What was it Really Like to Be a Lighthouse Keeper?

Explore the serene life of a lighthouse keeper! Discover the history, from ancient times to modern innovations, and see how these beacons have guided sailors for centuries.

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[SmittenKitten.]

"...everything we've ever said or done will be forgotten someday." Wow. Way to ignite my existential dread. I'm gonna go get some ice cream.

[rainmanslim]

I know a modern lighthouse keeper!

He has a starlink satellite dish on the roof and spends his days gaming. Supplies are still limited but its no longer madness inducing.

[tvdan]

2:38 The first lighthouse sank into the swamp, so they built a second. That lighthouse sank into the swamp, so they build a third lighthouse. That one burned down, fell over, and sank into the swamp. But the fourth lighthouse stood!

[bobkerolls]

My first long sailing trip taught me the value of a lighthouse. Sailing at a stormy night the intermittent flash of the lighthouse let me know I was on course when it wouldn't have been possible to check my charts or even the GPS as that was below (out of the rain). Plus the reassuring light just lets you know something is out there in the blackness - some sign of land and thus, safety.

[Black]

I was a light keeper from November 1979 through May 1980 on Seguin Island, AKA, USCG LTSTA Seguin. It was 5.6 km off of Pompham Beach Maine.
Most of the time there were two men on duty and the only souls on the 28 ha (64 ac) island. The light was visible 18 nautical miles, cast through a first order fresnel lens. The lens was 2 m in diameter and nearly three meters tall. It was commissioned by Pres. Geo. Washington in 1795 and is the second oldest light house on the East coast of the USA. Fascinating period of my life it was.

[DjMoDification]

Daven... My god. This script, the dark humour, and the line about His Majesty? I think this may be my fav TIFO script yet! 10/10

[savannahagnitsch]

“None- but a donkey, would consider it ‘unfeminine’ to save lives” goes so hard

[chartreux]

As a German Historian for the IFZ in Munich (which mostly focuses on the Wars and the Politics and History before and inbetween and after them) i watched the Movie "The Lighthouse" which then led me to becoming fascinated with Lighthouse Rules, People working in them, it's psychological and Health Effects etc etc. i started to use my Freetime to research what it was like to work in a Lighthouse in the late 1800s up to early 1900s (the Movie takes place in 1890).
I did research mostly Lighthouses and Reports on them (medical, psychological, logistics) etc. from Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium and France.
Which then lead to me going down a whole Rabbithole of 100s of weird Incidents of Lighthouse Keepers in these Countries during that Time Frame.
If anything, the Movie "The Lighthouse" and what happens in it, seems rather "occasional" but not rare. In fact, there have been so many Murders and even more gruesome Acts of one Lighthouse Keeper against the other during that Timeframe because of all the Psychological Issues of Isolation and in such a Place. It's rather fascinating.
Keep in mind, during that Timeframe we still didn't really take a lot of Mental Health Effects seriously at all, so there was no Prevention Protocol in Place nor Education.
The worst one i read about was from the Northern Netherlands in which one Lighthouse Keeper in (if i remember right) in the early 1900s was in a Lighthouse on a small Rock with another one, and it ended up in Murder and even Cannibalism (in a small Degree) after 2 Months.
Makes me wonder how Lighthouse Protocol is nowadays for Lighthouse Keepers being isolated with one other Person for Months
Prost & Cheers from Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alpsr

[Retired_Gentleman]

As the son of a light keeper, I watched this video with great interest.

My father was head keeper on four islands along the coast of Nova Scotia in the early to late '60s. Keepers by that time were generally expected to be family men (there were exceptions though) and expected to have their families with them on the islands. Education for children was by correspondence, and supplies had to be gotten by the keeper and his family during the usually infrequent trips to the mainland.

If you bought say, a new stove, couch, or kitchen set you had it delivered to the coastguard base where it would then be put on coastguard vessel or icebreaker and unloaded and delivered by barge to your island.

The first three light houses I lived on had no electricity or indoor plumbing. Older keepers quarters were cold drafty places heated by multiple kerosene stoves and heaters, lighted by kerosene lamps, and even the refrigerator was kerosene (I have no idea how that actually worked but work it did). The entire house stank of kerosene. Bathing was a challenge, and baths were taken in a huge galvanized steel tub with water heated on the kerosene stove.

Toilet use meant an outdoor privy and I remember dreading going out into the frigid winds of January on the north Atlantic to get to the outhouse. I remember too how my family stood proudly around the indoor chemical toilet the coastguard finally delivered after my father requested one. They even thoughtfully sent a few sheets of gypsum board and 2x4s, which he used to give some privacy around the chemical wonder. We only used it at night, though. Day time still meant bundling up in warm clothes for the icy cold walk to the privy.

Eventually, most islands were updated with modern housing, diesel generators, and electric beacons took the place of kerosene fresnal lights. Assistant keepers were usually provided with their own separate quarters. Electric lighting and heating made modern or modernized houses quite pleasant. Drinking water was runoff rain from keepers quarter's roofs collected and stored in huge basement or cellar cisterns. Bath time meant maybe a shallow 7-9 cm or 2-3 inches of water in the tub. Fresh water was potentially the most scarce and important resource on the island. The diesel generators had redundant engines, and the fuel was delivered to the island by coastguard icebreakers in 45 Imperial gallon steel drums. Empty drums were collected for reuse.

By the mid to late '60s fresnel lenses were mostly replaced with electric airport beacons, and the mercury "baths" to float the lenses became obsolete. My older sister, though, does suffer from mercury poisoning.

Children kept busy doing correspondence lessons, playing outside, beach combing, romping with the family dogs and cats and waving at passing ships or navy aircraft that often used islands as navigation aides as much as ships did. Wives/mothers did the usual household duties common then. They cooked, baked, knitted, painted, read, wrote letters, and often walked about the island. Keepers worked in shifts to keep the light burning, the foghorn blowing, and offering any possible assistance to mariners in need. They kept the islands neat and the island buildings in perfect condition. In good weather, everything was painted and painted and then painted again.

It was a good life, but light keeping ended quite quickly. With the coming of automation keepers became rare. My late father who learned how to fix any light, engine, radio, foghorn and cable was kept on as a "Marine Aides Technician" and serviced the now automated lighthouses over most of the province for another 20 years.

[starkickermusic]

I came for the history and stayed for the optimistic life view! Thanks Simon!

[sailinbob]

I've been living on my 30 ft sailboat for 18 years, and around the ocean since I was 4 years old. I'd dig it as long as it wasn't cold or not regularly anyway. I've endured 10 hurricanes and, even wearing a wetsuit, always freeze my butt off by the time it ends. Mostly it's cool. Lotta work. Capt.Bob, SV ( Sailing Vessel ) 27th Chance, Tampa Fl, USA 🇺🇸

[Alan-pvbi]

I met 1 of the last lighthouse keepers in Eastern 🇨🇦 in the early 90's. We were doing electrical apprenticeship training.

[chrisostling]

My father joined the US Coast Guard in the mid 1950's, his first year in he was stationed aboard the Icebreaker Northwind, at the end of that year they were getting ready to go to Antarctica to help set up the Little America Research Station and would have been down there for a couple of years. My mother was pregnant with my older sister and demanded that he find a station that would not take him away for so long. He got a Lighthouse Keeper's Assistant position at Alki Point Light in Seattle Washington on Puget Sound. It is very close to downtown Seattle, and he served there for the last 3 years of his enlistment. My sister was born while they lived there, and I was conceived there before they left. I remember the Commander of the station Albert Anderson, the last full time keeper of that light before it was automated. When we would visit, he would tell us stories about his time working on the Tillamook Rock Light and that during storms the sea would kick up rocks from the ocean floor and land them on the walk around the top of the light. He started as a Light keeper when it was still the US Lighthouse Service before the Coast Guard had been formed. The light and two of the Keeper's houses are still there, the houses are occupied by Coast Guard Admirals now.

[Anti-CornLawLeague]

The message of The Lighthouse (2019) seemed to be that we all really ought to drink more.

[MuseumGirl]

I work for a museum that manages a historic lighthouse. Most visitors struggle to grasp how isolated the keeper’s could be, and how hard the work could be. Carrying two 30lb buckets up nearly 100 spiral stairs with no railing multiple times a day is the example I use most often. They were hardy folks!

[larrychristydoyle]

My great-grandfather kept lighthouses on the west coast of the USA, so my grandma grew up in lighthouses. When she was still alive we got to go visit one of them with her, and it was an awesome experience. She had so many memories and stories from those times.

[MrGeekFreek]

The Lighthouse starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe taught me everything I need to know about Lighthouse keeping.

[Bramtic]

Didn't even need to look at the credits to instantly know this was a Daven script. Well done, sir.

[scottmeredith]

For a story about lights that was DARK

[regmans]

Ever since I watched Lighthouse with William defoe and Robert Pattinson, that's been my vision of living there. Got a spooky charm to it 😂