St. Paul Island—The Story of Lighthouses, Shipwrecks and Lives on "The Graveyard of the Gulf"

Because of the determination of The St. Paul Island Historical Society, Canada’s first heritage Lighthouse stands today at the St. Paul Island Museum in Dingwall, Cape Breton Island. It was once the Southwest Light of “The Graveyard of the Gulf”—that lonesome, hazardous rock between Cape Breton and Newfoundland in the Gulf of St. Lawrence—home for many years to a rare breed of lighthouse keepers and radio operators, and surrounded by the remains of over 300 shipwrecks.

This new book by staff researcher Gabrielle Williams details the history of the island from before there was a lighthouse or keepers to the day-to-day island life of the men and some of their families. And while many lives were saved over the years, there are records of having to stand by and watch helplessly as an immigrant ship with hundreds of passengers aboard went down into a roaring sea.

St. Paul Island—The Story of Lighthouses, Shipwrecks and Lives on “The Graveyard of the Gulf” includes historic photos as well as a section of pictures taken as the Southwest Lighthouse was delivered to northern Cape Breton in sections and reconstructed at the St. Paul Island Museum in Dingwall.