Women who shone a light
Hundreds of years ago on a cold windy night, awoman climbs the spiral stairs of her lighthouse to tend the lamp that will guide a lurching ship into harbour and out of the swells.
There have been women keeping the lights burning, from tending ancient altar flames or bonfires to modern-day lighthouse keeping, for centuries.
Yet most of their stories are little-known. Shona Riddell’s new book, Guiding Lights: The Extraordinary Lives of Lighthouse Women, tells stories from around theworld over two millennia, from the ancient Greek goddess Hestia to New Zealand’s only female head lighthouse keeper, Mary Bennett, who ran Pencarrow Lighthouse in Wellington from 1855-1865.
When Riddell first heard the story of Bennett – how her husband drowned, leaving her widowed, pregnant, the mother of five other children, and now head lighthouse keeper at Pencarrow – she wondered if there were others.
She found her own connection during her research, flipping through a copy of her genealogical history: Riddell’s great-greataunt, Margaret, was married to Bennett’s youngest son, William.
Bennett spent 10 years as the head lighthouse keeper, the only female to hold the title in New Zealand. But overseas, Riddell found plenty more.
Some could have been straight from the pages of an adventure novel.
Ida Lewis became head lighthouse keeper in Rhode Island, in the United States, in the 1870s, after her mother’s death. A strong swimmer and rower, she spent 54 years on
Lime Rock and is credited with saving 18 lives.
Riddell is no stranger to history writing, but this book took her on a journey spanning longer than most. While it took two years to write, the timeline goes back as far as Ancient Greece. Hestia, goddess of the hearth, domesticity, family, home, and the state, was worshipped as the flame bearer, a guiding light.
Since then, although women weren’t typically recognised for their work as lighthouse keepers, they had always existed – although newspaper accounts were ‘‘often quite patronising’’.
Riddell delved into old news stories at the
National Library, old books, and personal accounts from overseas. She even interviewed family and former children of lighthouse keeper parents.
In New Zealand, lighthouses only became completely automated in the 1990s, and those who lived in them have fond memories of carefree childhoods spent rock-hopping and adventure seeking.
Lighthouse keepers are still required in Canada. Although the residents have internet access and helicopter visits, they are still dramatically remote, the house surrounded by cougars and bears.
The book is out now, andwill also be available as an audiobook soon.