Estevan Point is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses m ...

located on the headland of the same name on the Hesquiat Peninsula on the west coast of

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

, Canada. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, in 1942, the Estevan Point lighthouse was fired upon by the Japanese submarine , marking the first enemy attack on Canadian soil since the Fenian Raids of 1866 and 1871. Currently the

Canadian Coast Guard The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG; french: links=no, Garde côtière canadienne, GCC) is the coast guard of Canada. Formed in 1962, the coast guard is tasked with marine search and rescue (SAR), communication, navigation, and transportation issues ...

still maintains Estevan Point, with the light still active as of 2022. The light emits a signal of a double flash every 15 seconds with the

focal plane In Gaussian optics, the cardinal points consist of three pairs of points located on the optical axis of a rotationally symmetric, focal, optical system. These are the '' focal points'', the principal points, and the nodal points. For ''ideal'' ...

located at above sea level.

History

The Spanish explorer Juan José Pérez Hernández, originating from

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bale ...

, traded with the natives of the region (the

Nuu-chah-nulth people The Nuu-chah-nulth (; Nuučaan̓uł: ), also formerly referred to as the Nootka, Nutka, Aht, Nuuchahnulth or Tahkaht, are one of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast in Canada. The term Nuu-chah-nulth is used to describe fift ...

) when he explored the area in 1774 and named the headland "Punta San Esteban". Four years later,

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

's expedition arrived in the Nootka Sound and made contact with the local population. The lighthouse was established in 1909 as one in a series of

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

ed lighthouses designed by engineer William P. Anderson. The lighthouse was constructed in concrete as a tall octagonal tower supported by buttresses. Originally, a first order

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the c ...

made by

Chance Brothers Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands (formerly in Staffordshire), in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology. The Chance fam ...

of England had been used but together with the lantern it was dismantled during the 1980s and was then donated to a regional museum in 2004.

Estevan Point lighthouse attack

During the Second World War, the Estevan Point lighthouse was attacked by the . On June 20, 1942, ''I-26'', under the command of Yokota Minoru, surfaced and shelled the lighthouse, at the same time as the made a similar attack at the mouth of the

Columbia River The Columbia River ( Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, shelling Fort Stevens. ''I-26'' fired 25–30 rounds of shells at the Estevan Point lighthouse and radio-direction-finding station, but failed to hit its target and the lighthouse station remained undamaged. Five Royal Canadian Navy patrol vessels and a RCAF Supermarine Stranraer flying boat were dispatched to search for the submarine but failed to locate ''I-26'' which fled north and then returned to Japan. One of the 5.5-inch shells was recovered by a naval shore patrol after the attack while additional shell fragments were found in 1973. An explosive demolition team from CFB Comox destroyed one explosive fragment while an inert fragment was presented to the Maritime Museum of British Columbia. Although the attack resulted in no damage or casualties, the subsequent decision to turn off the lights of outer stations caused difficulties for coastal shipping. A 1995 episode of the CBC television newsmagazine program '' The Fifth Estate'' reported contradictions in eyewitness descriptions of the attacking vessel and speculated that the attack may have been a

false flag A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misr ...

conducted by Allied surface vessels with the intent of increasing domestic support for Prime Minister

Mackenzie King William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A L ...

and his wartime policies related to conscription.

Climate

References

External links

Map of Estevan Point

Aids to Navigation
Canadian Coast Guard {{Authority control Lighthouses completed in 1909 Lighthouses in British Columbia Military history of Canada during World War II Clayoquot Sound region Spanish history in the Pacific Northwest Vancouver Island Headlands of British Columbia Heritage sites in British Columbia Lighthouses on the Canadian Register of Historic Places

History

Estevan Point lighthouse attack

Climate

See also

References

External links