Digest>Archives> Jul/Aug 2011

Mystery Lighthouse Identified

By Timothy Harrison

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Mystery Light #104, as featured in the September issue of Lighthouse Digest has now been identified by a number of our readers as Canada’s Digby Wharf Lighthouse that once stood on Government Wharf in Digby, Nova Scotia. It was also called the Digby Pier Lighthouse.

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Graham McBride, a charter member of the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Society recalled that the storm mast that appears behind the light was used to hoist up wind direction signals using a series of cones baskets on a daily basis. The small building to the left of the mast was used for storage of the signals which in McBride’s boyhood days were made of canvas on frames. Prior to that McBride thinks they were made of wicker as he remembers seeing discarded ones on the wharf. McBride recalled that in his boyhood days, when no one was around, he and his friends used the halyard on the mast to take a run and swing out over the water.

Although the pier has had numerous changes over the years, the Digby Wharf Light was always an important aide to navigation that along with Prim Point Lighthouse guided the daily steamer run from Saint John, New Brunswick to Digby, Nova Scotia, an important Terminal for the Dominion Atlantic Railway.

When the lighthouse was discontinued it was removed from the wharf. A buoy tender from the St. John Authority came alongside the wharf, hoisted the lighthouse on board and sailed back to St. John. The restored lighthouse is now on display at the Market Square Complex in St. John, New Brunswick.

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This story appeared in the Jul/Aug 2011 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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