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Trial Island Light

by Captain Alec Provan and John MacFarlane 2016

Trial Islands Light

The Trial Islands Lamp House on display in Bastion Square, Victoria BC. This fourth order Fresnel lens from 1906 was used until it was replaced in 1970. (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection. )

Trial Island Light (List of Lights 212 G5328) is located on the South side of the southernmost island. It is a White cylindrical tower exhibiting Flash 0.1 s; eclipse 4.9 s. Year round. Chart:3424.

The Trial Islands are located off the South end of Oak Bay (municipality) in Juan de Fuca Strait, Victoria Land District.

Trial Islands Light

Trial Islands Light (Photo from the Captain Alec Provan collection. )

The Trial Islands Lighthouse, was built in 1970 to replace the original lighthouse erected in 1906, and is a white, cylindrical, reinforced–concrete lighthouse topped by a red aluminum lantern and gallery. The Trial Islands Lighthouse stands 13 metres (42 feet) tall and is located on the southeast point of the larger of the two Trial Islands.

Clayton Restall stated (email to Nauticapedia 01/03/2025) "I was a Light Keeper for fourteen years, both as Head and Assistant Keeper (Discovery, Chrome, Boat Bluff, Sisters (twice), Lawyer, Ballenas, and Trial Island) and often learn something new."

"For example, at Trial Island I was the Assistant and later promoted to Head Keeper. In the early stages of automating the Lights (so irresponsibly stupid) some brass from Vancouver arrived by helicopter so see about automating the station. As, at that time I was the Assistant and as the Head Keeper was off station getting groceries, these two guys virtually ignored me (there was great discrimination against Assistant Keepers, often calling them ‘Junior Keepers’ and the Head Keepers ‘Senior Keepers’. I followed them around the station listening to what they said so I could tell my partner when he returned. These two ‘suit and tie, non boater type’ guys looked at my house and said ‘We can just set fire to it and the heat will soften the concrete foundation. Then we can just plow everything under.’ Then they looked up at the Head Keepers house up on the high ground and said ‘We’ll set for to that one too but will have to make sure the wind is blowing towards the ocean so that we don’t set the island on fire!’ The next day I went into Victoria and informed the Heritage people of this, as the Head Keeper’s house was a historic site! Thanks to me, that house is still there and protected."

"As there is a shortage of fresh water on Trial, sea water is used to flush the toilettes, and being corrosive, the salt water naturally corrodes the pumps. One day the impeller broke. I requested a new impeller, worth about two dollars. Instead of sending me one or allowing me to go into town to get one, they sent a ‘mechanic’ out by helicopter to replace the broken one. This guy broke the new part, so had to go back to the Base to get another one – by helicopter. I told him to bring two new ones in case he broke one. Of course he only brought one and of course, he broke that one too, so had to go back to the Base – by helicopter, to get a third impeller! Fortunately, he managed to install the third one without breaking it too. The annual cost of that helicopter was calculated at one thousand dollars an hour, so three round trips to fly from the Base to Trial Island and then wait there while the mechanic replaced the impeller took up almost an entire day and cost Tax Payers well over six thousand dollars for a two dollar part when, if they had just driven it to the beach opposite the island and I could have gone there by boat to get it and put it in myself at no extra cost, as I was being paid anyways! That’s just one example of the mentality of the people who wanted to automate the Lights, claiming that they would save money!"

"When I was a Keeper we stood a twelve hour shift seven days a week (do the math and see how much overtime that is!). We got six weeks paid annual holidays a year. The most I ever got paid was as a Head Keeper LI7 at Boat Bluff, where I think I got about $1200 a month. I recently noted that Light Keepers today are now paid from about $60,000 to $85,000 a year, so things have sure changed!"

Trial Islands Light

Trial Islands Light with the C.C.G.C. Cape Calvert in the near distance (Photo from the Captain Alec Provan collection. )

Keepers: Harold Shorrock O’Kell (1906–1931), Philip Gresley Cox (1931–1936), Samuel Avard Dondale (1941–1943), William Charles Copeland (1947–1950), Douglas Howard Franklin (1957–1962), John (Jack) Horn Sr. (1962–1976), Robert Nagel (1976–1979), Robert W. Noble (1980–1982), Clayton Restall (1986–1988), Iain Colquhoun (1993–1996), Ian G. McNeil (1999–2007), Meredith Dickman (2007–present 2016).

References: http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/progs/lhn-nhs/pp-hl/page01.aspx#bc; https://www.notmar.gc.ca/publications/list-livre/pac/p180-en.php; http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/22923.html; http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=1181;


To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John M. and Captain Alec Provan (2016) Trial Island Light. Nauticapedia.ca 2016. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Light_Triangle.php

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Site News: March 24, 2025

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