Isolation, beauty, danger, rescues—Barry Porter’s two decades as a lighthouse keeper on Newfoundland’s remote coasts had it’s dull moments and its adventures.
He had time to do things. He spent several months rehabilitating a paralyzed beagle. He half-tamed an arctic fox.
He’s known the fear of becoming polar bear prey. He’s risked life and limb on rough seas in the middle of winter.
He’s part of a dwindling tradition of lightkeepers who have kept countless sailors safe for millennia. When he started in 1983, it threatened to be a career with no future.
“Automation was dangled over our heads my entire career and to this day,” the now-retired Porter told The Epoch Times. About half of Newfoundland and Labrador’s lighthouses have become automated since his early days in the profession. The province currently has 23 manned lighthouses out of the 51 left nationwide….