![]() Sometimes there was a monthly trip to a bigger, town further away. The list would probably have been much the same every week. In practice the contractor might often have been sent to market on his own with just a shopping list of provisions and other items required by the Lightkeepers to be brought back to the station. The contractor provided a horse and cart to bring the Lightkeepers’ families (probably, normally, the wives) to the nearest town on market day, to church on Sundays, and, in certain cases, to bring the children to school. There was a cart contract at most headland lighthouses. So, the Keepers, their wives and children formed a small community at these, often remote, localities. Each Keeper had his own house, and there was normally another smaller house for visiting tradesmen or technicians. At headland lighthouses with no fog signal there were only two Keepers who divided the hours of darkness between them, but a third Keeper was engaged for the long nights in winter. Public holidays were ignored-they were just like every other day. In this case the Keepers worked all the year round, with one day off each week, and three weeks’ annual holidays. At onshore headland lighthouse the Keepers’ families usually lived with them at the station. They usually had a standing order with a shop ashore, so the shopkeeper parcelled up the same items and gave them to the boatman each relief day to bring out to the rock, and each Keeper paid the shopkeeper for his provisions when he eventually got ashore. Each Keeper kept a large stock of food in case the next relief was delayed. ![]() Fresh food was brought to the rock each relief day, but perishable food did not last long so they relied a great deal on tinned and dried foods. At many offshore rock lighthouses, especially on the west and south coasts, it was seldom possible to step or jump from the boat to the rock because the sea would be too rough, so the people were hoisted on and off the boat by a winch (see photo).Įach Keeper did his own catering and cooking, and washed up his own dishes. An Irish Lights vessel carried out the reliefs at south-west coast lighthouses but at other stations there was a local boat contractor who supplied the boat and its crew. At certain small offshore lighthouses where the accommodation was very cramped reliefs were more frequent. Even if the weather was bad he had to go back to the place of embarkation because the relief could not be carried out unless he was there, so he had to stay in a B&B waiting for the weather to improve so as to be ready immediately the minute the boat could go. In fact, he did not even get two weeks off because he could be two days travelling home and another two days travelling back. When this happened, when he eventually got ashore he still had to go back when his two weeks’ liberty were up because the next Keeper would then be due for liberty. ![]() That was the theory, except that when the sea was rough it might not be possible to carry out the relief for several days or even weeks, and if this happened for three reliefs in succession six weeks duty might turn into three or four months or even longer. ![]() Each Keeper in turn was relieved (replaced) by another Keeper, so in theory each Keeper was on duty for six weeks after which he went ashore on liberty for two weeks, at the end of which he had to go back to the rock to relieve the Keeper next due for liberty. At most offshore lighthouses reliefs were carried out every two weeks, weather permitting.
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