‘Lighthouse Keeper’ By Harry Riley

(This is fiction and resemblance to anyone living or dead is coincidental)

My name is Jack Broad and I have told this tale so many times and to so many people that I am beginning to doubt my own senses, now in 1930 and eighteen years on, it seems so utterly crazy and yet I know it happened, just as I described.

I was a lighthouse keeper for many years on the Grey Rock lighthouse, Toby Island Point, just off the coast of Newfoundland. 

I loved the life and would not have chosen any other but there were certain conditions a young man had to fulfil in order to qualify:

You had to be fit with a sturdy constitution and have a head for heights and you had to keep the lighthouse painted.

The right temperament was vital and as I was a loner it was easy for me to spend so much time on my own. The daily duties were arduous and the perceived romance of the job was far from the truth. The applicant had to be able to navigate a boat in stormy weather, to know basic first aid.

He had to do minor repairs, be an engineer and tackle carpentry work, and of course be able to cook for himself. The prism lens had to be cleaned daily and the oil lamps filled. It was important for the keeper to operate a radio to converse ship to shore, and to keep a daily logbook such as the captain of a ship would do.

Every day I would collect the bodies of dead birds, many would crash headlong into the lighthouse particularly in bad weather and this was the sad part of the job. Often the waves would be so high they’d swamp the lighthouse; not a job for nervous folk. Then of course we had the mists to contend with.

For days and even weeks in bad weather it was total wipeout with visibility nil. This was a time that tested my mettle to the full.

I have just been released from a long spell in a Mental Asylum and it was all because of the strange radio message I received one dark and stormy night.

I entered it all accurately in the log and my mind was clear as a bell. One of my favourite hobbies has always been the radio, ever since I had my first crystal set as a child. This is one of the main reasons I was first offered the job as lighthouse keeper.