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The Lighthouses at Fish Island in Malpeque Bay by Faye Pound |
On the north shore of Prince Edward Island, and at the entrance to Malpeque
Bay, there is an offshore island that has been known by several names over
the centuries. The Mi’kmaq called this small island "Nimtooggopskeech" meaning
‘ball island’ because of its shape. The name, Malpeque is derived from their
place name meaning 'great big bay.'When I was a child, I spent many afternoons looking at this beautiful island across from Cabot Park, a favourite provincial park that once enjoyed a wide sand beach below its tall sandstone cliffs. In 1765, when Samuel Holland was naming all the geographic features of Prince Edward Island, he called this island Billhook Sand and noted in his report to the British crown that a fishery had been established there. Since 1821 it has also been called Fish Island, harkening back to the large store and fishing station of Thomas Burnard Chanter, an Englishman who came out to the ‘new world’ from the area of Devon, England. An article in the "Royal Gazette" of 8 October 1831 advertised the sale of Chanter’s operation with Gilbert Ormsby: "Desirable Fishing Station for sale to be sold at private sale. Fish Island situated in Richmond Bay (Samuel Holland’s name for Malpeque Bay) on the North side of the most eligible situation for the Cod and Herring Fishery within the Gulf of St. Lawrence." A lighthouse was built at the entrance to Malpeque Bay guiding mariners to the safety of the bay and to one of the earliest settlements along the North Shore of Prince Edward Island. The "Annabella" settlers were 60 families that stranded their vessel off the coast of Darnley to the east of Malpeque Bay. Many coastline farms are still owned by descendants of these stranded Scottish settlers of 1770. The lighthouse on Fish Island guards over a long sandbar that runs easterly to Sea View, to about where the County Line Road provides a land reference. The entrance to Malpeque Bay can be a rough and unpredictable body of water. It lies at the eastern end of the Hog Islands, a chain of sand dunes that runs west to Alberton Harbour. The dunes of the North Shore of Prince Edward Island are some of the only wild sand dunes in North America, with Cape Cod being another location. Because of the treachery that shifting sands at the entrances to the great bays of the north shore presented to mariners and fishermen, a range light was first placed on Fish Island in 1856. By 1876 the fixed light was improved with a revolving catoptric light powered by kerosene vapours. In the first half of the nineteenth century a mariner had to trust his own wits to guide him to safe anchor and out of harm’s way from the sudden storms with north winds that can blow up in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The sailor’s difficult choices in a storm was to either escape to the west and around North Cape, or put into one of the large bays along the North Shore that have very tricky sand bars across the entrances or run around East Point and to escape the pounding seas. All of these options were dangerous in the days of wind and sail when lighthouses were state of the art navigational systems that warned away from danger or beckoned safety to the men of the deep. When Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1873, local lighthouses came under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Its newly formed Ministry of Marine and Fisheries was headed by an Island shipbuilder by the name of James Pope, a man familiar with the practical needs of water navigation. The Fish Island Lighthouse in its hay day of operation had a full time keeper and his family on the island to ensure the safety of marine traffic. Belcher’s "Farmer’s Almanac" of 1919 was a standard guide for mariners that listed the location, ranges and colours of lighthouses so that seafarers could determine there location along the coast in foul weather. The Almanac warned of the dangers of entering the North Shore harbours without a local guide who could navigate through the narrow channels at the mouth of the great bays that were prone to sanding in with storms. Life at the lighthouse on Fish Island depended on oil delivered by the "S.S.Brant," the supply vessel for Prince Edward Island lighthouses. The oil was kept in a shed a safe distance from the lighthouse in case of the ever-present danger of fire. Hauling oil to the second floor of the lighthouse was the arduous task of the keeper and his family. There were two tanks on the second floor, one for oil and another for air that was used to pump oil up to the lantern room. With the advent of electricity the need for lighthouses to be manned was no more and this way of life along the North Shore changed forever. 
In the summer of 2001 I had the pleasure of hearing about the salvage of
the Fish Island lighthouse when Keith Davison gave a talk at the lecture
series at the museum at Malpeque called Keir Memorial Museum. Being naturally
curious, I wondered what all those parked cars were doing at the museum.
To my delight I learned to carry in my own lawn chair and listen to storytelling
about local heritage. Mr. Davison is an environmentalist, a diver and a bit
of philosopher who has a soft spot for lighthouses. It was he who made the
lighthouse fly. The Department of Transport was going to burn the lighthouse as it was surplus to their needs or “Mother Nature” was going to claim it for the sea with the next big storm. A steel tower and electric light was doing the work of the wooden lighthouse. There are two sets of range lights on Fish Island, the first set gets you into the first part of the harbour and the second set gets you inot Malpeque Bay. Keith Davison and Bill Auld worked out a training opportunity for the search and rescue team at CFB Summerside. Their plan was to cut the light in two pieces and fly them over to Cabot Park were it can be found today. The bottom half was flown over first and then the helicopter had to fly back to the base to refuel before it could fly the second section. A crane was used to place the top part on the base section. Davison told us about the old lighthouse on Fish Island that had been moved three times because of the shifting sands. This was the one that was torn down. There was a story about how Wesley Coles had moved the light over three sand dunes with a poor, old horse. Local people still remember the past times when instruments and food were taken across to Fish Island and a dance would last all night long. And then there was the story of the mysterious ghost lights of Fish Island, but that is another story. Faye is a local historian and researcher living in the Summerside area. |