Cape Beale Lighthouse | |
Location: | Cape Beale Vancouver Island British Columbia Canada |
Coordinates: | 48.7864°N -125.2156°W |
Yearbuilt: | 1874 (first) |
Yearlit: | 1958 (current) |
Construction: | steel skeletal tower |
Shape: | square pyramidal tower with balcony and lantern, central cylinder, slatted daymarks on three sides |
Marking: | red tower and lantern |
Height: | 10m (30feet) |
Focalheight: | 48m (157feet) |
Characteristic: | Fl WR 5s. |
Managingagent: | Canadian Coast Guard[1] |
Cape Beale Lightstation is an active manned lighthouse on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
The lighthouse was built in 1874 and its focal plane is 51 meters above sea level. The present tower was built in 1958 and marks the entrance to Barkley Sound. It is 10 metres tall. Cape Beale received its name from Charles William Barkley, captain of the Imperial Eagle, who named it for his ship's purser, John Beale. The lighthouse is best known for its proximity to the West Coast Trail which is the theoretical route survivors of shipwrecks would take to get to the nearby community of Bamfield.
From 1971 to 1998, the Cape Beale Light was part of the British Columbia Shore Station Oceanographic Program, collecting coastal water temperature and salinity measurements for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans everyday for 27 years.[2]