CHAPTER V.

THE LIGHTHOUSES OF WALDE, THE ENFANT PERDU, AND NEW CALEDONIA.

A.D. 1859—1863—1865.

We have spoken of the patriarch of the French lighthouses, the venerable Tower of Cordova; it would be unfair to forget the youngest of the family, that of New Caledonia. Independently of the services which it renders in the region it illuminates, this edifice has, so to speak, a physiognomy of its own: it is built of iron, and structures of this material are sufficiently rare to justify us in devoting a few lines to its description.

Iron is not so suitable as stone for the construction of lighthouses; it is not so durable, it is more expensive in working and repairing, and it affords a less efficacious protection against the thermometrical variations of the atmosphere. Yet under certain circumstances our engineers gladly have recourse to it. It has given rise to various systems of construction. One of these, invented by Mr. Mitchell, has been successfully applied in several instances in England; and has been adopted in France for the lighthouse of Walde, kindled in 1859 to the north of Calais, on a sandy shore stretching far out into the sea; and for the lighthouse erected on the rock of the Enfant Perdu (coast of Guiana). It consists of iron pillars protected in the lower part by strong metal screws, strengthened by cross bars and St. Andrew’s crosses, and surmounted, at a suitable distance above the sea-level, by a platform which supports the rooms of the keepers. The whole erection is crowned by the lantern.

Since we are speaking of this pharos of the Enfant Perdu, let us say how difficult a task was its construction. “More than once,” writes Vivian, the chief engineer of Cayenne, “it was necessary, in order to fix a running hawser for landing purposes, that stout and courageous men should resolutely dash into the sea, and swim with a rope to the shore. The risk of being flung against the rocks was not the least they ran, for, as at the bar of the Senegal, sharks abound in these regions. The ebb and flow render navigation very difficult; more than one of the men were wounded, and we may say that all sported with their lives.”

Yet here, as elsewhere, resolution, industry, and perseverance have triumphed over every obstacle.

The framework of the pharos at Port de France, New Caledonia, like that of the Roches-Douvres, is made up of sixteen uprights, each composed of fourteen pannels. Each pannel is formed of T irons, consolidated and riveted together in such a manner as to be perfectly firm—an object fully attained, for the oscillations experienced in lighthouses of stone are in this scarcely discernible. These pannels are pinned one upon another, while cross bars applied both within and without, and likewise pinned, keep the uprights in their position. Finally, on these latter cross bars, and on the inner sides of the uprights, rest the plates of sheet iron constituting the walls, or sides, whose joints are covered by iron platbands, fixed by bolts.

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The height of the New Caledonia lighthouse is 164 feet, or 170 feet if we measure from the base of the tower to the point of the lightning-conductor. Its apparatus is of the first class, lenticular, with a fixed white light, whose range is twenty-two miles. The spot on which it is raised is an island of sand, such as the coral animals form in so great and dangerous a number in the southern seas, and is situated to the south-west of Noumea.

Constructed at Paris, and transported in pieces to the Antipodes, the pharos of New Caledonia was inaugurated on the 15th of November 1865, with all the ceremonial appropriate to so important an event. After the benediction of the monument by the priests of Noumea, M. the Commandant Guillain pronounced a discourse, from which we extract the following passage:—

“If, transporting ourselves in thought into the different regions of the civilized world, we examine the events transpiring there, the most magnificent panorama is unrobed before our eyes. Everywhere,—and this will be the glory of our epoch,—everywhere, great works are being executed to bring the peoples together, to multiply their relations, to prepare, in a word, that universal brotherhood, destined and reserved by Providence for future generations.“

The savages, attracted by the brilliancy of the festival, mingled with the French soldiers, seamen, and colonists. Did they understand this wise and noble speech? We fear not. But Time marches onward for them as for us, and Time, which has already destroyed their horrible custom of cannibalism, will one day explain its full meaning to them. Nor is this glorious epoch far remote; wherever beams the lighthouse-lamps, the sails of rich argosies whiten the horizon, wafted from sea to sea by the powerful impulses of civilization!