 32 foot fishboat |
1. A trip to Scarlett Point  c. 1973
I remember going to Scarlett Point one Easter Weekend, the first time we (my husband Rodger and I) had been there. We traveled ten long dusty hours up mostly gravel road to Port Hardy . There we planned to catch a fish boat out to the island. But although the harbour at Port Hardy was glass, nobody would take us out.Although we couldn’t afford it, we had only the long weekend, so we attempted to charter a helicopter, but they wouldn’t go out in this weather. We went back to the fish docks, where we found a 32 foot fish boat to take us out. It leaked diesel, and I lost my breakfast. When we got to Scarlett, Ralph and Brian came out to meet us in the station boat. The waves were so high, we had to wait until the gunwhales of the fish boat were even with the 14 footer to transfer across. As I jumped off the fishboat, my foot caught in some ropes, and up I went as the waves moved. Ralph put his big bear sized arms around me and held me tight against his life vest (We weren’t wearing any), and said, “Hi, I’m Ralph”. Fortunately for us, the weather was calm when we returned to Port Hardy at the end of the weekend. I won’t ever forget being in the trough of the waves, where all you could see as you looked up, was water.We loved the island so much, we told my parents about it, and from there, they got into Relief keeping. - Jean (Bartle) Konkle (daughter of relief keeper Albert Bartle) *********************************** Another trip to Scarlett Point in 2006 |
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2. Return to Sisters at Christmas c. 1927
We were there [Nanaimo, BC ] nearly three weeks and it was two days before Christmas then. I wanted to be back on the lighthouse for Christmas as Bert was there with the other three boys.
I phoned The Government Office to see if any boats were going up that way, but everyone was off on Christmas and New Year's holidays. I went all around the wharf looking and asking anyone with a boat to please take us up to the lighthouse. No one wanted to go at any price! They knew the old gulf too well and didn't want to risk it. I kept going back and asking them to please take a chance and go. At last an older chap said "Alright, we will start out but I don't think we will make it". I went and got Leverne [her son] and my packages (for I had been Christmas shopping). I also had a big pack of fresh meat as we could not get fresh meat and had had none for so long at the lighthouse. Well we got started out and it wasn't long before we got in a storm. He wanted to turn back but I begged him to keep going and that we would make it. I felt many times in the next few hours that I should have let him turn back, for I was sick and the boat was rolling terribly. A person couldn't sit down or lie down. We were tossing about terribly, and then it began to get dark and believe me, you have to be on the water and in a small boat to realize just what it is like to be tossed about without it being dark too. We just had a headlight on the front and we had a lantern in the little cabin. It started to thunder and lightning outside as if we weren't going through enough as it was. Well after hours of going through a little H---, we eventually saw the light, but even then we did not know if we could make it. If we did, the next thing was "How were we going to get out of the boat, and where?" When we got closer to the light the old chap started to toot his horn for all he was worth and at last Bert came out with a lantern making signals in semaphore saying "Whoever we were not to try landing." The old chap sent the signals "I have your wife and son". His answer came "For God's sake on a night like this - better try landing, but come around to the other side". Bert had a lasso ready, and pulled the boat in as close as he could. He told us to jump as the waves took the boat up but I told him we had packages also. He said to throw them to him and he would lay them on the rocks and then for us to jump. I told him I had not got enough money to finish paying the old chap. He said for him to go across to a bay with his boat and anchor 'till it got calm then come over and get his money. (You see he couldn't leave the boat at the lighthouse, for it would get battered to pieces on the rocks, for lots of boats had done just that). The old chap had to make it across 5 miles to a bay and come over after it calmed down so it was a couple of days before he could come back. We would like to have had him in for Christmas dinner but he could not come in. Bert went out to him and paid him and took him some Christmas cake, oranges, nuts, and a bottle of ginger wine I had made several weeks before. It cost me $20 to get home but it was worth it to be home for Christmas. - Elizabeth Kate (Stannard) Smithman (Wife of Henry Herbert Smithman who was Senior Keeper at Sisters Island 1927 - 1929) **********************************
If you wish to read more about her life on the lighthouses in her own words, please go to: Life on a Lighthouse |
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 Workboat over the side |
3. A trip by workboat from Carmanah Point c. 1960s
To see what life was really like in the workboats that delivered our groceries and took us off for holidays, check out Reg Gunn's article Life in the Canadian Coastguard. - Reg Gunn was first mate on "CCGS Douglas" under Captain Exley in the days before helicopters. |
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 Bell 212 at Carmanah Point |
5. A trip by helicopter up the west coast to Carmanah Point October 25, 2006 To see what part of the west coast of Vancouver island is like from the air, check out Mike Shepherd's article Coast Guard Bell 212 Helicopter Trip. There are some really nice shots of the Pacific Ocean and familiar lighthouses. - Mike Shepherd is a Marine Communications and Traffic Services officer at Tofino MCTS, which is located on Amphitrite Point, near Ucluelet, British Columbia, Canada. |
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| John Coldwell (retired BC lighthouse keeper) Galvanistrasse 8 A-4040 Linz, Austria Tel: +43 (732) 750515  |