Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
not end there however as the ghost of Osborne is said to have haunted the St Simons
Island Lighthouse ever since the duel. Stephens said that he could regularly hear foot-
steps going up and down the 129 steps in the light tower, which he said was the ghost
ofOsborne.Twenty-sevenyearsafterthedeathofOsborne,in1907,anewheadkeeper
named Carl Svendson arrived. Svendson's tenure as head keeper of St Simons Island
Lighthouse lasted almost thirty years until 1935. During a period of his tenure Svend-
son said that his dog had been harassed by the ghost of Osborne. Perhaps unkindly, it
is said that the restless ghost of the nit-picking Frederick Osborne is checking the light-
house on a regular basis to make sure that the light is working properly.
Ontheothersideoftheworld,inTasmania,theisolationofalighthousewaspartially
held to be responsible for a lightkeeper's state of mind and subsequent behaviour al-
though it has to be said that the behaviour could well have exhibited itself anywhere,
including a large city. The introduction in the Australian Lighthouse bulletin regarding
or's note states:
We read stories about lighthouses and imagine the romance of it all. As we investigate
and talk to the lightkeepers and their families, we realise how their lives were com-
prised of tedious daily duties and plain hard work that revolved around keeping the
light burning and maintaining the lightstations. Occasionally we are presented with
tales that tell of underlying privations that reveal the harsh realities of life on the sea-
ward edge of the civilised world.
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Tasmania was a harsh place for convicts and the small town of Port Arthur was the
sceneofaterriblemassacrein1996whenanindividualnamedMartinBryantwentber-
serk and shot thirty-five people dead and wounded twenty-three others. The Tasman Is-
land Lighthouse is one of the most remote lighthouse locations in the world, lying just
over 30 miles away. It stands on Tasman Island on the south-eastern tip of the Tasman
peninsula on top of windswept, storm-ravaged cliffs 1,000ft up from the sea. In com-
mon with many other lighthouses around the world, the only way on and off for many
years was to be hoisted from a boat.
Inearly1950anewlightkeeper,HerbertJamesYates,arrivedwithhisgirlfriend,Rita
PearlClark,totakeoverthetendingofthelight.beforehecametothelighthouse,Yates
wassaidtobeanormalyoungmanbuthischaracterandbehaviour,changed,andYates
became a different man to the person who had arrived on the island. He was known to
drink heavily and became morose and aggressive towards Rita. He would regularly as-
sault her and she lived in fear of him, a situation which was not helped by Yates having
access to a rifle and knives. Despite the abuse she suffered, she stayed on the island
with Yates and eventually had four children, all girls. Although she felt isolated at the
