I was fortunate to make contact with Maureen Cardew, whose husband Ralph Meakins
sadly was killed in a work accident on Eclipse Island in 1971. Ralph worked as a mechanical
engineer on the M.V. Cape Don Lighthouse Tender. Maureen heard of my
interest in lighthouses through a mutual friend and loaned me her collection of
slides taken by Ralph whilst he worked tending lights travelling on the Cape Don. All of the photos were taken pre 1971, however, we are unable to specifically date each image.
Fortunately my husband who is a cartographer worked
as part of a survey team back in the 1970s and has a great knowledge of
land formations and access to detailed maps to help in the tracking down
of just which light was which. It has been a slow but rewarding job scanning all the slides,
establishing their localities
and enhancing the images and I am delighted to be able to showcase these images
with this page featuring
the Ralph Meakins Collection.
To the right is a picture of Ralph caring
for a young Osprey nicknamed Blaze, which was found in a nest
built in the light tower at Mt Blaze. The stick nest of course had to be
removed from the tower as part of the maintenance cleanup by the MV Cape
Don crew. |