Seal Island talk at Pubnico Library Oct. 4

Gary Hopkins will be bringing original lightkeeper logbooks from 1824 to 1940, in addition to shipwreck information, brass instruments and other artifacts for his presentation.

Hopkins says he used to go lobster fishing from Clark’s Harbour and anchor off the west side cove of Seal Island.

“I knew everybody on the Island and was always interested in it,” he said.

When the original light operating mechanism and lantern were dismantled and shipped to Ottawa in 1977 an outcry from Southwest residents and the Cape Sable Historical Society brought the beacon back to Barrington Head in 1981.

Hopkins was the foreman for the reconstruction of the lantern that topped the replica lighthouse.

“We took it out of all the crates and stripped her down. All the lenses together weighed two or three ton and they were all numbered.

“There were layers and layers of them. It was all in French and it was kind of hard to figure out,” he said.

It took Hopkins and two workers three months to chip away ten layers of paint, reassemble the light and apply new coats of paint.

A 100-foot crane was used to lift the iron dome housing the lens back into place and Hopkins climbed up to insert the weathervane that crowned the structure.

He says he will likely end up selling the items he’s collected over the years, which include logbooks from vessels shipwrecked on the island. He’s gleaned some interesting information from the records.

“Sometimes the ice was froze from Seal Island to Clark’s Harbour and you could walk ashore,” he said.

He also has a five-foot brass telescope that dates back to 1825.

“They used to use this to spot ships coming over the horizon,” he said.

Hopkins obtained many of his artifacts from Mary Hamilton, a great-great-granddaughter of the first Seal Island settlers.