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local Tuesday 5 december 2023

A brief history of the California Light House

(Oranjestad)—At the fur- Westpunt carrying the car-
thest western point of the go, poles, cement, and all The lighthouse has a long
island, there lies the tall- these things. At that time, it and very interesting history.
est structure on the island: was a difficult task until Aru- The reason why the light-
The California Light House. ba got its first truck. These house was built, according
Standing on top of a lime- things reflect how people to Mr. Fingal, dates back
stone cliff, this lighthouse could have accomplished to the day when the cargo
oversees the entire island, this tremendous job with ship S.S. California sank be-
offering one of few best so little." Mr. Fingal said, "At cause of the lack of light.
views of the island and the that time, it wasn't a place In 1913, Aruba made a re-
surrounding sea. It is also for people to work. It was quest to Curacao to build
one of the few monuments very challenging because a Lighthouse at Westpunt,
that hold a rich history. it was full of goats and don- and the governor of Cura-
keys, and it was very iso- cao responded to Aruba
The lighthouse was con- lated. There were no hotels to come back in 1915 with
structed in between 1914- or roads to get there. There a well-detailed plan. "Dur-
1916, and its first keeper was only a donkey trail. ing the First World War from
was a young trained light- Those were the only means 1914 to 1918, they had to
house keeper from Cura- of transportation." wait for the light to be trans-
cao names Jacob Jacobs. ported to Aruba because
Mr. Frederico Fingal was Mr. Fingal continues, "In it was manufactured in
the last man to have occu- 1939, I was born in the light- France. At that time, there
pied this position until 1962. house, and my father was was no electricity, and the of electricity. There was it comes down, the same
Though his son, Mr. Romulo the last lighthouse keeper light was very interesting also the presence of coral. weight that is descending
Fingal did not continue in until he retired in 1962. Af- because it rotated with a There is a long steel cable causes many small wheels
his father’s footsteps, he ter that, they removed the kerosene lamp that planes from where the light is, and to turn in the opposite di-
does have a special con- power cables all the way used; clean kerosene," Mr. under the light, at the high- rection. The Lighthouse
nection to the lighthouse. to the top. According to Fingal said. est point, there is a hanging rotates from 6 pm in the
He sat down with our re- the story, we couldn't have weight, a sort of pendulum evening, when the sun sets,
porter and shared a bit of the light ourselves because Mr. Fingal discovered that swings like that, with until 6 am in the morning.
its history. they dismantled it, and something very interesting a weight that measures During the entire night, the
after many years, I heard about the lighthouse after about 1 meter by 30 cen- light shines on the lantern, it
As Mr. Fingal explains, "In that it is in a train museum much research was docu- timeters wide, which is a goes down 24 meters, and
1915, cargo donkeys were in San Nicolas, where we mented in his book 'History block of solid iron attached the Lighthouse is 30 me-
hired from Figaroa di Noord found this very special lens of the Lighthouse at West- to a cable. When you re- ters high. It is designed not
to help build the Light- that, when the light shines punt.' He found many de- lease it upwards, it comes to collapse," Mr. Fingal ex-
house at Westpunt. The through it, it reaches 30 ki- tails: "I found out that the down, and the weight plains.
donkeys had to walk along lometers out to sea." Mr. height of the lighthouse that comes down pulls it
the beach all the way to Fingal told our reporter. was due to the absence up, gradually. And while Mr. Fingal further explains
that in one night, the light-
house rotates 4,320 times
and consumes one gallon
of kerosene for the whole
operation. "At that time,
the kerosene was supplied
from the Lago refinery.
Every day it was brought
down, and to start the
light again, they had to lift
the weight up, so our job
as children was to crank it
and raise the weight back
up in the evening when the
light stuck, they would take
it down again, and the light
stayed down. That's how
it worked for a very long
time," Mr. Fingal explains.

Thanks to the Monument
Fund Aruba, which worked
hard and is currently in
charge of the Lighthouse,
Mr. Fingal is very happy
with its preservation, along
with all the renovations
that have taken place.
He hopes that the story
of the lighthouse will con-
tinue to live on for future
generations.q