Quaco Head, NB
Loyalists fleeing the thirteen colonies during the American Revolution settled many communities in New Brunswick including St. Martins. Previously named Quaco, a derivative of a Micmac word meaning “haunt of the hooded seal,” St. Martins was the third largest shipbuilding center in New Brunswick in the 1800s, when over 500 vessels were launched there.
The New Brunswick government set aside £400 in 1834 for “erecting a Buoy, or Beacon on the Quaco Ledges,” near St. Martins, but the Commissioners of Lights for the Bay of Fundy gained approval the following year to use the funds to construct a manned lighthouse instead. Thrum Cap, a prominent ledge located off the headland west of St. Martins, was selected as the site, and work on the lighthouse was carried out in 1835. The first Quaco Lighthouse was an octagonal tower, painted in red and white horizontal stripes, with an attached dwelling, and could be reached by foot at low tide. Its lighting apparatus, employing six lamps backed by twenty-four-inch reflectors, revolved once every twenty seconds to produce fourteen seconds of light followed by six seconds of darkness. The weights that powered the revolving machinery had to be wound up every four hours. A bell struck by the machinery each revolution alerted the keeper that the light was functioning properly.
|
Captain Thomas Lamb, who was appointed the first keeper of Gannet Rock Lighthouse in 1831, was transferred to Quaco Lighthouse, where he had the honor to be its first keeper as well. Keeper Lamb originally received an annual salary of £100, but this was raised to £150 in 1841 due to the “great privations and dangers” presented by the offshore station and the inability to raise a garden or keep a cow there. In 1842, a severe storm carried away a portion of the rock on which the lighthouse stood along with two boats used to access the lighthouse. Keeper Lamb petitioned the government in 1844 and received £20 to replace his boats. The following year he was awarded £10 to compensate him for assistance he had rendered to crews of vessels that had been stranded near the lighthouse.
The current Quaco Head Lighthouse can only be described as a starkly plain structure in a very beautiful location. The present Quaco Head Lighthouse was constructed in 1966 and consists of a square concrete tower rising from the corner of a concrete fog signal building. The light in its lantern room produces a white flash every ten seconds, while the fog signal emits a three-second blast every thirty seconds, when needed.
There were many other structures located on this site, as evidenced by the remains of old foundations. Two wood framed lighthouses stood previously near this location, one offshore and one near the current tower.
Location: Located on Quaco Head, east of Saint John.
Latitude: 45.323694
Longitude: -65.535778
0
Log In or Sign Up to add a comment.- 1
arrow-eseek-eNo items to displayFacebook Comments