In addition to poisoning, I feel like people underestimate how much that isolation wears on the human psyche. Even for introverted people. Before phones and before the internet, you might be completely alone, excepting the rare occasion someone came by to drop off supplies.
Yes and of course all the wandering lost souls who died at sea would naturally hover towards the light and might accidentally give the lighthouse keeper a scare
I could do it. I was in the minority that loved Covid isolation --- except when they closed the parks down for a so many months. I even looked into being a Fire Watcher in a tower. There are still a few around.
My dad was a lighthouse keeper on the small isle of Copinsay in the Orkneys during the 1950's. There were 4 guys who shared the duties in shifts, 3 on the island, the other 1 on the main island called the Mainland. To while away the boredom of the light duty he made toys for the children and later made and learned to play guitar. The family lived on the mainland of Orkney and my mother would regularly go down to the radio shack to communicate with dad. The keepers would be on the 'rock' about 4 weeks, and then go ashore for about 2 weeks. My dad was a very reliable and laid back person - he'd been a bomber pilot in WWII so there wasn't the remotest chance of him going mad. He once brought me a kitten; the mother was the lighthouse cat and the father a wild cat. He was called Sam and was an amazing and agile animal. He was killed accidentally by a combine harvester. To this day and I'm now 80, I cry about that cat. BTW I've written a soon to be published book illustrated by Steve Meyers a Canadian artist - described by the publishers as ''A gloriously irreverent look at life on an isolated RAF base during the 1960's.'' It is called Sweating On My Chitty Box.
@@mack7207 The answer to the question is explained in the last chapter of the book - it is a box to send your personal belongings home in; but the title has more meaning than that. The book will be sold in the UK at any retail outlets which accept it for sale. It is currently awaiting printing and I will get more information after that.
@@2011littlejohn1 Very interesting, thank you for replying. If you let me know or I see it, i'll be sure to pick up a copy as I live in the UK too, thanks.
My grandfather was a light keeper his whole life and so was his father, my dad grew up on the lighthouse. I find it so weird that keepers went mad, my whole family just sees lighthouses as home, and nothing puts me to sleep faster than a fog horn
It's amazing how different experiences can shape our perceptions of things. To your family, lighthouses are a comforting and familiar environment, whereas to others, the isolation and constant vigilance required to keep the light burning can drive them to madness. It's a testament to the resilience and adaptability of the human spirit. There's something truly special about carrying on a family tradition and finding peace and comfort in the familiar sights and sounds of your upbringing.
@@goldenshots1988While they still exist in BC Canada, Greece, Portugal, one in the Bahamas, two in Ireland most lighthouses are de manned but most have an attending keeper who lives nearby. The Bailey which was automated in 1997 was the last to be so in Ireland but still has a keeper on sight.
Imagine being in a lighthouse, for a long period of time, with no contact, no phone, and the anxiety thinking that you hope they don't forget about you and bring supplies on time lol
@@four-en-tee I'd imagine you'd need enough books to last you months at a time, which might not be the most realistic thing considering you don't live in a very big space
STILL pissed abt it. The academy nowadays just likes to give it to people who do something drastic, like when Leo slept inside a real bear skin or when Anne chopped off all her hair 😤
Maybe because I am a Brazilian, but when I think "lighthouse horror" I think less "Mercury poisoning and madness" and more "That one time when the lighthouse keeper and his whole family got murdered by snakes in "Ilha da Queimada Grande" when they managed to get through the high walls..." That's an ex-pirate haven that is better known as "Snake Island" (even got its actual name, rhoughly translated to "big burning", from the fact pirates would set it on fire before landing to keep the snakes away), where snakes were allowed to multiply with no predador so they created a whole new species with a really powerful venom in them... One that works better in birds because, obviously, there are not many other non-snake species in the island...
@@elliejelly8815 Its a crazy story and I kinda love it! And to be fair, there is a ghost aspect to it, because people who visit the island talk about hearing the sounds of children in the forest... In an aside, visiting isn't allowed without a pass from the environmental authorities in the Brazilian gov and a guide, but a lot of people try to do ilegaly anyway because of legends of pirate gold buried in it, which doesn't even sound unreasonable because, hardly anywhere safer than the island full of really venomous snakes...
The province in Canada, where I live, has many interesting lighthouse stories. Not far from where I lay my head, a lighthouse keeper axed his family, leaving his middle child, a son to live. Twenty years later the son became a lighthouse keeper in that very same lighthouse his father killed his mother and three sisters at. After three years in October he killed his wife and newborn. Hanging himself from the inner stairwell. The following day nearby communities noticed the light still on during the day hours. Upon checking up on the lighthouse keeper, the townsmen found all dead. Oddly, his family spent three years on the island and in that same month of October his father carried out his evil acts. To this day people see bright white and orange orbs on the island. As a child, I would see them several X a month, my grandmother would say, it was nothing more then the ghost of children playing on the island. I come from a family of over 200 years of fishermen. My family has many odd stories. Family states the stories are all true. Local historical societies states the lighthouse land was cursed, as pirates would be hung off the cliffs in cages, warning all that piracy would not be tolerated.
Despite the dark history of the lighthouse, it continues to be a beacon of light for ships passing by, guiding them safely through the treacherous waters. The stories of the lighthouse keeper and his family may never be fully understood, but they serve as a reminder of the mysteries and tragedies that lurk in the shadows of our past.
My great grandparents were lighthouse keepers. She took over the Turkey Point Lighthouse in Maryland USA when he died during duty in 1925 and kept it until it was made automatic in 1947. She passed away in 1966, I was about to turn eleven and remember her well. She was my “Nana.” Three other women kept that light in it’s history (built in 1833) and together kept it longer than the men, making Turkey Point a lady’s light. Today the light is now part of the Elk Neck State Park and is open to the public via a non profit volunteer group of which I am a member. The tower is small, 35 feet, but stands on a 100 foot tall cliff overlooking a spectacular view of the upper Chesapeake Bay.
I have the headcanon that the supposed unimaginable truth that dooms Young Thomas is the simple fact that the light is just a light. That all of the pain and madness endured on the lighthouse was all for nothing but a light.
I always forget how much of a baby the US is, the oldest lighthouse in LA is actually, pretty recent. Living in England, I regularly pass buildings still in use that are older than the USA as a whole.
Not lighthouse related, but my grandpa used to rust. Especially in the summer. My mom wrote of it, "In the heat of the machine shop, his pores would open wide and drink in the microfine shavings that would later reemerge in an orange stain that he would sweat out while sitting in his car or lying on his pillow. Not to worry, though, because he had a protective cover for his seat and a special pillowcase for his pillow, because it's important to "take care of what you have!" He also had one suit, that he said was for "hatchings, matchings and dispatchings.""
I bet he machinef cast iron then. Only metal that just turns to powder like that. I've spent 12 hour days, weeks on end, just machining cast iron in a hot shop. I never stained things orange like your grandpa, but different people's sweat reacts differently to steel and iron. When iron particles were on me, they tended to stain things black. I only owned black clothes then, and black sheets and pillowcases, over rubber versions of the same. The driver seat of my car is still a darker shade than the other ones.
The Lighthouse is the best film of 2019. Deserved a lot of recognition at the big award shows, but was only acknowledged for Cinematography. It’s a shame it wasn’t up for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor for Pattinson, Supporting Actor for Defoe, Score, Production Design, Costume Design and Editing are some of the awards it could have been up for along with Cinematography. I love the Prometheus and Proteus Greek Mythology influences and how one can interpret it one way and you’re not able to be wrong as Robert Eggers intended for that to be the case as he wanted everyone who walked out of that film wondering “What the Hell did I just watch?” that way the audience walks away with something different. Truly a modern masterpiece. And the real life inspiration for the film is truly fascinating and just shows how mad two people can go when just being alone to work on and keep a lighthouse going. And the history you have as to some of the real life insistence that show how taxing manning and working a lighthouse is very grueling and not the best environment to work in and on top of that there’s the mercury poisoning to boot. It’s no wonder people can go insane and after the Smalls Lighthouse incident, it’s a good thing they had one other person to help maintain things. Great video!
I love and appreciate the info, education and attention to the “forgotten” folks, the immigrant and slaves that did SO much work and were treated so poorly. Absolutely integral to the history.
I once saw a documentary that featured one of the last lighthouse keepers in Norway. He talked about sometimes hearing voices in the walls as something he had just gotten used to.
Kaz: I’ve always been fascinated with lighthouses Me: Me too! Kaz: I have favorite lighthouses and I know their location and whether or not they’ve been featured in a film. Me: . . . Wow you REALLY love lighthouses.
There is a light house on an island near me, built in the late 1800s. Its no longer used anymore, but you can visit it, and it still has keepers who live in a house next to the lighthouse and take care of it and the nature reserve around it. Its such an incredibly beautiful place. They're really a piece of a gothic novel in our own world.
A well known story in my country (Malta) is when two men were stuck for two days in a lighthouse cut off from the mainland. The lighthouse was at the tip of a breakwater and the waves made it impossible to walk back. They eventually braved the waves after finding their pattern and made it across but were hospitalized shortly after being saved. They weren't really far away from cities but the waves just made it close to impossible for them. Felt like sharing since you're on the topic 😊
One of the proposals to get people interested in going to--and possibly colonizing--Mars that I heard was to raise enough private money to send a mission with one person, and then allow the public's desire for them to not die cause enough of an outcry to send regular missions of supplies. And, as long as supplies are being sent, you may even convince people to send more probes and possibly even construction equipment and more people. It's a pretty stupid idea, imo, but this video reminded me of it because being that alone with a whole planet would be a futuristic equivalent of the lighthouse operator alone with the sea.
I think people in charge of things like this are underestimating just how many people would willingly go to Mars. There are millions of people that would go, but I have a feeling that a lot of people are being excluded to make way for the rich.
I'd volunteer for a mission like that. I REALLY get stressed out by being around other people, though I bear them no ill will. Short of that, I wouldn't mind being a lighthouse operator. Capricious and dangerous as the sea is at all times and in all weathers, it's still less terrifying to me than the average interstate highway...
I’ve been sailing out of San Pedro since I was 13 and never have I heard anything about the old lighthouse, it’s genuinely so cool to know more about a piece of local history that I’m so familiar with
My great grandma once referred to herself, after she fell and bruised her face, as “the wreck of the Hesperus”. Immediately I thought of that when you started talking about ship wrecks!
@@joywebster2678 Fun fact: "The Wreck fo the Edmund Fitzgerald" is not Gordon Lightfoot's only song about ships in peril on the water. "The Ballad of Yarmouth Castle" tells the true story of a cruise ship that caught fire on November 13, 1965; "Ghosts of Cape Horn" was written as the title theme for a documentary about shipwrecks off the southern tip of South America; And there's even one that features a lighthouse: "'Have you seen the lighthouse shining from the rock For the ship Marie Christine and all her gallant lot? Have you seen the lighthouse, oh we are close to land!' Cried the brave young captain to his wretched band" -- Marie Christine.
@@victoriadiesattheend.8478 No, that's "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald." "The Wreck Of The Hesperus" is a poem by Longfellow. My mother also uses that to describe a mess or a disaster.
@@kunpunko hasn’t destroyed me. Goin on 20 years now alone. I love my solo hikes for 6 months to a year. It didnt kill Tesla and many others but we won’t go there. It only kills the weak minded. The ones that don’t know what to do with themselves by themselves. I played alone growing up as a child. I hated playing with others. I didn’t get into fights and arguments by myself! My mother would even say she would know who was messing with whom cause I would never mess with anyone I stayed to myself. So if there was trouble it was from another. To each their own. I’m not trying to make anyone like me. Just telling you the facts. The facts are we can live alone for decades even. They found a man in the woods that been living alone his whole life. When they let him go he went back to the woods. It’s even happened here in the states. He acted more like animals than humans but yeah it where the Tarzan stories come from. Yet, the Disney version is cleaned from children’s eyes like all the fairy tales that tell us what? Others are bad very bad so be careful!
@@kunpunko I tell you like this. When I go hiking alone the only thing that scares me more than anything is running into someone else. We are the dominant species on this planet. We are the ones the animals fear and try their best to avoid. Yeah, you get your exceptions like babies etc but for the most part animals avoid us like the plague. They say when you hike the Colorado trail every 20 miles you ran into a mountain lion rather you know it or not they are there. Why don’t they attack etc. FEAR my friend FEAR. Dogs only bark out of fear etc. Why else does an animal shake when coming close to us? Try are trying to trust us but they know in the back of their minds. There is this thing that is taking over their body. called fear. Where does that fear come from Hu? From us, we have killed it into them. The deer come down out the mountains during the winter time and come to the city cause they know you can’t shoot them there. If you ask me the first fruit that was eaten from the tree of knowledge was an animal. Why else would god give us herbs and plants etc. when I cut an apple open I don’t learn about life and death good and bad. Yet, when I cut an animal open human or not I learn about life and death and good and bad. We are the creatures of the night that others feared and still DO! We would stalk you all day to wait for you to stop and rest. Or run you down till you couldn’t run no more and then we would just walk up and cut the throats. Cause we can sweat where other animals like deer etc can’t! They talk about our weapons is what made us king. I beg to differ. You just haven’t achieved your fullest potential yet. We can run for hundreds of miles none stop. Yet how many do? Don’t give me the exception of hell chair etc. that is the exception not the norm. So with all that said you might live a full life and never become a victim. And I hope you never do. They say we can’t run and hide forever but animals have been doin it for millenniums. They say that’s no life to live, but at least I’m alive……I do things that most dream of. I’ve been in war I’ve been in peace. I’ve been married had kids etc. They even have kids. Yet, if I don’t go see them they won’t come see me. It’s been that way my whole life with everyone. For most ppl they don’t do well at long distance relationships even with today’s tech. I’m not about to chase anyone to be in my life. I don’t care whom you are. You can be god himself. If you aren’t actively chasing me I won’t be actively chasing you for long period. Again you can say I’m holding grudges etc but I’m not. Live your life and I’ll live mine in loneliness. Cause peace of mind is way better than a loneliness. I can deal with being alone. I can deal with others and refuse too….. just like they don’t have to deal with me either. It’s a two way street. I don’t force my presence on anyone. Some say I’m paranoid, yet I’ve talked to many of shrinks trust me. It’s not paranoid it’s awareness I promise you! I’m aware of what can happen. The odds etc. I don’t gamble so I don’t mess with the odds period! I’m 45 now and doin fine all by myself! And will to the day I die! I will die a lonely man but I’m okay with that. I don’t need anyone for anything. Not even LOVE! Don’t get me wrong it would be nice to have but I can LIVE without it. When I was in relationships I was always stuck in one spot cause most don’t like to travel like I do. I don’t need money to travel. I will just get up and walk and make it happen. I’ve walked from Maine to GA on the app trail that’s 14 states then turned around and walked back. I’ve hiked most the mountains in the USA and a hand full over seas. I can live off the land where others have to have the luxuries of life to live. I can do fine with my 11 items in my bag like a monk and be humble! That’s true humbleness if you ask me. Giving up as many worldly items as you can to show you don’t need them. Just like this phone I’m texting from. I can throw it in the garbage and start over tomorrow for all I care. One it’s paid for already. I have done that in the past but my family doesn’t like it so I keep a phone so they can at least call when they want too. It’s not my attitude about life. It’s we see it two different ways is all. I’m sure you’re a female that doesn’t believe you can love more than one person. Yet, I know that to be true. Ppl do it all the time. Men marry woman in two different countries and both never know. Why cause he loves both of them. Yet, he knows together it would never happen. So he doesn’t mess with it. Same here, I don’t avoid ppl I just don’t mess with them either. So I bet there are a lot of things that you THINK are true but aren’t. You can say the same with me but I can show you the proof. I’m a logical man period. It’s how I’ve seen the world since day one and always will.
Theatre person here! Fresnel lenses are still used today in theaters as well as in certain lighting situations in film for the crisp, highly directional quality of the lamps. (Side note: in theatre terms, the "light" is the light that is produced by the "lamp," the thing that creates the light including the bulb, lense, etc.) This is because they go from spotlight to floodlight so easily (lighting a small spot to a much larger one), and because they use less power and heat up more slowly than the typical LED. Fresnel lights are those ones you see at movie premieres that they shine into the sky as well as the one Commissioner Gordon uses to summon the Batman. haha :)
It would be so cool to meet people like her and talk about the obscure and fascinating parts of history. I would have loved an elective that would have us write essays about such topics in high school
Living up in Maine for a few years I always found Boon Island Light to be the creepiest and the most fascinating. It's an 133 foot stone spire on a shoal of jagged rocks 6 miles out to sea, hovering in space on the horizon, barely above water. Its been rebuilt twice and still battered to hell. It was commissioned after a shipwreck where the crew unfortunately resorted to cannibalism.
My dad has been listening to the song “The Lighthouse’s Tale” by Nickel Creek since I was a baby, so I feel a sort of connection to anything to do with lighthouses. It’s a sad song about a lighthouse keeper who marries and then loses his wife to a storm, and commits suicide off the top of the lighthouse in grief. The song is sung from the perspective of the lighthouse itself. The opening lyrics are “I am a lighthouse, worn by the weather and the waves. I keep my lamp lit, to warn the sailors on their way”. It also hits home because I live in Michigan, the state with the most lighthouses in the US, due to the Great Lakes
I‘m always fascinated by your captivating , informative yet entertaining story telling. Also that this vast array of video topics speaks to so many people again and again. I would have never guessed that this many people had all these specific interest just like me.
My great grandfather was a lighthouse keeper on Staten Island in the mid 1800’s. I never knew until I moved to NYC and learned a little more of the Carter family history. He never went mad , thankfully.
Weirdly enough I've never connected lighthouses to ghost stories despite hearing many of them - I think this is because it's ingrained in my family history. In the early 1900s in Atlantic Canada a lighthouse was built between the two family farms, and was kept by family members until it became obsolete in the 70s. The grandson of the original keeper(a cousin of my dad) fought to keep it from being destroyed and eventually moved it to a new location and converted it into a cottage. I spent a lot of summers growing up there and feel deeply connected to the history(which seems to have not been as tragic as many of the large American lighthouses). It's unfortunate most keepers seem to have had a much worse experience than my family did. Just found your channel and can't wait to watch more!
Never knew much about how these lighthouses operated before watching this video. This has been a very informative production. Few years ago I read somewhere that lighthouses are going out of commission as the ships/boats are equipped with GPS technology making the lighthouses obsolete.
There's also a long history of female lighthouse keepers on the Great Lakes and the book "Ladies of the Lights: Michigan Women in the US Lighthouse Service" by Patricia Majher has a great account of historical women who kept lights, generations of keepers, duties, hardships, and an interview with the last woman who kept a light in Whitehall, MI. This lighthouse is said to be haunted by its first keeper who advocated for it to be built and before it was finished lit huge bonfires on the shore to help ships to harbor safely pre-lighthouse. They both clearly loved the profession and I agree most stories of hauntings are probably keepers who loved what they did. There was also a woman who kept a light that she lived with her two poodles in and threw dinner parties in the house who I think of as a social-lighthouse keeper.
I was so delighted to see this pop up! I started my career as a historian at a Florida lighthouse this year and we have a first-order Fresnel lens still in operation. I sometimes climb and sit at the top to cover for our volunteer staff and my favorite part about the lens itself is how the sunlight refracts through the lens and the rainbows dance around in the room under the lens. I have not experienced it during the nighttime and it might be maddening but I personally think the worst part of the job would have been the isolation and those climbing taller lighthouses constantly. Our lens was stolen during the civil war by confederates and they also stole the library collection from a nearby barracks, both the lens and books were found in Alabama and returned. We also had wives of keepers be assistant keepers and even take over as keeper after their husbands deaths. Another interesting story of one of our keepers was a Jamaican immigrant who started working at the lighthouse immediately after the civil war and worked up to be head keeper for a year before leaving and starting many businesses with his family including a funeral home which is still in operation. I love that I get to share all this on a video that informed me on similar information on other lighthouses! This video is amazing!
What part of Florida, if you don’t mind me asking! In Sarasota and been wanting to travel to one of the lighthouses on the east coast for quite some time! Cheers. 👍
I grew up going to a small Michigan town on the coast of Lake Huron that actually has two lighthouses! The older lighthouse is supposedly haunted by one of its former keepers, and it's thought that on some nights you can see the light spinning despite no longer being operational. As a kid I was terrified of that and refused to climb the tower whenever my family visited, but I eventually chalked the tale up to locals needing something to talk about. I was visiting again a few years ago, and was actually surprised to see the "ghost light" myself when driving by one night! I went to the lighthouse the next day and asked the volunteer there if the light was still operational. She said that it wasn't, and then asked if I had seen it around 10- 10:30. That was exactly when I had seen it, and I was honestly a little shocked that the legend was true. Definitely a cool experience!
I always do my best to focus on the topic at hand and base my opinions on that, I try not to focus on things like decorations or fashion. But that enormous blue collar gives me LIFE. Thank you
I live near the oldest intact lighthouse in England (possibly the world). "St Catherine's Oratory" on the Isle of Wight. Built in 1313. It's the last standing lighthouse of the era, because it was never lit. It was built at the expense of the local landowner, as a punishment for his suspected part in wrecking ships off the coast, and in particular the theft of a shipment of wine intended for the pope. It was never lit, because said landowner and locals were thoroughly guilty as charged, and had no intention of making the coastline safer for cargo-laden ships worth looting. For extra trivia, it directly overlooks Blackgang Chine, which is the world's first and oldest theme park, the original one, still open for business. It's one of three lighthouses on the same coastline. The nearest was never finished and is just a ring of brickwork a few feet high. St Catherine's Lighthouse, nearby, is still in use and inhabited to this day.
this is only tangentially related, but i'm reminded of how a lot of hauntings are chalked up to gas leaks. the one and only time i've ever been exposed to a gas leak, i could only smell it faintly, but what really tipped me off was this feeling that my body was telling me to get out, to RUN, that something was very wrong and something very bad would happen the longer i stayed, though i still finished my load of laundry before i did anything lol. i really don't know why i knew that was a response to a gas leak (i guess because i interpreted it as my body telling me something, as opposed to an external force acting on me), but i could totally see someone who believes in the supernatural immediately thinking "oh, this place is haunted and a ghost is telling me to get out."
It's interesting how our instincts can sometimes manifest in ways that we may not immediately recognize. In the case of a gas leak, our bodies may be picking up on subtle cues that something is not right, even before we consciously register the smell or other physical symptoms. It's possible that in a haunted location, where people may already be on edge or experiencing heightened emotions, these instincts could be easily misinterpreted as supernatural forces at play. It's a fascinating intersection of psychology and the paranormal.
Gas leaks on their own aren't dangerous. Natural gas it mostly methane. They're dangerous because of the high risk of explosion and fire not because of toxicity. Carbon monoxide is the thing that can kill you quickly or slowly with no warning and that can happen in any enclosed area with a dirty flame ( not blue). The odor in gas is injected into it to keep people safe by warning them with an unsettling odor . I've been a first responder to gas leaks for 19 years and most people including firefighters don't have a very good understanding of them
I know it's dubious at best with Mr. Nightmare stories, but one always stuck out to me as potentially paranormal but mostly is a psychological response from the stresses in the op's family life the last couple of months. He was home alone when he hears his little brother's voice upstairs, telling him to come up. School also had him busy on top of the recent family troubles so he only asks what's up and if he needed something, only to belatedly remember his little brother wasn't supposed to be home but at practice. Yet he heard his brother's voice telling him to come up and suddenly that upstairs felt unsafe to check. But then the garage door opens and he hears his brother and dad, and breaks down crying. I think his mind was telling him his emotions needed to come up, because he hadn't processed or dealt with them all those weeks.
21:12 mentioning the Mad Hatter thing, that is also a very interesting subject that I could definitely watch a whole video about. The whole origin of idea of the "Mad Hatter" and actual hat makers that went mad because of substances they used at work at the time
Kaz, I just found this video. I know it’s several years old, but I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed it. Living on the coast of Maine, I found your work fascinating. Thank you for sharing your knowledge about lighthouses with all of us. 🇺🇸
I work at an 1876 life-saving station, researching, giving tours, and teaching classes, and let me tell you!! If ever there were a haunted place, it would be here (I’m standing inside it as I watch this video). I think you’d like going in-depth on the life-saving service, too, tbh-I can’t imagine living my life with such long periods of intense isolation and regimented drilling, punctuated only by brief periods of adrenaline, terror, and mortal peril. The history is riveting!!
I got caught in undertow and dragged out to a sandbar in Lake Michigan when I was young. It's been nearly 17 years and I'd still rank that as the single most terrifying experience of my life up until the moment I just gave up and accepted that I was probably dead. Thankfully I got washed up on the sandbar I had been heading for in the first place, where I waited for the tide to go down before crossing back to shore at a shallower point.
@@BoycottChinaa I honestly couldn't say for sure. I remember being very disoriented for a bit, and not really having a solid perception of time dude to being so shaken up. If I had to guess, probably 20-30 minutes. I know it wasn't long enough to get sunburned, but it felt like a while.
Whoa - I never knew about the mercury poisoning! I can imagine the "needing to be constantly vigilant" stoking an already horrific combination. Thank you for the video!
You know what, I've never even once heard of a black lighthouse keeper, let alone a full crew of keepers for 70 years! This really was a treat to learn during black history month 💕
@@jcfra420 I'll have to look into that because the Tuskegee Airmen were nothing but praised as far as I can remember when I comes to conversation about black ww2 vets.
I went to a lighthouse once as a child and it was very hauntingly beautiful, even before I heard this history of them. I don’t believe the lighthouse /itself/ was available for tourists to go up, but we toured the rest of the buildings and grounds. It was gorgeous scenery and honestly kind of eerie. The fog and quietness was beautiful but just slightly unsettling. If I had to live there forever, I can definitely understand the way people seem to discontinue while caring for them.
I grew up right near a few haunted lighthouses in Florida! The closest was the Jupiter inlet lighthouse. Apparently shortly after the lighthouse opened in 1860 the shitty confederate keeper Augustus Lang removed the lenses to keep the north from taking over the light. The lenses stayed buried for the rest of the war and when they were dug up one of the lenses had cracked. The new keepers created a lead framework for the broken lens and it was still in use when I was a kid.
I've had a lifelong love of lighthouses myself. And it started, strangely enough, with a movie I saw as a child as well. Mine was a Disney film..."The Mystery in Dracula's Castle". The setting was so wonderful and the film really struck a cord with me. As luck would have it Dad bought a cabin on the shore of Lake Superior one year later. No light house in site...but the environment was exactly the same. I often imagined a lonely becon across the bay from us. Thanks for bringing back such a treasured memory for me...one I haven't entertained in many years. Liked and subscribed.
That's a beautiful story! It's amazing how certain things from our childhood can stay with us and bring us so much joy. I'm glad my post brought back some happy memories for you. Lighthouses have a way of capturing our imagination and stirring our sense of adventure. Thank you for sharing your own lighthouse love story with me. It's always nice to connect with fellow lighthouse enthusiasts. I hope you continue to find joy and inspiration in your love of lighthouses. And thank you for liking and subscribing, I truly appreciate your support.
@@lightasmr6623 i think they use they them lol but king isn't a pronoun and doesn't automatically mean he/him (i don't think?) kinda how ppl use queen as gender neutral i think calling them lord is cooler tho its more neutral
@@childofgod759 I use king kinda neutrally its not really intended as gendered when i say it. Though of course if it makes someone uncomfy I'd recant, and lord definitely is superior
@@childofgod759 Lord is perceived as masculine most of the time and is of lower rank than king. Monarch would be neutral and on the same level as king or queen.
I did a presentation for a North Korean culture class when I was abroad on the 1983 propaganda film 등대/Lighthouse. It was a fascinating dive into the preaching of devotion to Kim Il Sung and how that devotion can take many forms, including being an outcast as a lighthouse keeper like the main character. The film told a story of a man who was originally brought to the lighthouse under Japanese occupation and who stayed behind after they were freed from Japanese rule. He did this out of a sense of patriotism and devotion to the soldiers who needed the lighthouse to be functioning. The main character met a woman on the main land that he wanted to marry and there was the classic theme in a lot of these propaganda films of self-criticism when the woman's family urged him to leave her alone and not to subject her to a life of solitude with him on the lighthouse's island. They were made to realize the importance of his work after a public statement from "the great leader" thanked his lighthouse specifically for welcoming him and his troops home. The man and the woman had generations of family in the lighthouse and at the end of the movie, Kim Il Sung himself sends a helicopter to rescue the main character after he had an accident during a storm in his old age. Dude basically died but was magically revived at the hospital thanks to the great leader. It was a trip of a film but the music and scenery was uniquely sentimental for it's time compared to other North Korean films. I think the whole thing is available on UA-cam if anyone's interested to watch it for themselves.
I recently visited a lighthouse in Florida and a historic black church was by. It made me wonder if black people were involved in the upkeep of some lighthouses. Out of the southern lighthouses I’ve visited, I’ve never heard of any black involvement. Thanks for including Chinese and Black lighthouse history!
It's so amazing to me how many people show up in the comments to explain things to you that you probably know more about than they do. Thanks for teaching. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Thanks for all the mansplaining you put up with in the comments, and continuing to teach in spite of it. You make my curiosity happy.
Lighthouses have always been deep in my heart, ever since I was a child. I used to watch this one documentary I had on VHS about different lighthouses in New Jersey, and I am still amazed it survived and didn't wear out because of how much I would watch that tape. Now my interest lies especially in Ireland because of my focus in the history field being on Irish history and mythology. Fasnet Light, the Skellig Lights, and Eagle Island Light are probably my favourites. Fasnet is an engineering marvel, being built to withstand waves 200+ feet in height and standing on a rock just about as big as the light's circumference. It's amazing. Skellig's light is also fascinating because of where it is built, situated on Skellig Michael (I think Greater Skellig, but I could be wrong) sort of nestled into the cliffside. And finally, Eagle Island in Mayo is my favourite of my favourites because of its history. It was once a dual station light, with an Eastern and Western light. In December 1894, a massive storm hit. This wasn't uncommon, but this storm grew in strength and first destroyed the wall protecting the residence building. The people fled into the light itself as the residence too was destroyed, and soon the storm took the light down around them. They were rescued by those at the nearby Western station the following morning and miraculously, there were no casualties. This was all recorded in a series of letters sent by the Eastern Station's housekeeper, a teen girl, to her mother and brother. The station was decommissioned and never rebuilt, with all efforts eventually being put to improving on the Western station and making it the sole and primary light. There's my little lighthouse history contribution. Honestly I'd love to make a film or something about the Eagle Island lighthouse someday, or have someone make it.
This is glorious stuff! Living in lighthouses is the ultimate for those of us who love both writing and solitude. Hatmakers used to go mad from the glue fumes, and even today, people in many professions suffer terrible illnesses from inhaling granite dust (while cutting kitchen benchtops) or asbestos (home insulation). So many toxins all around us... This is a wonderful channel, shall explore it further. Cheerio!
We almost started to shed a tear whenever you started talking about point firman. We're from san pedro and miss it horribly but thank you very much and yes san pedro made l a possible
KAZZZ now that I know you like merfolk: YOU SHOULD MAKE A MERFOLK RELATED VIDEO! Maybe where the idea of mermaids originated? And how they went from feared sirens to magical Disney princesses? Lol
Interesting to compare this with the "mad hatter", which apparently was also down to milliners' use of mercury. Also the graphic novel sounds really interesting.
Just a quick note, in the closed captions at 7:00 , what I am pretty sure is supposed to be "French ships" is render "friendships". Great video, as always!
I haven't known anyone who worked in one, but one of my favorite things to do every summer when I was younger was visiting the lighthouse in Crescent City, CA. When the tide is low, you can walk out to it, and go up the stairs with a tour guide, or just see the living quarters, and the little island. It's beautiful.
Astoria? The "downtown" area is really charming! Also if you get chance, see Sauvie Island off of Portland. If you hike all the way to the point, you get a nice view of a really tiny lighthouse. Its a beautiful hike in the late spring-early fall and the lighthouse is very cute and petite.
There was an Australian supernatural comedy series in the 90's called 'Round The Twist' and the reason that they lived in a lighthouse now makes so much sense! Thank you for such a great video!
I watched this show in the U.S. as a kid and have spent years trying to remember the name of the show. I had no idea it was Australian. Thanks for solving a mystery!
UA-cam recommended this video to me at a point where I am finishing my graphic novel about two women living in a lighthouse and falling in love (coming up in February, the first edition in Finnish though). So it was a real joy to listen a colleague talk about lighthouses! Congratulations on your graphic novel, I'm adding it to my reading list. ⚘
There have been times in my life when I so wanted to be left alone, that being a lighthouse keeper looked like a great refuge. I'm an introvert who was an only child and I wonder if those factors would help cope with the solitude.
At the end of my primary school me and my parents decided to move me to home school. At first I felt great, I was bullied before so this felt like fresh air, I felt free, like I didn’t need anyone. Unfortunately right now in high school couple years later I’m slowly going mad. Severe social anxiety keeps me inside my shell. All that pain does inspire my art tho. But now I feel like I couldn’t be more lonely
There is a great song about this: "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" by Van Der Graaf Generator. I describes the descent into madness of a lighthouse keeper.
thank you for another wonderful video!!! 🧙💡 also thank you for listing your bibliography! 😍 some time ago i read a very interesting paper (tim hecker's 'era of megaphonics') that had a section on foghorns and their loudness which is another thing that must have contributed to harsh living conditions for lighthouse keepers (i.e. they would develop a habit of making regular pauses when speaking and would keep it even after moving away from places where the horns could be heard).
I remember visiting the Point Bonita lighthouse in the 6th grade for a field trip. That trail was scary as hell even with the tunnel through the rock and on a clear sunny day. I can't imagine what it's like on a dark and stormy night. The view from the lighthouse is absolutely breathtaking though, you can see so far you can actually see the curvature of the planet. Even 12 year old me had an existential epiphany looking into the sea, watching the water flow off what seemed to be the edge of the earth into the abyss.
When I was little, I was watching an episode of The Haunted, a show on Animal Planet about people’s paranormal experiences. In between the episode’s two main segments was a small factoid bit about a paranormal lighthouse story. What shocked me even more was learning that this was a true story after all. In the 1870s to 1880s, the owner of the Fairport Harbor Lighthouse bought his sick wife a group of pet cats to keep her company. When she died, all of them disappeared… except for one. Many years after, a curator who turned the lighthouse into a museum claimed to see a catlike ghost while living there. It wasn’t until even longer after that a Trustees HVAC team unearthed something from inside the lighthouse basement that horrified them beyond belief: The mummified body of a dead cat.
I was meant to find your channel. You are fascinating, and I super enjoyed your in-depth coverage of many angels on the lighthouse I never saw growing up in L.A. Thank you so much.
It is so charming and interesting how thorough your knowledge of history is! I can't say I've ever thought much about lighthouses but this was v illuminating to me... opens up a world of questions!! One of my favourite aspects of your videos is how you bring light to forgotten people, it makes history seem more familiar and more human.
Weird I find this video right now. It's oddly nostalgic to me. In elementary school I had a music teacher who loved light house stories and she would tell us spooky lighthouse stories at Halloween time. I don't really remember the specific stories anymore but I do still remember her huge lighthouse magnet collection. Thank for this video something I didn't think I would find joy in.
Thank you for including the film in this as a reference point. I finally watched it awhile back and it was....a time lol. Learning more about the creator's inspirations as well as common issues with lighthouses (the mercury) have helped me untangle the plot a bit, which is much appreciated as the last half of that film was beyond my understanding.
The idea of light houses and madness always intrigued me. But, I only really started to actually look into it after reading Uzumaki by Junji Ito, where there is a chapter that describes a light house that burns anyone who goes inside of it. Very interesting video.
Congratulations Kaz on the new graphic novel! I can't imagine how fun it must have been to create a book about Claude Cahun! And to partner with the Getty on creating it sounds very prestigious! You should be proud.
I worked at the lighthouse on Minnesota's north shore. It was the best job I ever had. It was the most desirable for lighthouse keeper's wives because it's in town and not isolated. Reputed to be haunted. The keeper's daughter passed away in the now Forest bed room. Oldest operating lighthouse on Minnesota's north shore.
I live in Michigan, the US state with the most lighthouses. A book recently came out called "Haunted Michigan Lighthouses" by Dianna Higgs Stampfler. There are some fascinating stories. Many of our lighthouse keepers were disabled Civil War veterans, and there were several women who took over the job after their husbands died.
This was so much fun to watch!!!!! I've always been fascinated by lighthouses and the stories surrounding them, so its awesome to finally learn why that is
Just wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU for listing your sources!!! I read through some from your other videos and they’re helping me so much with my sociology modules at university ❤️
The point ferman lighthouse looked so strikingly similar to my own favorite lighthouse I looked it up, THEY WERE MADE BY THE SAME MAN! If you care to look it up to compare it is the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse in North Wildwood NJ.
ahhhh congrats on your book deal!! very excited to read it when it comes out. i live in boston + it doesnt surprise me that the last non-automated lighthouse is here…smthn abt lighthouses are new england af
I’ve spent many a family vacation, especially as a child, on the Great Lakes. Particularly the north shore of Lake Superior. I spent many an hour listening to the crashing waves (yes, waves on a lake, the indigenous people didn’t call it the “sea of sweet water” for nothing) while devouring tales of local ship wrecks, haunted lighthouses, and ghost ships. That obsession with tragic, weird, and spooky stories of maritime history survives in me to this day. My all time favorite video on this subject is from Ask the Mortician about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. This video is easily a close second favorite. ☺️ Excellent job. Simply excellent.
I’m honestly a bit surprised to hear that there’s such a strong idea of lighthouses being haunted and lighthouse-keepers being mad. I had a series of books about a lighthouse keeper growing up, the one I remember most was called the lighthouse keeper's lunch, and I guess they just gave me an idea of lighthouse keepers as quite jovial
In addition to poisoning, I feel like people underestimate how much that isolation wears on the human psyche. Even for introverted people. Before phones and before the internet, you might be completely alone, excepting the rare occasion someone came by to drop off supplies.
Yea the lockdowns are good example of people going mad from being isolated
I'd go nuts writing thousands of pages of hand written cryptographic algorithms. I do this now but I only have a couple hundred thus far.
Yes and of course all the wandering lost souls who died at sea would naturally hover towards the light and might accidentally give the lighthouse keeper a scare
I could do it. I was in the minority that loved Covid isolation --- except when they closed the parks down for a so many months. I even looked into being a Fire Watcher in a tower. There are still a few around.
BUT let me add, that when that rare occasion of someone coming by to drop off supplies ... well I'd be bending their ear for sure.
a t-shirt that says "I became a lighthouse keeper for romance and adventure and all I got is this lousy mercury poisoning"
OMG......
@@KazRowe Sounds like a merch idea?👀
So good.. would definitely buy one
Please, yes please
I love your Eddie Munster t shirt.👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻💚
My dad was a lighthouse keeper on the small isle of Copinsay in the Orkneys during the 1950's. There were 4 guys who shared the duties in shifts, 3 on the island, the other 1 on the main island called the Mainland. To while away the boredom of the light duty he made toys for the children and later made and learned to play guitar. The family lived on the mainland of Orkney and my mother would regularly go down to the radio shack to communicate with dad. The keepers would be on the 'rock' about 4 weeks, and then go ashore for about 2 weeks. My dad was a very reliable and laid back person - he'd been a bomber pilot in WWII so there wasn't the remotest chance of him going mad. He once brought me a kitten; the mother was the lighthouse cat and the father a wild cat. He was called Sam and was an amazing and agile animal. He was killed accidentally by a combine harvester. To this day and I'm now 80, I cry about that cat. BTW I've written a soon to be published book illustrated by Steve Meyers a Canadian artist - described by the publishers as ''A gloriously irreverent look at life on an isolated RAF base during the 1960's.'' It is called Sweating On My Chitty Box.
the kitten😭
Two questions, what is a chitty box? And where will the book be sold once it’s published? Thanks 😁
@@mack7207 The answer to the question is explained in the last chapter of the book - it is a box to send your personal belongings home in; but the title has more meaning than that. The book will be sold in the UK at any retail outlets which accept it for sale. It is currently awaiting printing and I will get more information after that.
@@2011littlejohn1 hopes that you can get it out soon :)
I’d love to read it
@@2011littlejohn1 Very interesting, thank you for replying. If you let me know or I see it, i'll be sure to pick up a copy as I live in the UK too, thanks.
My grandfather was a light keeper his whole life and so was his father, my dad grew up on the lighthouse. I find it so weird that keepers went mad, my whole family just sees lighthouses as home, and nothing puts me to sleep faster than a fog horn
It's amazing how different experiences can shape our perceptions of things. To your family, lighthouses are a comforting and familiar environment, whereas to others, the isolation and constant vigilance required to keep the light burning can drive them to madness. It's a testament to the resilience and adaptability of the human spirit. There's something truly special about carrying on a family tradition and finding peace and comfort in the familiar sights and sounds of your upbringing.
Light house pay good salary?
@@goldenshots1988While they still exist in BC Canada, Greece, Portugal, one in the Bahamas, two in Ireland most lighthouses are de manned but most have an attending keeper who lives nearby. The Bailey which was automated in 1997 was the last to be so in Ireland but still has a keeper on sight.
Mad people don't know they're mad, that's what makes them mad duh lol
Imagine being in a lighthouse, for a long period of time, with no contact, no phone, and the anxiety thinking that you hope they don't forget about you and bring supplies on time lol
Can I bring a bunch of books?
@@four-en-tee I'd imagine you'd need enough books to last you months at a time, which might not be the most realistic thing considering you don't live in a very big space
Now this is the kinda Lighthouse niche content we all need.
God, Willem Dafoe deserved an oscar.
Lol they keep snubbing him and rob. The only oscar it was up for was cinematography i think but they didn't get it
Pretty sure they lost it to roger deakins but he deserved it if we're honest
YE LIKED ME LOBSTER, DIDN'T YE??
The great thing is that now the UA-cam algorithm thinks I'm obsessed with lighthouses.
STILL pissed abt it. The academy nowadays just likes to give it to people who do something drastic, like when Leo slept inside a real bear skin or when Anne chopped off all her hair 😤
Maybe because I am a Brazilian, but when I think "lighthouse horror" I think less "Mercury poisoning and madness" and more "That one time when the lighthouse keeper and his whole family got murdered by snakes in "Ilha da Queimada Grande" when they managed to get through the high walls..." That's an ex-pirate haven that is better known as "Snake Island" (even got its actual name, rhoughly translated to "big burning", from the fact pirates would set it on fire before landing to keep the snakes away), where snakes were allowed to multiply with no predador so they created a whole new species with a really powerful venom in them... One that works better in birds because, obviously, there are not many other non-snake species in the island...
melhor lugar do brasil possivelmente kkkk
That’s badass
@@elliejelly8815 Its a crazy story and I kinda love it! And to be fair, there is a ghost aspect to it, because people who visit the island talk about hearing the sounds of children in the forest... In an aside, visiting isn't allowed without a pass from the environmental authorities in the Brazilian gov and a guide, but a lot of people try to do ilegaly anyway because of legends of pirate gold buried in it, which doesn't even sound unreasonable because, hardly anywhere safer than the island full of really venomous snakes...
@@thayna7959 Tem menos cobra do que Brasilia... *BADUMTSSSS* xD
That is terrifying and also really metal
Me, a person living thousands of miles from any ocean, staring at the Missouri River: I’ll build my own damn lighthouse to haunt.
Lol same. The Missouri river 100% could use a lighthouse.
If you can't craft your own incidental death from gradual mercury poisoning due to lack of scientific research, store bought is fine. ;)
...with blackjack! and hookers!
Fine. I’ll do it myself.
Hauting 😉
The province in Canada, where I live, has many interesting lighthouse stories. Not far from where I lay my head, a lighthouse keeper axed his family, leaving his middle child, a son to live. Twenty years later the son became a lighthouse keeper in that very same lighthouse his father killed his mother and three sisters at. After three years in October he killed his wife and newborn. Hanging himself from the inner stairwell. The following day nearby communities noticed the light still on during the day hours. Upon checking up on the lighthouse keeper, the townsmen found all dead. Oddly, his family spent three years on the island and in that same month of October his father carried out his evil acts. To this day people see bright white and orange orbs on the island. As a child, I would see them several X a month, my grandmother would say, it was nothing more then the ghost of children playing on the island. I come from a family of over 200 years of fishermen. My family has many odd stories. Family states the stories are all true. Local historical societies states the lighthouse land was cursed, as pirates would be hung off the cliffs in cages, warning all that piracy would not be tolerated.
Cages were gibbets
fishermen never disappoint with their fishermen tales
yarr!
Yeah no that place is DEFINITELY cursed
Despite the dark history of the lighthouse, it continues to be a beacon of light for ships passing by, guiding them safely through the treacherous waters. The stories of the lighthouse keeper and his family may never be fully understood, but they serve as a reminder of the mysteries and tragedies that lurk in the shadows of our past.
My God!!
My great grandparents were lighthouse keepers. She took over the Turkey Point Lighthouse in Maryland USA when he died during duty in 1925 and kept it until it was made automatic in 1947. She passed away in 1966, I was about to turn eleven and remember her well. She was my “Nana.”
Three other women kept that light in it’s history (built in 1833) and together kept it longer than the men, making Turkey Point a lady’s light.
Today the light is now part of the Elk Neck State Park and is open to the public via a non profit volunteer group of which I am a member. The tower is small, 35 feet, but stands on a 100 foot tall cliff overlooking a spectacular view of the upper Chesapeake Bay.
I have the headcanon that the supposed unimaginable truth that dooms Young Thomas is the simple fact that the light is just a light. That all of the pain and madness endured on the lighthouse was all for nothing but a light.
Same!
I really like this take on the story!
Someone said: “He either saw something in that light or he saw nothing. Both opportunities are equally terrifying.”
Wow!
Every time I see the word "head cannon" I then imagine David Lynch saying the word "No." Lol
I always forget how much of a baby the US is, the oldest lighthouse in LA is actually, pretty recent. Living in England, I regularly pass buildings still in use that are older than the USA as a whole.
But they think they are the center of the universe still
@@joywebster2678 As an American, I can, unfortunately, confirm that most of us do think this.
All babies think they are the most important being in the world. 😜 Yes I am an American 3rd generation. lol
LA, and the west coat in general, was some of the lastly settled parts of the US
@@joywebster2678 World Superpower babey- it’s not just propping ourselves up, it’s everybody else thinking we’re important too
Not lighthouse related, but my grandpa used to rust. Especially in the summer. My mom wrote of it, "In the heat of the machine shop, his pores would open wide and drink in the microfine shavings that would later reemerge in an orange stain that he would sweat out while sitting in his car or lying on his pillow. Not to worry, though, because he had a protective cover for his seat and a special pillowcase for his pillow, because it's important to "take care of what you have!" He also had one suit, that he said was for "hatchings, matchings and dispatchings.""
Your mum suld have been a writer that is great prose
That is wild!!
Using “hatching, matching, and dispatching” from now on
I bet he machinef cast iron then. Only metal that just turns to powder like that.
I've spent 12 hour days, weeks on end, just machining cast iron in a hot shop. I never stained things orange like your grandpa, but different people's sweat reacts differently to steel and iron. When iron particles were on me, they tended to stain things black. I only owned black clothes then, and black sheets and pillowcases, over rubber versions of the same.
The driver seat of my car is still a darker shade than the other ones.
Marryin and buryin’ !!
The Lighthouse is the best film of 2019. Deserved a lot of recognition at the big award shows, but was only acknowledged for Cinematography. It’s a shame it wasn’t up for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor for Pattinson, Supporting Actor for Defoe, Score, Production Design, Costume Design and Editing are some of the awards it could have been up for along with Cinematography. I love the Prometheus and Proteus Greek Mythology influences and how one can interpret it one way and you’re not able to be wrong as Robert Eggers intended for that to be the case as he wanted everyone who walked out of that film wondering “What the Hell did I just watch?” that way the audience walks away with something different. Truly a modern masterpiece. And the real life inspiration for the film is truly fascinating and just shows how mad two people can go when just being alone to work on and keep a lighthouse going. And the history you have as to some of the real life insistence that show how taxing manning and working a lighthouse is very grueling and not the best environment to work in and on top of that there’s the mercury poisoning to boot. It’s no wonder people can go insane and after the Smalls Lighthouse incident, it’s a good thing they had one other person to help maintain things. Great video!
Gross movie.
No trans characters, no award.
Simple.
I love and appreciate the info, education and attention to the “forgotten” folks, the immigrant and slaves that did SO much work and were treated so poorly. Absolutely integral to the history.
I once saw a documentary that featured one of the last lighthouse keepers in Norway.
He talked about sometimes hearing voices in the walls as something he had just gotten used to.
Do you happen to know where to find the documentary?
what’s the name?
@@positivevibesveda It was one of those things you randomly see on tv. And never see again.
Theodor Kittelsen?
@@vladtimofte6511 i think thats a Norwegian artist
Kaz: I’ve always been fascinated with lighthouses
Me: Me too!
Kaz: I have favorite lighthouses and I know their location and whether or not they’ve been featured in a film.
Me: . . . Wow you REALLY love lighthouses.
She fucks the lighthouses don't she
@@yaboistryker3750 male
@@mikamikan1079 and?
@@mikamikan1079 femme ?
I feel like those are all pretty normal things to know about something that “fascinates” you
There is a light house on an island near me, built in the late 1800s. Its no longer used anymore, but you can visit it, and it still has keepers who live in a house next to the lighthouse and take care of it and the nature reserve around it. Its such an incredibly beautiful place. They're really a piece of a gothic novel in our own world.
Where please?
omgg where
The lighthouse is no longer in use but has keepers? If it's just to keep it open for public viewing that's so cool!
@@withelisa yep. Cape Bruny Light House in Tasmania, Australia.
A well known story in my country (Malta) is when two men were stuck for two days in a lighthouse cut off from the mainland. The lighthouse was at the tip of a breakwater and the waves made it impossible to walk back. They eventually braved the waves after finding their pattern and made it across but were hospitalized shortly after being saved. They weren't really far away from cities but the waves just made it close to impossible for them. Felt like sharing since you're on the topic 😊
Malta is one of my favorite places. Lucky you!
Incredibly informative and so easy to be sucked in. You have the perfect voice tone and speed in which you keep things moving is really nice
I always find it weird that american lighthouses are spooky and ghostly and german lighthouses are just like Leuchturm my beloved
Yeah, in Germany they're mostly really big traffic lights, same level of excitement. But they do look cool at night
One of the proposals to get people interested in going to--and possibly colonizing--Mars that I heard was to raise enough private money to send a mission with one person, and then allow the public's desire for them to not die cause enough of an outcry to send regular missions of supplies. And, as long as supplies are being sent, you may even convince people to send more probes and possibly even construction equipment and more people.
It's a pretty stupid idea, imo, but this video reminded me of it because being that alone with a whole planet would be a futuristic equivalent of the lighthouse operator alone with the sea.
Intriguing. On the show "Umbrella Academy," one character is alone on the moon for I think a year. The isolation must be oppressive.
I've spent a bunch of time alone and after about a week you start thinking diagonally. I can only imagine what a year would do to you!
I think people in charge of things like this are underestimating just how many people would willingly go to Mars. There are millions of people that would go, but I have a feeling that a lot of people are being excluded to make way for the rich.
@Krister L Yarrrrr!!! And then he could also be the greatest botanist on the planet!!
I'd volunteer for a mission like that. I REALLY get stressed out by being around other people, though I bear them no ill will. Short of that, I wouldn't mind being a lighthouse operator. Capricious and dangerous as the sea is at all times and in all weathers, it's still less terrifying to me than the average interstate highway...
“Stay tuned to the end for a very exciting announcement” oh my god they’ve finally done it. they’ve bought a lighthouse
I continue to be drawn to your content in an almost visceral way. Thank you Kaz for your hard work.
I’ve been sailing out of San Pedro since I was 13 and never have I heard anything about the old lighthouse, it’s genuinely so cool to know more about a piece of local history that I’m so familiar with
My great grandma once referred to herself, after she fell and bruised her face, as “the wreck of the Hesperus”. Immediately I thought of that when you started talking about ship wrecks!
That's a song by Gordon Lightfoot. Likely that is what your grandma is referring to
@@joywebster2678 Fun fact:
"The Wreck fo the Edmund Fitzgerald" is not Gordon Lightfoot's only song about ships in peril on the water.
"The Ballad of Yarmouth Castle" tells the true story of a cruise ship that caught fire on November 13, 1965;
"Ghosts of Cape Horn" was written as the title theme for a documentary about shipwrecks off the southern tip of South America;
And there's even one that features a lighthouse:
"'Have you seen the lighthouse shining from the rock
For the ship Marie Christine and all her gallant lot?
Have you seen the lighthouse, oh we are close to land!'
Cried the brave young captain to his wretched band"
-- Marie Christine.
My grandmother uses that expression for when her perm has gone flat
@@victoriadiesattheend.8478 No, that's "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald." "The Wreck Of The Hesperus" is a poem by Longfellow. My mother also uses that to describe a mess or a disaster.
"Why did the lighthouse keepers go mad?"
Mercury. Loneliness and lots and lots of mercury.
Loneliness only kills the weak minded!
@@josephspruill1212it doesn’t matter how introverted you are, loneliness will destroy anybody at some point
@@kunpunko hasn’t destroyed me. Goin on 20 years now alone. I love my solo hikes for 6 months to a year. It didnt kill Tesla and many others but we won’t go there. It only kills the weak minded. The ones that don’t know what to do with themselves by themselves. I played alone growing up as a child. I hated playing with others. I didn’t get into fights and arguments by myself! My mother would even say she would know who was messing with whom cause I would never mess with anyone I stayed to myself. So if there was trouble it was from another. To each their own. I’m not trying to make anyone like me. Just telling you the facts. The facts are we can live alone for decades even. They found a man in the woods that been living alone his whole life. When they let him go he went back to the woods. It’s even happened here in the states. He acted more like animals than humans but yeah it where the Tarzan stories come from. Yet, the Disney version is cleaned from children’s eyes like all the fairy tales that tell us what? Others are bad very bad so be careful!
@@kunpunko I tell you like this. When I go hiking alone the only thing that scares me more than anything is running into someone else. We are the dominant species on this planet. We are the ones the animals fear and try their best to avoid. Yeah, you get your exceptions like babies etc but for the most part animals avoid us like the plague. They say when you hike the Colorado trail every 20 miles you ran into a mountain lion rather you know it or not they are there. Why don’t they attack etc. FEAR my friend FEAR. Dogs only bark out of fear etc. Why else does an animal shake when coming close to us? Try are trying to trust us but they know in the back of their minds. There is this thing that is taking over their body. called fear. Where does that fear come from Hu? From us, we have killed it into them. The deer come down out the mountains during the winter time and come to the city cause they know you can’t shoot them there. If you ask me the first fruit that was eaten from the tree of knowledge was an animal. Why else would god give us herbs and plants etc. when I cut an apple open I don’t learn about life and death good and bad. Yet, when I cut an animal open human or not I learn about life and death and good and bad. We are the creatures of the night that others feared and still DO! We would stalk you all day to wait for you to stop and rest. Or run you down till you couldn’t run no more and then we would just walk up and cut the throats. Cause we can sweat where other animals like deer etc can’t! They talk about our weapons is what made us king. I beg to differ. You just haven’t achieved your fullest potential yet. We can run for hundreds of miles none stop. Yet how many do? Don’t give me the exception of hell chair etc. that is the exception not the norm. So with all that said you might live a full life and never become a victim. And I hope you never do. They say we can’t run and hide forever but animals have been doin it for millenniums. They say that’s no life to live, but at least I’m alive……I do things that most dream of. I’ve been in war I’ve been in peace. I’ve been married had kids etc. They even have kids. Yet, if I don’t go see them they won’t come see me. It’s been that way my whole life with everyone. For most ppl they don’t do well at long distance relationships even with today’s tech. I’m not about to chase anyone to be in my life. I don’t care whom you are. You can be god himself. If you aren’t actively chasing me I won’t be actively chasing you for long period. Again you can say I’m holding grudges etc but I’m not. Live your life and I’ll live mine in loneliness. Cause peace of mind is way better than a loneliness. I can deal with being alone. I can deal with others and refuse too….. just like they don’t have to deal with me either. It’s a two way street. I don’t force my presence on anyone. Some say I’m paranoid, yet I’ve talked to many of shrinks trust me. It’s not paranoid it’s awareness I promise you! I’m aware of what can happen. The odds etc. I don’t gamble so I don’t mess with the odds period! I’m 45 now and doin fine all by myself! And will to the day I die! I will die a lonely man but I’m okay with that. I don’t need anyone for anything. Not even LOVE! Don’t get me wrong it would be nice to have but I can LIVE without it. When I was in relationships I was always stuck in one spot cause most don’t like to travel like I do. I don’t need money to travel. I will just get up and walk and make it happen. I’ve walked from Maine to GA on the app trail that’s 14 states then turned around and walked back. I’ve hiked most the mountains in the USA and a hand full over seas. I can live off the land where others have to have the luxuries of life to live. I can do fine with my 11 items in my bag like a monk and be humble! That’s true humbleness if you ask me. Giving up as many worldly items as you can to show you don’t need them. Just like this phone I’m texting from. I can throw it in the garbage and start over tomorrow for all I care. One it’s paid for already. I have done that in the past but my family doesn’t like it so I keep a phone so they can at least call when they want too. It’s not my attitude about life. It’s we see it two different ways is all. I’m sure you’re a female that doesn’t believe you can love more than one person. Yet, I know that to be true. Ppl do it all the time. Men marry woman in two different countries and both never know. Why cause he loves both of them. Yet, he knows together it would never happen. So he doesn’t mess with it. Same here, I don’t avoid ppl I just don’t mess with them either. So I bet there are a lot of things that you THINK are true but aren’t. You can say the same with me but I can show you the proof. I’m a logical man period. It’s how I’ve seen the world since day one and always will.
@@josephspruill1212For someone who claims to not be lonely you sure type a lot
Theatre person here! Fresnel lenses are still used today in theaters as well as in certain lighting situations in film for the crisp, highly directional quality of the lamps. (Side note: in theatre terms, the "light" is the light that is produced by the "lamp," the thing that creates the light including the bulb, lense, etc.) This is because they go from spotlight to floodlight so easily (lighting a small spot to a much larger one), and because they use less power and heat up more slowly than the typical LED. Fresnel lights are those ones you see at movie premieres that they shine into the sky as well as the one Commissioner Gordon uses to summon the Batman. haha :)
@@averywealthyman4194 is everything okay
@@averywealthyman4194 you sound like a dick, no matter the year.
They're also used in VR headsets to focus the light from the screen!
That's why Pattinson is batman now
They are also used in DSLR cameras for focusing screens and in some projectors. And they're also often sold as reading aids for the elderly.
It would be so cool to meet people like her and talk about the obscure and fascinating parts of history. I would have loved an elective that would have us write essays about such topics in high school
Living up in Maine for a few years I always found Boon Island Light to be the creepiest and the most fascinating. It's an 133 foot stone spire on a shoal of jagged rocks 6 miles out to sea, hovering in space on the horizon, barely above water. Its been rebuilt twice and still battered to hell. It was commissioned after a shipwreck where the crew unfortunately resorted to cannibalism.
My dad has been listening to the song “The Lighthouse’s Tale” by Nickel Creek since I was a baby, so I feel a sort of connection to anything to do with lighthouses. It’s a sad song about a lighthouse keeper who marries and then loses his wife to a storm, and commits suicide off the top of the lighthouse in grief. The song is sung from the perspective of the lighthouse itself. The opening lyrics are “I am a lighthouse, worn by the weather and the waves. I keep my lamp lit, to warn the sailors on their way”. It also hits home because I live in Michigan, the state with the most lighthouses in the US, due to the Great Lakes
"Birdhouse in Your Soul" is also about a lighthouse. Sort of.
😎
lame
Just listened to the song for the first time. Looove the guitar licks.
@@sircumulonimbus It’s really good
I‘m always fascinated by your captivating , informative yet entertaining story telling. Also that this vast array of video topics speaks to so many people again and again. I would have never guessed that this many people had all these specific interest just like me.
My great grandfather was a lighthouse keeper on Staten Island in the mid 1800’s. I never knew until I moved to NYC and learned a little more of the Carter family history. He never went mad , thankfully.
Lucky guy. I live on Staten Island and I went mad ages ago
Was it the lighthouse at south shore of STATEN ISLAND NY. There is a little lighthouse off the shore of TOTTENVILLE STATEN ISLAND
Weirdly enough I've never connected lighthouses to ghost stories despite hearing many of them - I think this is because it's ingrained in my family history. In the early 1900s in Atlantic Canada a lighthouse was built between the two family farms, and was kept by family members until it became obsolete in the 70s. The grandson of the original keeper(a cousin of my dad) fought to keep it from being destroyed and eventually moved it to a new location and converted it into a cottage. I spent a lot of summers growing up there and feel deeply connected to the history(which seems to have not been as tragic as many of the large American lighthouses). It's unfortunate most keepers seem to have had a much worse experience than my family did. Just found your channel and can't wait to watch more!
Never knew much about how these lighthouses operated before watching this video. This has been a very informative production. Few years ago I read somewhere that lighthouses are going out of commission as the ships/boats are equipped with GPS technology making the lighthouses obsolete.
There's also a long history of female lighthouse keepers on the Great Lakes and the book "Ladies of the Lights: Michigan Women in the US Lighthouse Service" by Patricia Majher has a great account of historical women who kept lights, generations of keepers, duties, hardships, and an interview with the last woman who kept a light in Whitehall, MI. This lighthouse is said to be haunted by its first keeper who advocated for it to be built and before it was finished lit huge bonfires on the shore to help ships to harbor safely pre-lighthouse. They both clearly loved the profession and I agree most stories of hauntings are probably keepers who loved what they did. There was also a woman who kept a light that she lived with her two poodles in and threw dinner parties in the house who I think of as a social-lighthouse keeper.
I live in Ashland WI and met a few former lighthouse keepers on Apostle Islands.
So what?
Equal opportunity
Only men have made it to the moon
Lmao my gender is better than yours
Reeeeeeeeeeee
Great job for nuns.
“The Lighthouse’s first keepers were unusual for the time, two women”: 😍 “the sisters”: 😔
"And they were sisters! "
@@thecreaterXY omg they were sisters
@@Lucinoxe_Halliday sisters?!
@@Summonization “we’re close”
I know right I was like "lesbian lighthouse :0"
I was so delighted to see this pop up! I started my career as a historian at a Florida lighthouse this year and we have a first-order Fresnel lens still in operation. I sometimes climb and sit at the top to cover for our volunteer staff and my favorite part about the lens itself is how the sunlight refracts through the lens and the rainbows dance around in the room under the lens. I have not experienced it during the nighttime and it might be maddening but I personally think the worst part of the job would have been the isolation and those climbing taller lighthouses constantly. Our lens was stolen during the civil war by confederates and they also stole the library collection from a nearby barracks, both the lens and books were found in Alabama and returned. We also had wives of keepers be assistant keepers and even take over as keeper after their husbands deaths. Another interesting story of one of our keepers was a Jamaican immigrant who started working at the lighthouse immediately after the civil war and worked up to be head keeper for a year before leaving and starting many businesses with his family including a funeral home which is still in operation. I love that I get to share all this on a video that informed me on similar information on other lighthouses! This video is amazing!
What part of Florida, if you don’t mind me asking! In Sarasota and been wanting to travel to one of the lighthouses on the east coast for quite some time! Cheers. 👍
Which lighthouse? I’ve visited several on Florida coast.
I grew up going to a small Michigan town on the coast of Lake Huron that actually has two lighthouses! The older lighthouse is supposedly haunted by one of its former keepers, and it's thought that on some nights you can see the light spinning despite no longer being operational. As a kid I was terrified of that and refused to climb the tower whenever my family visited, but I eventually chalked the tale up to locals needing something to talk about. I was visiting again a few years ago, and was actually surprised to see the "ghost light" myself when driving by one night! I went to the lighthouse the next day and asked the volunteer there if the light was still operational. She said that it wasn't, and then asked if I had seen it around 10- 10:30. That was exactly when I had seen it, and I was honestly a little shocked that the legend was true. Definitely a cool experience!
I always do my best to focus on the topic at hand and base my opinions on that, I try not to focus on things like decorations or fashion. But that enormous blue collar gives me LIFE. Thank you
I live near the oldest intact lighthouse in England (possibly the world). "St Catherine's Oratory" on the Isle of Wight. Built in 1313. It's the last standing lighthouse of the era, because it was never lit. It was built at the expense of the local landowner, as a punishment for his suspected part in wrecking ships off the coast, and in particular the theft of a shipment of wine intended for the pope. It was never lit, because said landowner and locals were thoroughly guilty as charged, and had no intention of making the coastline safer for cargo-laden ships worth looting.
For extra trivia, it directly overlooks Blackgang Chine, which is the world's first and oldest theme park, the original one, still open for business.
It's one of three lighthouses on the same coastline. The nearest was never finished and is just a ring of brickwork a few feet high. St Catherine's Lighthouse, nearby, is still in use and inhabited to this day.
Oldest intact lighthouse is in Egypte and the tallest intact lighthouse is in The Netherlands
Great stories, thanks for the local insight.
I live very near there too! :-)
@Peter Ang the one in egypt is the first known, but it is no longer intact. The oldest intact is in Spain.
Thanks for the hint from Tory sunny uplands best to avoid
this is only tangentially related, but i'm reminded of how a lot of hauntings are chalked up to gas leaks. the one and only time i've ever been exposed to a gas leak, i could only smell it faintly, but what really tipped me off was this feeling that my body was telling me to get out, to RUN, that something was very wrong and something very bad would happen the longer i stayed, though i still finished my load of laundry before i did anything lol. i really don't know why i knew that was a response to a gas leak (i guess because i interpreted it as my body telling me something, as opposed to an external force acting on me), but i could totally see someone who believes in the supernatural immediately thinking "oh, this place is haunted and a ghost is telling me to get out."
It's interesting how our instincts can sometimes manifest in ways that we may not immediately recognize. In the case of a gas leak, our bodies may be picking up on subtle cues that something is not right, even before we consciously register the smell or other physical symptoms. It's possible that in a haunted location, where people may already be on edge or experiencing heightened emotions, these instincts could be easily misinterpreted as supernatural forces at play. It's a fascinating intersection of psychology and the paranormal.
i wonder if oxygen deprivation can induce similar symptoms..?
Gas leaks on their own aren't dangerous. Natural gas it mostly methane. They're dangerous because of the high risk of explosion and fire not because of toxicity. Carbon monoxide is the thing that can kill you quickly or slowly with no warning and that can happen in any enclosed area with a dirty flame ( not blue). The odor in gas is injected into it to keep people safe by warning them with an unsettling odor . I've been a first responder to gas leaks for 19 years and most people including firefighters don't have a very good understanding of them
Of course any time the percentage of air becomes too low a human will perish but by that rationale water is also toxic
I know it's dubious at best with Mr. Nightmare stories, but one always stuck out to me as potentially paranormal but mostly is a psychological response from the stresses in the op's family life the last couple of months. He was home alone when he hears his little brother's voice upstairs, telling him to come up. School also had him busy on top of the recent family troubles so he only asks what's up and if he needed something, only to belatedly remember his little brother wasn't supposed to be home but at practice. Yet he heard his brother's voice telling him to come up and suddenly that upstairs felt unsafe to check. But then the garage door opens and he hears his brother and dad, and breaks down crying.
I think his mind was telling him his emotions needed to come up, because he hadn't processed or dealt with them all those weeks.
21:12 mentioning the Mad Hatter thing, that is also a very interesting subject that I could definitely watch a whole video about. The whole origin of idea of the "Mad Hatter" and actual hat makers that went mad because of substances they used at work at the time
Abby Cox at least mentioned this in a video called something like "the disappointing truth on why we don't wear hats anymore"
Oh my goodness is that why people stopped…😢
mercury cause mad hatter disease
Also parallels with the history of mirror-making !!! Read “The Ugly History of Beautiful Things”
Kaz, I just found this video. I know it’s several years old, but I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed it. Living on the coast of Maine, I found your work fascinating. Thank you for sharing your knowledge about lighthouses with all of us. 🇺🇸
I work at an 1876 life-saving station, researching, giving tours, and teaching classes, and let me tell you!! If ever there were a haunted place, it would be here (I’m standing inside it as I watch this video). I think you’d like going in-depth on the life-saving service, too, tbh-I can’t imagine living my life with such long periods of intense isolation and regimented drilling, punctuated only by brief periods of adrenaline, terror, and mortal peril. The history is riveting!!
Oh to be working in a lighthouse, have a sort of gay relationship with your coworker, and slowly go crazy
Livin the dream
Why say that, when you could be in a lighthouse throwing bomb ass parties with your spouse instead?
Don’t forget to invite the mermaids 🧜♀️ 👀
Honestly.. goals 👏🏻
AND have sex with a creepy mermaid! That's a side benefit you don't get working office.
I got caught in undertow and dragged out to a sandbar in Lake Michigan when I was young. It's been nearly 17 years and I'd still rank that as the single most terrifying experience of my life up until the moment I just gave up and accepted that I was probably dead. Thankfully I got washed up on the sandbar I had been heading for in the first place, where I waited for the tide to go down before crossing back to shore at a shallower point.
How long did you have to wait for the lake Michigan tides to go out?
@@BoycottChinaa I honestly couldn't say for sure. I remember being very disoriented for a bit, and not really having a solid perception of time dude to being so shaken up.
If I had to guess, probably 20-30 minutes. I know it wasn't long enough to get sunburned, but it felt like a while.
I'm sorry you had to go through that, having to wait that long too, that's awful, I'm glad you're good
Oh my God
The Great lakes are nothing to mess with😮😮 I live in Michigan.. 20 minutes grin Lake Huron extremely unforgiving waters
I always make it a point to light a candle, grab a warm blanky and a cup of tea before watching one of Kaz' vids. I can't be the only one, lol.
Same.
I have a routine before I watch Kaz' videos too! Tea, snack, and a bit of ouid 😅
I would snuggle up in a blanky but unfortunately in a location that has no blankys and it would be odd to have one at hand
I just do the tea, I need to start doing the rest because that sounds kickass cosy
Same lmao
Whoa - I never knew about the mercury poisoning! I can imagine the "needing to be constantly vigilant" stoking an already horrific combination. Thank you for the video!
I Want to see the video “why some lighthouse workers DON’T go mad. Constantly facing your insignificance and futility can’t be easy.
You know what, I've never even once heard of a black lighthouse keeper, let alone a full crew of keepers for 70 years! This really was a treat to learn during black history month 💕
yeah same, I had no idea about that, or that Chinese workers also worked around lighthouses
All the way up to I think WW2, the general consensus was that black people had poor night vision. I am assuming that is why.
@@jcfra420 interesting, I've never once heard that before.
@@MissSimone02 It was in a WW2 documentary, I think with the Tuskegee Airmen is where I heard of it.
@@jcfra420 I'll have to look into that because the Tuskegee Airmen were nothing but praised as far as I can remember when I comes to conversation about black ww2 vets.
I went to a lighthouse once as a child and it was very hauntingly beautiful, even before I heard this history of them. I don’t believe the lighthouse /itself/ was available for tourists to go up, but we toured the rest of the buildings and grounds. It was gorgeous scenery and honestly kind of eerie. The fog and quietness was beautiful but just slightly unsettling. If I had to live there forever, I can definitely understand the way people seem to discontinue while caring for them.
I grew up right near a few haunted lighthouses in Florida! The closest was the Jupiter inlet lighthouse. Apparently shortly after the lighthouse opened in 1860 the shitty confederate keeper Augustus Lang removed the lenses to keep the north from taking over the light. The lenses stayed buried for the rest of the war and when they were dug up one of the lenses had cracked. The new keepers created a lead framework for the broken lens and it was still in use when I was a kid.
I love Jupiter Inlet/light and had no idea it is haunted.
I've had a lifelong love of lighthouses myself. And it started, strangely enough, with a movie I saw as a child as well. Mine was a Disney film..."The Mystery in Dracula's Castle". The setting was so wonderful and the film really struck a cord with me. As luck would have it Dad bought a cabin on the shore of Lake Superior one year later. No light house in site...but the environment was exactly the same. I often imagined a lonely becon across the bay from us. Thanks for bringing back such a treasured memory for me...one I haven't entertained in many years. Liked and subscribed.
That's a beautiful story! It's amazing how certain things from our childhood can stay with us and bring us so much joy. I'm glad my post brought back some happy memories for you. Lighthouses have a way of capturing our imagination and stirring our sense of adventure. Thank you for sharing your own lighthouse love story with me. It's always nice to connect with fellow lighthouse enthusiasts. I hope you continue to find joy and inspiration in your love of lighthouses. And thank you for liking and subscribing, I truly appreciate your support.
ok so i literally just found this channel today and i can already say that this is one of my favorites
you're such a king for always giving us these niche history lessons
Kaz uses he / him pronouns ?
@@lightasmr6623 i think they use they them lol but king isn't a pronoun and doesn't automatically mean he/him (i don't think?)
kinda how ppl use queen as gender neutral
i think calling them lord is cooler tho its more neutral
@@childofgod759 I use king kinda neutrally its not really intended as gendered when i say it. Though of course if it makes someone uncomfy I'd recant, and lord definitely is superior
@@childofgod759 Lord is perceived as masculine most of the time and is of lower rank than king. Monarch would be neutral and on the same level as king or queen.
@@AtlasNL now this is the good discourse that i enjoy
I did a presentation for a North Korean culture class when I was abroad on the 1983 propaganda film 등대/Lighthouse. It was a fascinating dive into the preaching of devotion to Kim Il Sung and how that devotion can take many forms, including being an outcast as a lighthouse keeper like the main character. The film told a story of a man who was originally brought to the lighthouse under Japanese occupation and who stayed behind after they were freed from Japanese rule. He did this out of a sense of patriotism and devotion to the soldiers who needed the lighthouse to be functioning. The main character met a woman on the main land that he wanted to marry and there was the classic theme in a lot of these propaganda films of self-criticism when the woman's family urged him to leave her alone and not to subject her to a life of solitude with him on the lighthouse's island. They were made to realize the importance of his work after a public statement from "the great leader" thanked his lighthouse specifically for welcoming him and his troops home. The man and the woman had generations of family in the lighthouse and at the end of the movie, Kim Il Sung himself sends a helicopter to rescue the main character after he had an accident during a storm in his old age. Dude basically died but was magically revived at the hospital thanks to the great leader. It was a trip of a film but the music and scenery was uniquely sentimental for it's time compared to other North Korean films. I think the whole thing is available on UA-cam if anyone's interested to watch it for themselves.
thanks, that sounds really interesting
I recently visited a lighthouse in Florida and a historic black church was by. It made me wonder if black people were involved in the upkeep of some lighthouses. Out of the southern lighthouses I’ve visited, I’ve never heard of any black involvement. Thanks for including Chinese and Black lighthouse history!
It's so amazing to me how many people show up in the comments to explain things to you that you probably know more about than they do.
Thanks for teaching. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Thanks for all the mansplaining you put up with in the comments, and continuing to teach in spite of it. You make my curiosity happy.
Lighthouses have always been deep in my heart, ever since I was a child. I used to watch this one documentary I had on VHS about different lighthouses in New Jersey, and I am still amazed it survived and didn't wear out because of how much I would watch that tape. Now my interest lies especially in Ireland because of my focus in the history field being on Irish history and mythology. Fasnet Light, the Skellig Lights, and Eagle Island Light are probably my favourites. Fasnet is an engineering marvel, being built to withstand waves 200+ feet in height and standing on a rock just about as big as the light's circumference. It's amazing. Skellig's light is also fascinating because of where it is built, situated on Skellig Michael (I think Greater Skellig, but I could be wrong) sort of nestled into the cliffside. And finally, Eagle Island in Mayo is my favourite of my favourites because of its history. It was once a dual station light, with an Eastern and Western light. In December 1894, a massive storm hit. This wasn't uncommon, but this storm grew in strength and first destroyed the wall protecting the residence building. The people fled into the light itself as the residence too was destroyed, and soon the storm took the light down around them. They were rescued by those at the nearby Western station the following morning and miraculously, there were no casualties. This was all recorded in a series of letters sent by the Eastern Station's housekeeper, a teen girl, to her mother and brother. The station was decommissioned and never rebuilt, with all efforts eventually being put to improving on the Western station and making it the sole and primary light.
There's my little lighthouse history contribution. Honestly I'd love to make a film or something about the Eagle Island lighthouse someday, or have someone make it.
This is glorious stuff! Living in lighthouses is the ultimate for those of us who love both writing and solitude.
Hatmakers used to go mad from the glue fumes, and even today, people in many professions suffer terrible illnesses from inhaling granite dust (while cutting kitchen benchtops) or asbestos (home insulation). So many toxins all around us...
This is a wonderful channel, shall explore it further. Cheerio!
How the heck are they so knowledgeable on literally everything I'm interested in?!?!? Love you!!!
I think their pronouns are they them
O my gosh, I didn't even use my Brian!!! Thank you!❤️❤️❤️
We almost started to shed a tear whenever you started talking about point firman. We're from san pedro and miss it horribly but thank you very much and yes san pedro made l a possible
You're such a talented storyteller! Tell us about fire-watch towers next. Thank you for this, ever a delight.
KAZZZ now that I know you like merfolk:
YOU SHOULD MAKE A MERFOLK RELATED VIDEO! Maybe where the idea of mermaids originated? And how they went from feared sirens to magical Disney princesses? Lol
Interesting to compare this with the "mad hatter", which apparently was also down to milliners' use of mercury.
Also the graphic novel sounds really interesting.
You might be referring to the lead brim on his hat that caused mad hatters disease back in the day.
Just a quick note, in the closed captions at 7:00 , what I am pretty sure is supposed to be "French ships" is render "friendships". Great video, as always!
Friends are just the ships we met along the way. 👍
The masculine urge to go mad alone with your thoughts surrounded by the ocean.
I haven't known anyone who worked in one, but one of my favorite things to do every summer when I was younger was visiting the lighthouse in Crescent City, CA. When the tide is low, you can walk out to it, and go up the stairs with a tour guide, or just see the living quarters, and the little island. It's beautiful.
Just got back from visiting a victorian town in the Pacific Northwest that has a wonderful lighthouse. Hell yeah!
What was the name of the town?
Astoria? The "downtown" area is really charming! Also if you get chance, see Sauvie Island off of Portland. If you hike all the way to the point, you get a nice view of a really tiny lighthouse. Its a beautiful hike in the late spring-early fall and the lighthouse is very cute and petite.
What makes Astoria a "Victorian town"? I'm unfamiliar with the definition but am curious as a frequent traveler of the Oregon coast.
There was an Australian supernatural comedy series in the 90's called 'Round The Twist' and the reason that they lived in a lighthouse now makes so much sense! Thank you for such a great video!
That show was wild lol
I watched this show in the U.S. as a kid and have spent years trying to remember the name of the show. I had no idea it was Australian. Thanks for solving a mystery!
UA-cam recommended this video to me at a point where I am finishing my graphic novel about two women living in a lighthouse and falling in love (coming up in February, the first edition in Finnish though). So it was a real joy to listen a colleague talk about lighthouses! Congratulations on your graphic novel, I'm adding it to my reading list. ⚘
There have been times in my life when I so wanted to be left alone, that being a lighthouse keeper looked like a great refuge. I'm an introvert who was an only child and I wonder if those factors would help cope with the solitude.
I know the feeling and still I do not feel I could stand it.
At the end of my primary school me and my parents decided to move me to home school. At first I felt great, I was bullied before so this felt like fresh air, I felt free, like I didn’t need anyone.
Unfortunately right now in high school couple years later I’m slowly going mad. Severe social anxiety keeps me inside my shell. All that pain does inspire my art tho. But now I feel like I couldn’t be more lonely
@@bartekdabrowski4007chin up pal, this too shall pass 💪❤️
There is a great song about this: "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" by Van Der Graaf Generator. I describes the descent into madness of a lighthouse keeper.
I was looking for this comment!
thank you for another wonderful video!!! 🧙💡 also thank you for listing your bibliography! 😍 some time ago i read a very interesting paper (tim hecker's 'era of megaphonics') that had a section on foghorns and their loudness which is another thing that must have contributed to harsh living conditions for lighthouse keepers (i.e. they would develop a habit of making regular pauses when speaking and would keep it even after moving away from places where the horns could be heard).
I remember visiting the Point Bonita lighthouse in the 6th grade for a field trip. That trail was scary as hell even with the tunnel through the rock and on a clear sunny day. I can't imagine what it's like on a dark and stormy night. The view from the lighthouse is absolutely breathtaking though, you can see so far you can actually see the curvature of the planet. Even 12 year old me had an existential epiphany looking into the sea, watching the water flow off what seemed to be the edge of the earth into the abyss.
When I was little, I was watching an episode of The Haunted, a show on Animal Planet about people’s paranormal experiences. In between the episode’s two main segments was a small factoid bit about a paranormal lighthouse story. What shocked me even more was learning that this was a true story after all.
In the 1870s to 1880s, the owner of the Fairport Harbor Lighthouse bought his sick wife a group of pet cats to keep her company. When she died, all of them disappeared… except for one. Many years after, a curator who turned the lighthouse into a museum claimed to see a catlike ghost while living there. It wasn’t until even longer after that a Trustees HVAC team unearthed something from inside the lighthouse basement that horrified them beyond belief:
The mummified body of a dead cat.
This makes me sad. I’d leave my husband before I’d leave any of my cats.
@@chassinoir Better not leave anyone bcs human also important especially your love ones not just cat.
poor kitty :(
I REMEMBER THAT EPISODE!!!! IT SCARED THE LIVING SHIT OUTTA ME WHEN I WAS LIKE 4 AND MOM DIDNT WATCH THAT SHOW AROUND ME AGAIN AFTER THAT
@@chassinoir lol, what husband
This just popped up in my recommended, love lighthouses and the history. This is by far the best video on them 👏 glad I found the channel
I was meant to find your channel. You are fascinating, and I super enjoyed your in-depth coverage of many angels on the lighthouse I never saw growing up in L.A. Thank you so much.
a moment to appreciate that thumbnail with the blue tinted paintings in the background intended to imitate the waves of the sea! really lovely :)
The painting in the background is called "The Raft of the Medusa"!! It's from the romantic era and depicts a story about a shipwreck
It is so charming and interesting how thorough your knowledge of history is! I can't say I've ever thought much about lighthouses but this was v illuminating to me... opens up a world of questions!! One of my favourite aspects of your videos is how you bring light to forgotten people, it makes history seem more familiar and more human.
Weird I find this video right now. It's oddly nostalgic to me. In elementary school I had a music teacher who loved light house stories and she would tell us spooky lighthouse stories at Halloween time. I don't really remember the specific stories anymore but I do still remember her huge lighthouse magnet collection. Thank for this video something I didn't think I would find joy in.
Thank you for including the film in this as a reference point. I finally watched it awhile back and it was....a time lol. Learning more about the creator's inspirations as well as common issues with lighthouses (the mercury) have helped me untangle the plot a bit, which is much appreciated as the last half of that film was beyond my understanding.
The subject of history and UA-cam, two of my favorite things. Finding a new history UA-cam channel? Golden.
The idea of light houses and madness always intrigued me. But, I only really started to actually look into it after reading Uzumaki by Junji Ito, where there is a chapter that describes a light house that burns anyone who goes inside of it. Very interesting video.
Certainly puts a new “light” on all those super pretty and romantic Thomas Kinkade lighthouse paintings 😉
So true 😂 I love those paintings though haha
Congratulations Kaz on the new graphic novel! I can't imagine how fun it must have been to create a book about Claude Cahun! And to partner with the Getty on creating it sounds very prestigious! You should be proud.
I worked at the lighthouse on Minnesota's north shore. It was the best job I ever had. It was the most desirable for lighthouse keeper's wives because it's in town and not isolated. Reputed to be haunted. The keeper's daughter passed away in the now Forest bed room. Oldest operating lighthouse on Minnesota's north shore.
The show round the twist has a whole new meaning now
I live in Michigan, the US state with the most lighthouses. A book recently came out called "Haunted Michigan Lighthouses" by Dianna Higgs Stampfler. There are some fascinating stories. Many of our lighthouse keepers were disabled Civil War veterans, and there were several women who took over the job after their husbands died.
This was so much fun to watch!!!!! I've always been fascinated by lighthouses and the stories surrounding them, so its awesome to finally learn why that is
Just wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU for listing your sources!!! I read through some from your other videos and they’re helping me so much with my sociology modules at university ❤️
😂😂 That letter was the most calm and polite call of distress I've ever heard. Imagine calling 911 and talking like that.
The point ferman lighthouse looked so strikingly similar to my own favorite lighthouse I looked it up, THEY WERE MADE BY THE SAME MAN! If you care to look it up to compare it is the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse in North Wildwood NJ.
ahhhh congrats on your book deal!! very excited to read it when it comes out.
i live in boston + it doesnt surprise me that the last non-automated lighthouse is here…smthn abt lighthouses are new england af
I’ve spent many a family vacation, especially as a child, on the Great Lakes. Particularly the north shore of Lake Superior. I spent many an hour listening to the crashing waves (yes, waves on a lake, the indigenous people didn’t call it the “sea of sweet water” for nothing) while devouring tales of local ship wrecks, haunted lighthouses, and ghost ships.
That obsession with tragic, weird, and spooky stories of maritime history survives in me to this day. My all time favorite video on this subject is from Ask the Mortician about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. This video is easily a close second favorite. ☺️ Excellent job. Simply excellent.
I’m honestly a bit surprised to hear that there’s such a strong idea of lighthouses being haunted and lighthouse-keepers being mad. I had a series of books about a lighthouse keeper growing up, the one I remember most was called the lighthouse keeper's lunch, and I guess they just gave me an idea of lighthouse keepers as quite jovial
I had that book!! I forgot it existed but I remember loving it so much
What did they have for lunch, mercury?
I'm writing a fanfic where a lighthouse is very important to the story, and this video is super informative.
6:46 first time here, i just had to pause to appreciate the fact that you bring this knowledge about art and history, subscribing!
you feed my addiction to learning random shit- genuinely thank you so much