Sidelight on "Lighthouse Keepers"

Lighthouses are built to guide ships at sea, and many are built on barren, uninhabited islands that are normally hardly visited at all, other than by a few fishermen who come during the fishing season. Lighthouse keepers rely completely on periodic deliveries of food, water, and daily necessities from supply boats, and thus all lighthouse keepers are trained to be versatile, and must take care of all housing maintenance, including electrical work, metal work, woodworking, and painting. In former times, of the people living and working at the lighthouses on these islands, only the director could bring his family and one servant to live on the island, while other members of the crew could not bring their families, but instead were given four weeks vacation every year. From the 1950s on, regulations regarding family members were gradually relaxed.

Most people think that a lighthouse is only a light and a tower. In fact, depending on its location and the particular needs of ships and the routes they take, some lighthouses manage multiple beacons, which means that lighthouse keepers must ensure that several beacons are lit at the right times. The Keelung lighthouse manages the most beacons-aside from the main light, there are 13 subordinate beacons that need to be lit at the right times. Their work calls for 100% accuracy, because even the slightest mistake could spell disaster for ships.

As for lighthouses' shapes, they are also designed according to the needs of the terrain, and can be round, square, pentagonal, or hexagonal, and the amount of time for the lights to rotate at night can also be different. At the lighthouse in Hualien harbor, workers must climb over 20 meters up the outside of the tower to the top to service the light fixtures, clean up the lightning rod, and paint the metal framework. When they encounter the strong northeastern seasonal wind, unless they are confident in their work, most people cannot stand the violent rocking and swaying at the top of the tower as they climb up the outside. At Yehliu, the wind is so strong that it powers the lighthouse.

The lives of people who take care of lighthouses may seem leisurely and carefree. In fact, they are far from it. Everyday life is both regimented and very busy, doing the same things and seeing the same people every day. When taking turns at night to watch over the lighthouse, even in the dead of night the crew cannot fall asleep and must pull on the steel weights on time as they serve as the force that makes the lights rotate.

During the daytime, everyone works together to inspect and service the light fixtures, while at other times they maintain the lighthouse equipment and the surrounding environment. Every year it is periodically cleaned, painted, and whitewashed, all by the lighthouse keepers themselves, with no help from outside. Thus even though a lighthouse may be built on a salty, humid, windy, and rainy coast, it endures as a beautiful fortress for many years.