By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

NASSAU’s historic and iconic lighthouse, for millions of cruise passengers every year the first landmark they see approaching the harbour, has fallen into a “deplorable” state of disrepair.

Drone photographs taken last month of the nearly 200-year-old lighthouse, the first built in the Bahamas, show broken glass panes in the gallery, the automatic light knocked over and not functioning, smashed light prisms, weathered and rotted woodwork and the structure in dire need of repainting. The pictures have led to fears that the next storm might sweep the gallery away.

The recent lack of upkeep and repairs at the Hog Island “gateway” lighthouse – which was built in 1816-1817 – has brought in to question the government’s policy of management and maintenance of historic lighthouses around the country.

The upkeep of lighthouses around the Bahamas is managed through a partnership between the Port Department, Royal Bahamas Defence Force and the Antiquities, Monuments and Museums Corporation (AMMC). The Tribune has learned that, due to this complex arrangement between the three government units, maintenance and repairs are often delayed or not carried out at all.

Local historian and author Ronald Lightbourn is alarmed to see the Nassau lighthouse in such a “deplorable condition”, a situation confirmed by the photographs which were taken on March 15.

According to Mr Lighbourn they reveal how the lighthouse is in sore need of a lot of attention.

“It appeared to me that the automatic light was knocked over and probably not functioning, the windows of the lighthouse proper are missing, allowing rain to beat in and rot the wooden staircase and floor, and the front door at the base of the lighthouse has been open for decades allowing anyone to enter,” Mr Lightbourn, the author of Reminiscing II, Photographs of Old Nassau, told The Tribune.

“In the past 50 years, I have seen the huge flag pole to the west of the light chopped down with an axe; the hundreds of glass prisms comprising the beautiful Fresnel lens were lifted out of their holders and smashed on the rocks below; and the original diamond-shaped glasses which were arrayed around the gallery were knocked out, to smash on the rocks below. The next hurricane may sweep the whole gallery away, open to the wind as it is.”

“Our lighthouse is the first fine and historic sight three million cruise ship passengers see every year when approaching Nassau harbour. Surely we can give it better attention than we are now.

Apart from it crying out to be repainted, a lot of carpentry is needed to the gallery, where an entire frame of glass panes is missing, and the outside floor around the gallery is missing some planks.”

At one time, the resident lighthouse keeper lowered the flag on the thick pole every night. A red flag raised meant there was a storm coming. The flagpole was 12 inches or more in diameter and during the 1980s was chopped, flush to the rock, possibly to be stolen to be used as a mast.

Responsibility for the light and general upkeep of the site lies with the Defence Force, through the Ministry of National Security. The Port Department, through the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, is responsible for the human resources management with regard to the lighthouse keepers. The AMMC, through the Office of the Prime Minister, is responsible for the overall maintenance of the 12 historic lighthouses in The Bahamas.

Michael Pateman, Senior Archaeologist at the AMMC, explained that condition of the lighthouses has been left in limbo in recent years, but insisted that the government is working to rectify the matter. He said it would cost millions to properly maintain all the lighthouses around the country. He added that the government wants to do that but has to organise a system that governs all of the properties.

“They are trying to create a national plan which will aim to prioritise the historic lighthouses around the country,” Mr Pateman told The Tribune. “A sub-committee was established by Transport Minister Glenys Hanna Martin in 2013 or 2014, after the automation of the Inagua lighthouse in 2012. That committee was crafted to enhance the way historical lighthouses are treated.

“They are working on a plan to refocus these monuments to become revenue generating properties. If that is achieved then the properties themselves could assist with the expenses associated with running them.”

The Port Department declined to comment while attempts to contact the Defence Force on the matter were unsuccessful.

Since the light was exhibited for the first time on September 1 1817, the stone tower has weathered many storms. In Paradise Island Story, a 1984 book by Paul Albury, it is written that “during the 1866 hurricane the ocean was said to have rolled completely over Hog Island into the harbour in surges so enormous that the crests of the waves were level with the gallery of the lighthouse, sixty feet above the sea. Governor Rawson reported, ‘the lantern of the Hog Island lighthouse was broken and most of the lamps and reflectors destoryed or seriously damaged’.”

Mr Lightbourn hopes that the government will act soon, given the age, condition and status of the Nassau lighthouse, which he believes is one of the oldest in the western world (North America and the Caribbean).

He has one request when it comes to repainting: “a plain white, please. No stripes, which make it look squat.”