keepers' residences, were demolished.

 [ send green star]

Changing role

As the lighthouse's significance as a navigational aid declined, recognition of its importance as a historic place increased. On 20 February 1959 a plaque was unveiled by the Minister of Marine, W. A. Fox, celebrating the lighthouse's centenary. The plaque had been provided by the recently formed National Historic Places Trust, which had recognised Pencarrow Lighthouse as an historic place under the Historic Places Act 1954.

Mr Blobby

In 2001, in the midst of regular painting, someone painted Pencarrow to look like Mr Blobby, a character from the popular UK show Noel’s house party. While the stunt was amusing to locals, the Historic Places Trust was less than impressed, calling it ‘mindless vandalism’.

 [ send green star]

Pencarrow Lighthouse documentary

For a number of years after the building stopped being used as a lighthouse repairs and maintenance had been neglected. Between 1974 and 1980 a significant restoration project was completed by the Ministry of Works and Development, at the request of the NZHPT. Maintenance is now a regular feature of the building's life. For example, in 2008 the roof and corroded rafters were replaced, and the ceiling, wall panels and weather vane were repaired.

NZHPT celebrated the lighthouse's sesquicentenary on 1 January 2009 with a tour led by Helen Beaglehole, author of Lighting the coast: a history of New Zealand's coastal lighthouse system.

 [ send green star]

Daily dutiesDaily life at Pencarrow Lighthouse has been recorded for posterity in the countless records and forms the Marine Department required keepers to complete ‘daily, weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, six monthly and annually'. For the most part the records show that daily routine at Pencarrow was similar to that at any other lighthouse.

The rules and regulations laid down by the Marine Department ensured a consistency of duties from station to station. As described in Helen Beaglehole's history Lighting the coast, the keeper's duties included lighting, manning and cleaning the light and other equipment, maintaining the station building and reserve, and gathering and hauling stores to the station.

 [ send green star]

Pencarrow, like many lighthouses, was a two-man station. This meant a ‘gruelling regime of night shifts' with each man serving in the lighthouse alone. Manning the light was not ‘a comfortable job'. According to Maritime New Zealand's information on lighthouse keeping, 'keepers were allowed only hard, straight-backed chairs in the light room, and no radio which would distract them or send them to sleep'. Beaglehole notes that the provision of a chair and desk was actually an ‘improvement' on earlier conditions.

The duties of keepers' wives were not recorded in any detail, but they were no less arduous. Wives cooked, washed and cleaned in difficult circumstances, and after the correspondence school was established in 1922 often supervised their children's education.

 [ send green star]

Education
Writing exercise for lighthouse children

According to family sources this writing exercise was completed one of the Bennett children while at Pencarrow. The word 'Overwhelm' is repeated on the left page and 'Perseverance' on the right.

It suggests that Mary Bennett taught the children herself, before deciding to return to England for the sake of their education in 1865.

 [ send green star]

During the late 1890s and early 1900s a school operated at Pencarrow. It catered for the lighthouse keepers' children and others living in the surrounding area. But from the outset the school was in a precarious position. The Marine Department erected a small classroom, but they did not contribute towards a salary for a teacher. The local Education Board contributed a certain amount per child, but when there weren't enough children the parents either had to make up the remaining amount or close the school.

The ongoing viability of the school rested on whether the keepers based at Pencarrow had school-age children. More than one Pencarrow keeper asked the Department to consider this when deciding upon a replacement, and there is evidence that it was taken into account. The future of the school also depended on the attendance of children from the surrounding area. After one such family left the school in 1916 Principal Keeper Duthie wrote to the Education Department asking for assistance with meeting the teacher's salary. They referred the matter to the Marine Department who responded that they were already taking reasonable steps ‘to help Keepers to get their children educated'.

 [ send green star]

Keepers at Pencarrow also found it difficult to gain a consistent education for their children. The Department's rule of transferring keepers to another station every three years was disruptive. Keepers with school-age children were particularly concerned that they'd be transferred to an isolated station where there was no school or teacher available. In October 1912 Principal Keeper Parks, then a father of three school-aged children, was advised that he was being transferred from Pencarrow to an isolated lighthouse. He questioned the decision, suitably outraged that some of the ‘best school stations' would be occupied by keepers without children. But the Department held fast to the rule. It continued to try to balance the needs of keepers with school-age children, ensuring that they would be stationed near a public school every three years, while being fair on those without children.

Within a few years some of these issues were alleviated. In 1922 the correspondence school was established, and it became a fixture of the lives of many lighthouse families. Children from Pencarrow are also reported to have attended schools in Eastbourne from the 1920s or 30s, although the journey on horseback then took several hours.

 [ send green star]

Key dates

A tour around Pencarrow Lighthouse

• July 1857: Tender accepted for the casting of the lighthouse from Messrs Cochrane and Company of Woodside Iron Works, Dudley, UK.
• 21 June 1858: The lighthouse arrives on board the barque Ambrosine in 480 packages.
• September 1858: The brigantine Caroline transfers the packages to Pencarrow Head, where they are hauled up to the lighthouse site.
• 1 January 1859: New Zealand’s first lighthouse is lit for the first time.
• 1 September 1859: The eclipsing light mechanism is replaced with a fixed light.
• 1863: Control of the lighthouse is transferred from provincial government to the Marine Board.

 [ send green star]

• 1865: The lighthouse is sold to the general government.
• 1871: New residences for lighthouse keepers erected.
• 1873: The government purchases land from Maori living at Petone and pays rent for period already occupied.
• 11 July 1898: New Zealand’s first fog signal erected beside the lighthouse.
• 1906: A new lighthouse is erected at the bottom of the Pencarrow cliffs.

 [ send green star]

• 1927: The existing fog signal replaced with a compressed-air diaphone signal.
• 17 June 1935: The lighthouse ceases to operate after a new automated lighthouse at Baring Head becomes operational. Pencarrow is maintained as a navigational aid, and a keeper continues to maintain the fog signal.
• 1941: The lighthouse’s light mechanism is removed.
• 1953-62: The Hutt Valley Drainage Board constructs a road which improves access to the lighthouse.

 [ send green star]

• 1 January 1959: The lighthouse celebrates its centenary.
• 20 February 1959: A plaque is unveiled to mark the centenary of New Zealand’s first lighthouse. The plaque was provided by the recently formed National Historic Places Trust which had recognised the lighthouse as a historic place under the Historic Places Act 1954.
• 1959: The fog horn is automated, removing the need to have staff permanently stationed at Pencarrow.

 [ send green star]

• 1960: The land is transferred from the Marine Department to the Department of Lands and Survey. The last keeper is transferred from the station.
• 1963: The station buildings, including keepers' cottages, are demolished.
• November-December 1966: The lighthouse is transferred from the Marine Department to the then renamed New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT).


Maintenance work in 1980

 [ send green star]

• 1974-80: A significant restoration project is undertaken by the Ministry of Works and Development at the request of NZHPT.
• 1979: The lighthouse is included in an historic reserve of 2044 square metres. NZHPT is appointed to control and manage the reserve.
• 1 January 2009: The lighthouse celebrates its sesquicentenary.

 [ send green star]

This web feature was written by Imelda Bargas and produced by the NZHistory.net.nz team.

 [ send green star]