Fog Bell Has Landed

As part of a grant from the Legacy Fund of Heritage Canada, celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Swallowtail Lighthouse, we have been renovating the trails and preparing a tribute to the lightkeepers.  Part of this includes returning the bronze fog bell that was used for many years to alert mariners in times of restricted visibility.  With the propensity of fog in the Bay of Fundy, many months of the year, fog alarms were as important as the light.

Bell house prior to 1922 at the extreme easten end of the peninsula. 
The photo was posted to the Facebook group - Old Grand Manan Photos

Reference to the fog bell begins in 1915 when a building was built at the extreme end of the Swallow Tail peninsula, although the date on the bell is 1904.  In 1922, the bell was moved to sit beside the lighthouse to make it easier for the light keepers to keep the winding mechanism operating which in turn rang the bell.  Originally, fog bells, horns, guns were only sounded in response to a fog horn or bell from a passing vessel but with the development of an automated system, similar to what is used with spring wound clocks, the fog bell could be sounded throughout inclement weather that restricted visibility.



Close-up of bell house on northern side of lighthouse.  Elmer Wilcox photo, 1958.



Bell house and fog bell on northern side of Swallowtail light house.  Elmer Wilcox photo, 1958

Both the bell and the bell house were moved to the northern side of the lighthouse where the bell sat until 1980.  A fog horn had replaced the fog bell at an earlier time. The bell had developed a small crack where it was continuously rung and the tone of the bell had changed. The lightkeeper at the time, Grimmer Ingersoll, organized the removal of the bell from the point to the Grand Manan Museum where it sat in front of the Deep Cove School House.  Moving the bronze bell was not an easy feat.  At 900 kg (2000 lbs), it took brute force and lots of ingenuity to accomplish the task.  Unfortunately, the bell did suffer some damage when it was moved in 1980 and two chips can be found on the edge of the bell where chains were wrapped around it.

Light keeper, Grimmer Ingersoll, and friends moving bell in 1980,
eventually getting it to the Grand Manan Museum

When the Swallowtail Keepers Society was formed in 2008, the Museum agreed to donate the bell back to Swallowtail.  A large deck was built by Terry Davidson, George Best and Ken Ingersoll, over the concrete base of the old flag pole and a stand was attached to hold the bell.  Repairs had to be made to the top of the bell and modified to include an eye and shackle for lifting. Michael Brown of Waterfront Fabricating drilled through 6.5 inches of steel at the top of the bell to install two new plates and an eye.  The bell originally had two bolts that held the bell on an I-beam but these were not appropriate if the bell was to be lifted and then lowered onto the stand. The bell could have been strung in a cargo net but that complicated the moving process and recovering the cargo net afterwards, given the weight of the bell.

Terry Davidson and George Best beginning the bell deck

Finished bell deck awaiting the bell

Once the bell was ready to be moved, Randy Brownlee and the M.G. Fisheries boom truck picked up the bell and drove it to the top of the hill at Swallowtail, leaving only 300 m (1000') to move the bell but with 54 steps, a wooden foot bridge, a gravel path over undulating terrain, and a flight of stairs up to the deck, that was not an easy feat.

M.G. Fisheries boom truck that moved the bell from the Grand Manan Museum
 to the top of the stairs leading to Swallowtail.  Randy Brownlee photo.

Inquiries went out to the Canadian Coast Guard and a military base to see if they might be able to use one of their helicopters to move the bell.  No promises were made but it was suggested that if everything was in place, if a helicopter was available, it might happen.  In the middle of November, the Canadian Coast Guard needed their heavy lift helicopter to move building material to Partridge Island in Saint John, NB to construct a new helicopter pad.  Since that is only 25 minutes by helicopter, we were asked to be ready on short notice.  A call at 8:30 on November 21 set the final process in motion.  The helicopter would arrive at 1:30 to move the bell.  This in part was to take advantage of the decreasing wind in the afternoon and to allow myself to be present since I was booked to make a right whale aerial survey the next day with the Fisheries and Oceans Canada as part of the Lobster Mitigation program for Lobster Districts 36, 37 and 38.  locations of right whales are provided to lobster fishermen to help them avoid conflicts with right whales and their fishing gear.

Calls were made to a few people to pass the word about this special event.  Over a dozen people watched as the helicopter arrived to survey the pick up location and the bell deck.  Because of the weight of the bell, only the pilot and one crew member was aboard to do the lifting.  One person was at the bell to hook up the cable and two were at the bell deck to position the moving bell onto the stand.

Jamie McCavour grabbing hook from Canadian Coast Guard helicopter

Jamie McCavour, Canadian Coast Guard,  hooking up cable to bell before lifting

With great anticipation and a bit of trepidation hoping that nothing would happen and the bell wouldn't be lost into the ocean, the helicopter moved into position.  The bell slowly rose off the wooden pallet where it had been sitting.  The pilot then took a long wide circle to approach the bell stand from the south, just as the Grand Manan Adventure ferry rounded Swallowtail.  After a few false approaches, the bell finally was positioned accordingly and was quickly unhooked from the helicopter.  A cheer went up from the onlookers.

The Grand Manan ferry, Grand Manan Advenutre going around Swallowtail as bell
was being brought in a wide arc to the bell deck.  Note the bell house is attached to the lighthouse.

Bronze fog bell lifting into air.  Martha Eaton photo.

Canadian Coast Guard helicopter taking bronze fog bell to the bell deck in a wide arc.

Steve Lloyd and Bob Hebert (Canadian Coast Guard) coordinating the landing of the fog bell on the stand

Bob Hebert (Canadian Coast Guard) unhooking the cable on the fog bell once it was positioned on the stand.

Here are two videos taken of the move

(pick up of the bell from the top of the hill by the Coast Guard helicopter).

I walked down to the see the bell in position and had a great sense of accomplishment as I came over the rise and saw the bell.  While the bell is slightly off centre, that can be fixed.  I took great pleasure in ringing the bell for the first time since it had been removed from Swallowtail.  The tone echoed nicely and while I don't have perfect pitch, the tone is supposed to be an F, according to the manufacturer, Meneely Bell Company of West Troy, NY.

Canadian Coast Guard crew - Bob Hebert, Jamie McCavour, Paul Mosher (pilot) and Steve Lloyd

Boat house resurrection, continuing project

The boat house next to the keepers house is in need of resurrection. I'm not sure how old the building is but it is definitely over 100 years of age.

We have begun the the slow task with the rebuilding of the southern wall which had become completely derelict with the cladding floating away from the studs. The nails had rusted away from corrosion from the salt spray driven at the building and the doors and windows leaked relentlessly. You know there is major work to do when shingles and boards all come off in a unit. The building will be relatively water tight for the winter and more work will begin again in the spring. We have a long way to go, replacing windows, doors, roof, southern wall, part of sill, skirting, paint, before we can consider possibly returning the winch, skiff, tracks, etc. that made it a working boathouse.

This is what the loading system looked like in 1958 when the new keepers house was being built. It is interesting that the doors were of different width. There appeared to be two platforms that could be winched up the steep hill filled with supplies or loaded with the dory which could also be lifted up the hill. A swinging boom and winch were used to lift the supplies or dory up to the rails since they did not extend to the high water mark.

Looking back through pictures taken in April 2008, there is a section of the wall that had blown off the previous winter in some of the monumental pile of "stuff" removed from the keepers house and boathouse. The boathouse was literally stuffed with none of the construction debris removed from the renovations for the short-lived bed and breakfast.

Here are photos taken since April 2009 of the southern wall. In the first photo, already, one of the doors, the header, part of the wall are gone or ready to collapse.

The next series of photos are the tearing apart and then rebuilding of the door frame and wall in September and October 2009:

The southern end is now relatively weather tight for the winter. Work will begin next spring to finish this side and then address the other issues with the building. The biggest surprise was that the door that had been carefully stored in the boat house was neither the same width nor the same height as the other door. We are not sure where this door was originally. We will have to build at least one new door to replace the short door next year.

There seems to be a never ending amount of material that needs to be removed from the site, as witnessed by these two photos, one from April 2008 and the next from September 2009. The material from 2008 was, of course, hand lifted off the peninsula by a human-chain of volunteers, while the material in 2009 was lifted off by helicopter which took 6 minutes per load. This could not have happened with out the support of all of our volunteers, the Canadian Coast Guard and CleanEarth Technologies who did the lead paint cleanup around the light house and the foundations of the old keeper's house.

We have the paint for this building which was donated and a few bundles of cedar shingles for the southern wall but we will need to replace the roof soon and replace the glass in the windows. The windows and doors in this building have changed greatly over time, either being moved or replaced with different sizes and styles.

Helicopter lifts in September

The lead paint remediation around Swallowtail lighthouse and the old light keepers house foundation is now complete. The last of the contaminated soil was removed September 14 and 15. We had asked our contact at Fisheries and Oceans in charge of the cleanup if it would be possible to remove some of the larger items from the property while the Canadian Coast Guard helicopter was on site. We were pleasantly surprised when the answer was yes. We were able to coordinate the removal through CleanEarth Technologies, the company contracted to do the soil cleanup and had sent two of their staff to the site during this latest soil removal. These were the large white bags that were sitting beside the light house. Most of the bags had been removed earlier in the summer but these hadn't been removed until September because the CCG helicopter was unavailable for the work.

Helicopter sitting on helicopter pad next to the lighthouse:

Helicopter over the lighthouse during a lift:

A number of us went out to organize what was to be lifted off, including the old oil tanks, furnaces, a water heater and other items from the basement of the keepers house, the demolition debris from the southern end of the boat house and the scaffolding used during painting the keepers house. The old furnaces hadn't been used since the lightstation was destaffed in 1985 and had originally been coal burning and were convert to oil. Electric heat had been installed when the keepers house was used as a bed and breakfast.

Staging and bags with building debris ready to go. Cargo net has yet to be filled:

CleanEarth Technologies brought 2 large bags, similar in size to the ones used for the soil and the helicopter crew had 2 cargo nets. We filled the bags the first day and moved all the scaffolding to one location. During this time, one of our volunteers organized getting the large items out of the basement which was fully accomplished the second day and everything loaded into cargo nets or hooked together with straps.

Moving the oil tank out of the basement:

The helicopter arrived in the afternoon of Sept. 14 and moved a number of soil bags to the staging area at the old airport at Hole-in-the-Wall park. The following day, the rest of the bags were removed and then it was time to lift our stuff. The soil will be removed from the island and decontaminated.

Hooking up a bag filled with contaminated soil to be lifted by helicopter to the old airport at Hole-in-the-Wall Park:

Contaminated soil bag in the air. Some of these bags weighed over a ton:

The two bags were lifted first at the end of a 100' cable, then the scaffolding and one of the cargo nets, then the tanks and furnaces and then the last cargo net. It took only 6 minutes from the time the bags or nets were attached to the cable until the helicopter was back for the next load so we had to work quickly and it was why we had to have everything prepared. We also had two people at the old airport to help the CleanEarth technologist unhook and remove the items from the cargo nets. It was amazing how smoothly everything went.

Scaffolding and cargo net attached to helicopter hook ready to be lifted, the helicopter engineer is overseeing the lifting:

Hooking up second cargo net to be lifted by helicopter:

Here is a video of getting one of the cargo bags ready to be lifted by the helicopter:

Material at the old airport after being lifted off the peninsula by helicopter:

We would like to thank all our volunteers, the Canadian Coast Guard helicopter crew and CleanEarth Technologies and their crew. Trying to get this material up the stairs manually would have taken a lot more effort, people and time than with the helicopter.

Summary for Trails and Island Times articles

Parts of the following were included in the Grand Manan Trails Newsletter 2009 and also in the November issue of Island Times. Slight editing was done for each publication. Thanks Martha for getting this started!

This year has been a busy one for the Swallowtail Keepers Society (SKS) in its efforts to preserve and maintain the keepers house and other outbuildings at Swallowtail. While some of their work revolved around further clarification of the property status, much of their time was spent in visible projects that began in April and are ongoing.

For the second year in a row, a flag-raising ceremony took place on a foggy July 1, 2009, with several community members and the RCMP in attendance. The ceremony recognized the Foster family for its contribution to Swallowtail’s history and memorialized the tragic death of Elodie Foster in 1936, wife of Thomas Foster, while she was lighting the alcohol lamp in the lighthouse.

A new event on the third weekend in August was the International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend. Two ham-radio operators from the Fredericton area set up their equipment in the former Ross Island boat house to talk to other operators around the world also broadcasting from lighthouses or lightships. While the atmospheric conditions were not always the best, it was a fun weekend with over 170 people stopping by to learn about ham radios and celebrate lighthouses. We hope to make this an annual event.

Perhaps the most visible improvement has been the erection of a sturdy deck and replacement of the roof shingles at the former Ross Island boathouse at the head of the stairs by the parking lot. Many, many hours of volunteer labour went into this project and is part of our goals to make at least part of the property accessible to everyone. This area will become the greeting centre for anyone visiting the light station in years to come.

Thanks to donated paint and the local Rotary Club and members of the Rotary Club from Seminole Lake, Florida, the buildings at the top of the hill and the keepers house have been painted in a joint project. A bit more work is needed on the keepers house but the buildings now glow as they did when there were fulltime keepers who did the maintenance. SKS is grateful for all such help, and recognizes the great cooperation and assistance from such community groups as Rotary as well as local businesses and individuals.

You may have also noticed that the southern wall of the boathouse beside the keepers house is being rebuilt. Many years of neglect and extreme elements (wind, rain and snow) had taken its toll and through volunteer effort and donated lumber, the building is in much better shape for the upcoming winter. This work will continue next spring.

Some work was also done on the railings. The chain link fencing on one side of the hand rail of the concrete steps was replaced with much softer netting so the railing was more “hand-friendly”. The railing on the foot bridge was also reinforced with long bolts to strengthen it against the stiff winds through the Sawpit. The netting and stainless steel bolts, nuts and washers were donated and this, often tedious, work was done by volunteers.

Together this work has helped to have the property shining for the 150th anniversary on July 7, 2010. Various plans for that celebration include the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the event, installing a time capsule, and possibly returning the fog bell to the property. A gala public reception and slide show of people's favourite Swallowtail photos are in the planning stages. A boat parade/sail past and a Fishermen's Ball are planned for the weekend following. Please let us know if there are special events you would like included or would like to help with any of the planning or events to make this a fun time for all.

While not directly related to SKS’ mandate, many of you have likely noted the presence of a large-scale clean-up of lead paint by CleanEarth Technologies at the Swallowtail property which started in the fall of 2008. This was part of a Federal Government programme to remediate properties that are contaminated. The clean-up was necessary if the lighthouse is ever to be transferred from federal hands. They graciously arranged to have removed large items (oil tanks, old furnaces, construction debris) from the property recently by Coast Guard helicopter. This was possible during the removal of the last bags of contaminated soil from beside the lighthouse.

The federal historic lighthouse bill is to come into effect next year and the community will need to petition to have the lighthouse deemed “historic”. It is already recognized as “significant”. Lack of funding to the Coast Guard remains an issue regarding maintenance of the lighthouse and can be seen in the crumbling rock foundation, missing roof shingles and peeling paint. Additionally, the Village is in the process of setting up an historic places registry of non-federal properties, and has selected the keepers property as one of the possible sites.

None of this could be accomplished without the dedication of volunteers and interested individuals, countless volunteer hours, donation of materials and gracious monetary donations. A successful lobster dinner and musical evening, hamburger and hotdog sales, and sale of buttons and maple taffy have also helped raise necessary funds to let us continue our work. If you are interested, donations can be sent to Swallowtail Keepers Society, 50 Lighthouse Road, Grand Manan, NB E5G 2A2. We also have a blog, http://www.swallowtailkeepers.blogspot.com/, a Facebook group, Save our Swallowtail, and always welcome anyone interested in helping out with work or organizational meetings. Contact: Laurie Murison (506 662 8316 or gmwhale@nbnet.nb.ca)

Helicopter makes use of flag

The crew hired to cleanup the lead paint contamination at Swallowtail had their equipment helicoptered back onto the peninsula today after breaking off their work during the winter months. They have another month left and when finished will have spent four months cleaning the soil where the original keepers house stood and around the base of the lighthouse.

On Saturday as part of our Earth Day work party, the flag pole and flag were re-hoisted. The red and white Canadian flag seems to finish the scenic vista and was invaluable to the helicopter pilot today as the wind shifted during the many trips bringing equipment from the pick up site at Hole-in-the-Wall Park to Swallowtail.