_By permission of the Lighthouse Literature Mission._
CANN ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE ON THE EAST COAST OF NEWFOUNDLAND.
This is a typical example of a wooden frame building. The tower projects from the roof of the home of the lighthouse-keeper and his family.]
Under these circumstances Cape Race is to the western side of the Atlantic what the Fastnet and Bishop Rocks are to the eastern boundaries of this ocean. Even if the wild character of the coast were not sufficient justification for a light, the currents experienced off these shores, which are of high velocity and violently broken up by the indentations and protuberances, would demand the provision of a beacon. Over one hundred vessels of all descriptions have been smashed to pieces in the vicinity of Cape Race alone. The Allan liner _Anglo-Saxon_ crashed into the cliffs and went down in 1864 with 290 souls. In this instance the death-roll would have been far heavier had it not been for the pluck and grit of the lighthouse-keepers, who, observing the wreck, hurried to the water’s edge, lowered themselves with ropes from the heights above, and, stumbling, groping, and feeling their way through the darkness, at imminent risk to their own limbs and lives, rescued 130 of the luckless passengers and crew from the wreck, who were huddled on a ledge under the cliffs, hungry, shivering with cold, and too exhausted to assist themselves. The light-keepers and men from the telegraph-station had to lift these helpless survivors one by one to the top of the precipice, a task demanding herculean effort, patience, and intrepidity, and to lead and help them to the lighthouse, where they were tended until a steamer, answering the telegraphic call for help, came round from St. John’s and took the hapless people off.
In 1901 the _Assyrian_ ran ashore in calm weather, and was too firmly jammed on a reef to extricate herself. A week later another fine vessel and cargo worth £80,000, or $400,000, was battered to pulp by the waves, the lighthouse-keepers once more, at great risk to themselves, putting out and rescuing those on board in the nick of time. Ere the excitement of this wreck had died down, a French emigrant steamer, the _Lusitania_, ran full-tilt on to a reef, and but for the timely aid rendered by the lighthouse-keepers and the fisherfolk 550 people would have been drowned. More fearful catastrophes have been enacted within hail of the lights at Cape Race and Cape Ray, hard by to the west, and more millions sterling of cargo and ship have been shattered and lost here than upon any other corresponding stretch of coast in the world. The most noticeable point in connection with these disasters is the large number of big boats which have ended their careers abruptly off this spot, although the rocks have claimed a big share of small fry as well.