Cape Campbell Lighthouse

Cape Campbell Lighthouse
Place:	Cape Campbell , South Island , New Zealand
Location:	Marlborough , New Zealand
Geographical location:	41 ° 43 '48 "  S , 174 ° 16' 30"  E Coordinates: 41 ° 43 '48 "  S , 174 ° 16' 30"  E
Height of tower base:	22  m
Fire carrier height :	47 m
Identifier :	FL W 15s
Scope knows:	19 nm (35.2 km )
Optics:	50 W halogen lamp
Function:	lighthouse
Construction time:	1876
Operating time:	since 1870
International ordinal number:	K4274

Cape Campbell Lighthouse is a lighthouse on Cape Campbell in the Marlborough District on New Zealand's South Island . It is located on the south coast near the entrance to the Cook Strait . The tower was named after the cape on which it stands, which in turn was named by James Cook in honor of Vice Admiral John Campbell .

From 1845 to 1947 there were at least 18 shipwrecks in the surrounding coastal area, including the sinking of the New Bedford- born whaler Alexander in 1858, in which one crew member died.

First tower

James Balfour, marine engineer and steamship inspector of the lighthouse operator Marine Department since 1866, designed a tower for the cape, which was then chosen as the location, about 10 years after the accident, but died in a boat accident before it could be erected.

The first tower was built in 1869 as a wooden structure and went into operation on August 1, 1870. The tower with second-order optics was originally illuminated with an oil burner. The first lighthouse keeper, William Hendle, previously worked on the tower on Mana Island . He worked at the Pencarrow Head Lighthouse from 1872 to 1878 and then returned. He died on March 30, 1881 at the age of 50 in the lamp house of the lighthouse. Despite the tower, the ship Rifleman , which ran between Lyttelton and Havelock , was lost in 1871 and all crew members perished. The tower turned out to be not very robust. Although it was reinforced two years after it was built, the building was so dilapidated in 1898 that it was decided to build a new one.

Second tower

The cast-iron replacement structure was manufactured in England in the Thames Iron Works (Judd Engineering) and transported disassembled to New Zealand. The new tower was put into operation in October 1905 and the old tower was demolished in the same year; Today only the foundations and the access stairs are preserved. The new tower was given a ring pattern, which is unusual in New Zealand, in order to attract more attention to the surroundings. The other two towers designed this way in New Zealand are Cape Palliser Lighthouse and Dog Island Lighthouse .

In 1897 the first post office in a New Zealand lighthouse was set up in the lighthouse keeper's house. In July 1938 the oil burner was replaced by a 1000 W lamp that was powered by a diesel generator. In the 1960s, a connection to the power grid was created. With the automation of the tower in 1986, the last lighthouse keeper left the tower. Since then, the tower has been remotely controlled from Maritime New Zealand's headquarters in Wellington . In November 2003 the optics were modified. A rotating beacon with a 50 W halogen lamp was installed. This is supplied with mains voltage, batteries serve as an emergency power supply.

The lighthouse and cape were filming locations for the 2016 feature film The Light Between Oceans .

Web links

Commons : Cape Campbell Lighthouse  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Cape Campbell Lighthouse at newzealandlighthouses.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Cape Campbell . Maritime New Zealand , accessed October 16, 2018 .