You don’t spend twenty-three years as a lighthouse keeper in rural Newfoundland without collecting a few stories. Barry Porter staffed lighthouses at Long Point, Twillingate, Surgeon’s Cove Head on Exploits Island, and Bacalhao Island Lighthouse on Herring Neck. Porter has written “Adventures of a Lightkeeper” about his experiences, including a mysterious encounter with a strange 60-foot longline on Exploits Island in 1992. He says the boat nearly hit the rocks about 2km from the lighthouse. Porter and his partner spoke to the man, who appeared to be “totally out of it,” and led him back to the safety of the harbor, where he tied up at the government pier. The next morning the man and his boat were gone, leaving only the cut tie lines.
