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On a warm summer day, with a soft sea breeze blowing out of the sou’west, it’s hard to believe that for more than two centuries, the Sambro Island lighthouse has played a crucial role in the life-and-death business of coastal marine traffic in and out of Halifax Harbour. On this particular August day, groups of curious visitors are milling around the base of the massive stone tower, while a lazy swell washes the island’s granite shoreline.
The gentle scene belies the danger that surrounds Sambro Island, although a sense of history is palpable as gulls soar in the salt air. It’s the middle of the month, and two tour boats are busy ferrying folks out to the island from the village of Sambro, a fishing community south of Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia.
People have gathered to help celebrate the 250th birthday of the Sambro Island lighthouse - the oldest continuously operating lighthouse structure in North America. Since 1758, a scant 9 years after the founding of the naval town of Halifax, the Sambro light has warned and welcomed everything from lowly dories, to naval frigates, to the massive ocean liners that carried immigrants to a new life in North America through the international doors of the Port of Halifax.
The Sambro event dovetails nicely with Nova Scotia’s Democracy 250 (D250) celebrations, as the province marks the 250th anniversary of parliamentary democracy in Canada. That democratic process allowed the General Assembly of Nova Scotia to pass an act to establish a lighthouse on “Sambro Outer Island”, on October 2nd, 1758.
Things moved quickly from there, and workers completed the tower part of the 60-foot granite lighthouse by late November. Keeper Joseph Rous moved to the island in 1759, beginning a succession of keepers who would tend the island light for almost 230 years.
The work of those keepers and their families was crucial to the safety of all mariners entering and leaving Halifax. But in the early years there were problems with smoky fish oil lights, poor living conditions and even lax lightkeepers, who sometimes let the light go out when there were no ships in sight.
In the spring of 1771, the sloop Granby of Boston was lost with all hands on the Sambro Ledges. The vessel’s cargo included £3000 for the payment of naval staff in Halifax. The naval Commander-in-Chief stated without hesitation that “the fatal accident happened for want of a light being kept in the lighthouse, for it is most notoriously and shamefully so, the King’s Ships bound into Halifax are frequently, nay, almost constantly obliged to fire at the lighthouse to make them show a light…”
Better fuel and a better qualified light keeper followed, and the Sambro Island lighthouse went on to provide sterling service to all manner of sea-borne traffic for more than two centuries. But in March, 1988, technology caught up with Sambro Island. John Fairservice, the island’s last keeper, left the barren rock that had been his family’s home for 24 years. Abandoned and boarded up, the two keeper’s houses slowly deteriorated. The light turned by itself in its ancient musty tower and an automatic electronic fog horn blared in thick weather.
Although the lighthouse had been declared a national historic site in the 1930s, the designation did not carry any real protection for the island and its structures. It wasn’t until 1996 that the government of Canada classified the lighthouse as a heritage structure, along with a “recognized” designation for a nearby building once used for the manufacture of acetylene. These were hard won battles though, thanks in large part to E.H. Rip Irwin, founding president of the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society, who spent much of his own time lobbying for the protection. Two years later, the Canadian Coast Guard spent $250,000 restoring the wood and concrete exterior of the Sambro Island lighthouse.
And just this summer, shortly after the Coast Guard converted the lightstation to solar power, crews painted the tower once again (thanks in large part to pressure from the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society). But below the lighthouse, the engine room sits with peeling paint and rotten shingles ripped off by the wind. The two keeper’s houses are past the point of no return, after two decades worth of assaults by vandals and the elements. The old gas house down at the landing cove has been undermined by the sea — and another good storm could bring the whole affair crashing into the ocean.
To add insult to injury, there was no interest on the part of the Canadian government to help celebrate the light’s 250th birthday. At the last moment, the Coast Guard sent a representative out to the island for the August event, and the summer season Halifax Inshore Rescue Boat hauled into the cove for a while. But that was it.
It was wonderful to see more than 150 people visit the island on that August day, and to share some of its history. But it would be nothing short of a national crime and a slap in the face to Canadian history to let this station deteriorate any further. If there is any lighthouse in Canada worth protecting and preserving, it is the Sambro Island light. With the recent passing of a national Lighthouse Protection Act in Canada (Bill S-215) after an eight year struggle, the time has come for the Canadian government to give Sambro Island the attention it deserves.
Meanwhile, the 250-year old granite tower continues to show a sweeping light from its lantern — welcoming and warning all who travel the sea road to Halifax.
This story appeared in the
October 2008 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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