Lighthouse Keeper publishes a book of stories about experiences in rural Newfoundland

You can’t spend twenty-three years as a lighthouse keeper in rural Newfoundland without picking up a few stories.

Barry Porter staffed lighthouses at Long Point, Twillingate, Surgeon’s Cove Head on Exploits Island and Bacalhao Island Lighthouse at Herring Neck.

Porter wrote “Adventures of a Lightkeeper” about his experiences, including a mysterious encounter with a strange 60-foot longline ship on Exploits Island in 1992.

He says the boat nearly crashed into the rocks about 2 kilometers from the lighthouse. Porter and his partner spoke to the man, who appeared to be “completely unintelligible” and brought him back to the safety of the harbor where he tied up at the government wharf. The next morning the man and his boat were gone, leaving only the ties that had been cut.