Page 8 - AHATA

Saturday 16 September 2023 locAl
A10

A brief history of the California Light House

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

Mr. Fingal continues, "In
1939, I was born in the light-
house, and my father was
the last lighthouse keeper
until he retired in 1962. Af-
ter that, they removed the
power cables all the way
to the top. According to
the story, we couldn't have
the light ourselves because
they dismantled it, and
after many years, I heard
that it is in a train museum