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Description: Having a landmark or prominence named after you is typically considered an honor, however, in the case of Barbers Point, it is doubtful that such was the case. On October 31, 1796, the brig Arthur, captained by Henry Barber, was sailing west from Honolulu to Canton with a load of sea otter pelts aboard. Shortly after leaving Honolulu, the Arthur struck a coral reef that extends from the southwest tip of the island of Oahu. Six of the crew of twenty-two along with the ship were lost in the wreck. Since the grounding, the point has been associated with the captain of the ill-fated vessel. In 1968, the U.S. Board of Geographic Names dropped the apostrophe, changing the name from Barber's Point to Barbers Point.
A second wreck occurred at the point in 1855 when the French whaleship Marquis de Turenne grounded on the reef after taking on supplies at Honolulu. Remains of this wreck could still be seen when William Alexander, surveyor general of the Hawaiian Government Survey Bureau, made the following report in 1880.
I examined the coast for some miles in the neighborhood of Barber’s Point, selected a site for a light house and marked the spot by a pile of stones and a staff with a red and white flag. I also fixed the position by triangulation and corrected our chart of that locality. It is the SW point of Oahu, known as Lae loa where there are several pieces of … the French whaleship Marquis de Turenne, which was wrecked about a mile off the point in 1855. A shoal with only 6 to 10 feet of water on it is said to extend 2 to 3 miles south by west from the point, and it should be sounded. In fact it is a question whether the light house might not be placed on a shallow spot or “okohola” whale’s back, as the natives call it, a mile or more offshore.
A sum of $2,500 was appropriated in 1880 for the construction of a light at the point, and soon thereafter the French company of L. Sauter Lemonnier was contracted to supply a fourth-order Fresnel lens along with the lamps and lantern room for the proposed tower. By the time the lighthouse hardware arrived from France, the lighthouse funds were depleted, and the shipment was placed in storage.
Seven years passed before funds were provided to construct the tower. Peter High was awarded a contract to construct the lighthouse for $1,892 and a keeper’s dwelling for $309. During the first part of 1888, a forty-two-foot tower was constructed of coral stone laid in a cement mortar. Upon completion, the tower was painted white and topped with the red lantern room. The first keeper, A. Along, assumed responsibility for maintaining the light on April 9th 1888.
By 1910, an assistant keeper’s dwelling and an oil house had been added to the station. An oil vapor lamp was installed in 1912, and a new keeper’s dwelling was built atop concrete piers just west of the tower in 1915. As the area around the lighthouse became populated, the characteristic of the light was changed from fixed white to flashing white to make the light more distinguishable from other lights in the area. This was accomplished by a flash panel that revolved around the lens.
Manuel Ferreira was a noted keeper of the Barbers Point Lighthouse in the early 1900s. In 1919, he helped rescue seven Japanese fisherman whose 60-foot sampan was crippled on the reef off the point. After helping the men ashore, Ferreira welcomed them to his home where they were fed and given dry clothing. In 1923, the five-masted schooner Bianca was caught in a storm off Barbers Point. With its sails shredded, the paralyzed vessel was slowly dragging its anchors towards the razor-sharp rocks of the reef. Recognizing the grave threat the vessel was in, Ferreira ran three miles to the closest telephone and summoned the naval authorities, who dispatched tugs to assist the vessel.
Manuel wasn’t the only Ferreira noted for service at Barbers Point for when Manuel and his assistant keeper were stricken with influenza, Mrs. Ferreira had to take on their responsibilities. While the men were recuperating in the hospital, she took care of her six-year-old son, her normal domestic responsibilities, and each night kept the temperamental kerosene-vapor lamp in the lantern room. In addition, every three hours she had to wind the clockwork mechanism that powered the revolving flash panel.
By 1930, the tower was showing signs of deterioration and plans were made to replace the structure. An appropriation of $20,000 was secured in 1933 for erecting a seventy-two-foot, concrete, cylindrical tower next to the original one. At the same time, generators were installed at the station to supply electricity to both the lighthouse and the keepers' dwellings. The lens was transferred from the old tower to the new one, where it was first lit on December 29, 1933. With a crowd of interested spectators looking on, a cut was made in the coral stone on one side of the old tower, causing it to topple over.
On April 15, 1964, the Fresnel lens was replaced by a thirty-six-inch airway beacon, and the last keeper, Fred Robins, left the now automated lighthouse later that year on December 7th. Robins had three stints of service at the lighthouse. Following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps, Robins became a lighthouse keeper, and at the age of sixteen was assigned to serve at Barbers Point. After enduring two years of isolation at the lighthouse, the young Robins quit to join the Merchant Marines. However, in 1930 he rejoined the Lighthouse Service and was again assigned to Barbers Point. After three years at Barbers Point, Robins went on to serve at lighthouses on Kaua`i and Moloka`i, before returning to Barbers Point for eleven more years of service.
In 1958, Fred Robin’s adult daughter came to the live at the lighthouse with her husband and three children. As the nearest neighbors were miles away, the Halloween tradition of trick or treating was modified at the lighthouse. The children, dressed in their ghoulish costumes, would climb the spiral staircase in the light tower where a ghost would provide them treats in the lantern room. Next, they would venture down the stairs and knock at the back door of the keeper’s dwelling where a witch would supply them with additional candy. Finally, the children raced around to the front door of the dwelling where they were invited in for cookies and milk.
The lantern room was likely removed from the Barbers Point Lighthouse when it was automated. In 1985, the airway beacon was replaced by a Double Barreled Rotating Optic Directional Code Beacon (DCB-224), which increased the range of the light to twenty-four nautical miles.
References
1. The Lighthouses of Hawai`i, Love Dean, 1986.
2. Lighthouses of the Pacific, Jim Gibbs, 1986.