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local Wednesday 12 July 2023

A brief history of the California Light House

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