Cape Anguille Lighthouse
Cape Anguille lightstation was established in 1905 as a coastal station to serve fishermen and marine traffic travelling along the Gulf of St. Lawrence up to the Strait of Belle Isle. It is at the southwestern tip of Newfoundland. The lightkeeper's dwelling has not been occupied since 1968, and it is in poor condition.
Like a number of other lightstations along the south and West Coast of Newfoundland, Cape Anguille was established as an aid to navigation for those proceeding up toward the Strait of Belle Isle, the very treacherous, relatively narrow passage between Newfoundland and Labrador. During the era of the sailing ship, most vessels approaching Canada took the longer but somewhat safer route around Cape Race at the Southeastern tip of Newfoundland. Steam ships, however, could better the negotiate the Strait, and so in the later nineteenth century more traffic began to move along the western coast of Newfoundland. In spring, ships frequently waited near Cape Ray on the south coast for the ice to break up farther up the west coast, and then preceeded around Cape Anguille and north. Because safe navigation around Newfoundland was of great interest to Canadian mariners as well as to those from Newfoundland, the Newfoundland and Canadian governments co-operated in the establishment of lightstations along the Newfoundland coast. Cape Anguille was one of those built by the Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries.
An essential element in the establishment of a lightstation was the provision of accommodation for a lightkeeper. The accommodations provided at Cape Anguille was a double dwelling, intended to house the lightkeeper and the engineer who operated the fog alarm machinery at the site.
The Cape Anguille lightstation is not associated with any prominent person or event. However, the light was long associated with the Patry family. The father, Alfred Patry was lightkeeper from 1908 until 1943, when he was succeeded by his son, Laurier Patry. Laurier Patry retired in 1982.
During the 1960's considerable change took place at Cape Anguille. The original tower and fog alarm building were removed and replaced. Until 1972, Cape Anguille was a three-man station, and for most of that time both the engineer and the lightkeeper's assistant made their way out from Codroy everyday. One room in the house was kept as a guest room for those days when the men coming from Codroy were caught by bad weather. In 1965 and 1968, two new dwellings were built on the site. Laurier Patry and his family moved out of the old dwelling and into the new one in 1969, and the old dwelling has not been occupied since that time.
At the present time, Cape Anguille is being automated. There is still a keeper, but no one now lives at the site. The 1968 dwelling is used as a "day residence" and the other two are unoccupied.