1898 at the Lighthouse - The Hero Puppy

“Where was that beacon? He should be seeing it flash by now.”

 Captain Alfonse Belanger knew this patch of the Oregon coast was called “the graveyard of the Pacific.” In the fading light, he scanned the rugged shoreline for the flash of the lighthouse beacon.

*****

Miles away, off the path to the Mystic Lighthouse high on the bluffs, the lighthouse keeper lay partway down the side of the cliff after losing his footing on the wet, slippery path.

Joseph saw the darkening sky and turned, trying to reach a rocky handhold, so he could pull himself back up the cliff. It was only ten feet uphill to the path but in the slick mud, he kept sliding back down. 

He began to shiver. Joseph was wet and cold. The ocean winds blew straight in from the sea, almost snatching him off the cliff.

“I’ve got to get up the hill and light the beacon wicks,” he thought. "Its getting dark and the ships with gold miners going to the Yukon gold fields or returning may be passing."

A minute before, he had been walking in the rain on the path to the lighthouse with his daughter’s puppy scampering along next to him. Teddybear was already helping with moving the livestock and Joseph was glad they let Elsie keep the growing pup.

There was a rumble and then part of the rocks and mud on one side slid down the path.

Joseph jumped and thought he stepped on solid ground to get out of the way, but his feet slipped over the edge of the bluff and he slid down it. 

The handle of his unlit kerosine lantern was still in his hand. After servicing the lighthouse and lighting the wicks for the night beacon he would need the lantern to get back down the quarter mile to the lighthouse keeper’s house.

“I need to act fast to get the beacon lit before any ships pass.” Joseph’s thoughts raced.

He looked at the young dog, who was jumping back and forth above on the trail, barking.

"Maybe there was a way to get help. Herding dogs were so smart."

“Yip.. yiiiiip….yiiiip,” came from the bouncing dog, his dark, shaggy hair flying.

He looked at the growing puppy who was jumping back and forth above on the trail, barking. "Maybe there was a way to get help." 

“Teddybear, go home boy.” Joseph waved and pointed down the trail at the lighthouse keeper’s house. 

“Yip.. yiiiiip….yiiiip,” came from the bouncing dog, his eyes wide, ears pricked, and his dark, shaggy hair flying in the wind.

 Teddybear saw the hand pointing, and he turned his eyes in that direction. His hereditary instincts for following hand signals while herding picked up the signal. 

He knew something was wrong. His protective instincts sensed danger to a being he was bonded with, a member of his family.

The person stranded partway down the cliff was suffering. He needed help. Teddybear's hair rose up on his neck and back. He cocked his head and froze, thinking. His tail rose up stiffly and his body went rigid. He whimpered. "What was he supposed to do?"

“Teddybear..home…,” Joseph held onto a rock on the cliff with one hand and waved his other arm toward the lighthouse keeper's house sitting at the bottom of the slope. 

Joseph continued. Teddybear whipped around. He raced down the path toward the keeper’s house. "He would round up the rest of his charges, his family."

At the lighthouse keeper’s house almost a quarter mile away, his wife stood next to the Franklin wood-fired warming stove. She glanced out the kitchen window at the darkening sky.  "Why wasn't the beacon shining yet?"

A black iron pot with a cover on it sat directly on the logs burning with low flames. The aromas of herbs drifted through the house and the air was warm from the stove.

“Joseph still hasn’t lit the beacon wicks.” Jeanie wondered why. 

“He must be making another trip to the oil house next to the lighthouse for kerosine. Any moment now I’ll see the flash when it lights up for the night.”

“Mom, Teddybear is barking at the door but Father’s not here,” called Jeanie’s daughter.

Elsie thought, “why would Teddybear come back alone?”

Elsie’s brothers, Edward and Samuel came to the door. “What’s the matter Teddybear?" said Edward.

Jeanie felt a tug of worry about her husband. “Teddybear, where’s Joseph?”

Samuel said, “I’m going up to check on Father,” and he grabbed his coat and hat. “Come on Edward.” They took off running.

*****

Out on the ship, still miles away, Captain Belanger checked his map and conferred with his navigator to verify their location.

His eyes shined with love for the sea, but today they also expressed glimmers of worry. 

The ship slid rapidly down another swell and began to climb up from its valley toward the steep crest of the wave. Captain Belanger dipped a piece of hardtack into the thick, dark coffee in the metal cup and peered out the wheelhouse windows, dripping from splashes of waves. 

His 170 foot long ship carried a load of 48 disillusioned miners returning from the Yukon gold fields and a cargo hold of supplies from Portland.

The miners originally boarded in Skagway, Alaska and they were going back to San Francisco. Most of the gold was already claimed by earlier miners when these later arrivals got to the Yukon.

They were returning empty-handed.

Captain Belander's large, rough hand delivered the softened hardtack muffin after it was dipped into coffee to his mouth and he chewed. 

He drew his thick, dark, eyebrows together, above the brown eyes in the weathered face. He brushed his bushy beard out of the way while he drew another sip of the warm, strong coffee into his mouth.

“Soo good,” he thought. Outside the afternoon light was dimming. Ever since his father, Alfonse senior, told him stories about the trip over from France in a three masted sailing ship, Alfonce junior saw visions of himself in his dreams swaying as he stood on a big ship rolling with the waves while he looked out a the vast ocean. 

He joined the marine life when he was a teen and worked his way up to captain. Alfonse drew in a breath, feeling contentment and wonder. His dream came true.

The gale force squall winds howled and the sturdy metal ship bobbed with the swell and then rolled up another mountain of sea toward a white crest. Captain Belanger’s sextant officer stood by the navigation charts and the star charts.

The lookout officer lifted his maritime telescope to one eye and squinted at the seas in the darkening afternoon light.

“Last night we passed the Tillamook Lighthouse after midnight. That beacon is always a sight, coming from on top of that volcanic rock island out in the sea,” said the navigation officer.

“Our next beacon will be Mystic Beach Lighthouse,” said the Captain.

“I know its signature rotation timing. Always one of my favorite beacons. It’s got a huge first-order Fresnel lens. Shines for at least 20 miles out to sea.” 

*****

Earlier that afternoon at the Mystic Lighthouse Head Keeper’s House Joseph paused in the doorway.

“I’ll take Teddybear with me. He’s on the porch. Please tell Elsie so she knows her pup is with me. I’ll be back after I get the beacon wicks lit for the night to have dinner with you.”

He stepped onto the wide, wrap around porch of the two story white Victorian house, perched high above the sea. A shaggy, dark ball of fur curled up in the corner rose and Ellie’s growing puppy came over to Joseph.

“Hi Boy,” he said, giving the pup a playful rub on the back. “Come along now. Good pup.” The pup raised his face and gazed at Joseph with warm eyes, smiling and wagging his tail.

Carrying an unlit kerosine lantern to use on the way back in the dark, he strode up the slope toward the lighthouse one-quarter mile away with the playful pup running and zig-zagging around him.

The path was wet and slippery. The swells and waves rippled with squalls. 

The swells and white-capped waves were bubbling in with surges of water rushing over the beach. He heard the roar of them crashing on the volcanic rock stacks next to the bluffs.

Joseph’s step was light and he wore a soft smile. He loved living by the sea whether it was sunny or raining. 

Joseph remembered the ranch in Austin, Texas, where his father kept a library.  The travel stories and nautical novels made him want to run off to explore the world and travel the seas. 

He liked to read about the Italian explorer who went to exotic places around the world in “The Travels of Marco Polo” written in the 13^th century by Rustichello da Pisa. Another favorite was Homer’s “The Odyssey.” 

Joseph fell in love with the daughter of a local teacher, Jeanie, and they started a family.

But he could not resist the dreams of being near the sea. They left the ranch and moved to San Francisco. 

There he worked at the waterfront and progressed up the ladder of maritime careers, until finally he got a political appointment to be a lighthouse keeper. 

Eventually, he was selected for the Mystic Lighthouse on the central Oregon coast where the ocean and coastline were especially treacherous.

The jagged coast was known for powerful storms, volcanic rock stacks standing out in the sea, hidden shallows, winds that could knock a person over, rains that created mud and rock slides, and hidden.

*****

Samuel and Edward ran up the path toward the lighthouse. The lantern was still dark.

“Where was Father?” They knew something had happened because Teddybear came back alone.

Rounding a curve they saw the mudslide on the path ahead. Samuel held up their kerosine lantern in the deepening twilight. 

With Teddybear barking excitedly, they looked frantically around for their father.

“Was he buried under the mudslide?”

Teddybear ran to the edge of the bluff and looked down at something, whining and hopping up and down.

Samuel held up his kerosine lantern. “There he is. Edward, run back down and get a rope.” He saw the light of Edward’s lantern bob along the path back down to the house.

Joseph lay still on the side of the bluff. “If I move I could slide all the way down,” he thought. One hundred fifty feet below the ocean waves crashed on the volcanic rocks of the shore. “I would never survive.”

He saw movement above. “Samuel and Edward, such good boys,” he thought.

“I see you. Edward’s gone for a rope,” hollered Samuel “Don’t move. Stay still.”

Samuel’s heart pounded and he breathed fast and loud.

“The blue hour is beginning. We need to get him back up while we can still see a little bit. And the beacon needs to be lit. So many ships passing the coast these days with gold rush passengers,” he thought.

Joseph felt the rain start again. Water flowed down the cliff. He tightened his hold on the rocks and tried to breath slowly and calm his racing heartbeat.

The sun was below the horizon, the afterglow was fading, and the coast was a pattern of dark shadows. The wind and waves roared and more rain drummed down.

Voices came from the path and Joseph saw Samuel throw a thick rope with a big knot in the end down toward him. It landed a few feet away and he did not dare move to try to reach it.

Darkness was enveloping the bluff and the lanterns above cast only weak light down to Joseph.

Joseph saw Samuel throw the knotted rope end again. It landed on his arm and Joseph grabbed it Above on the path, Samuel and Joseph backed up until they reached a low, flat, boulder. 

They stepped behind it, braced their feet, and began doing hand over hand to pull Joseph back up the cliff. The two teenage boys were muscular from their daily work.

Joseph strained to hold tightly to the knotted end of the rope Slowly he felt his body rise until he was breaching the cliff edge and on the path, lying in the mud.

“I’ll get the beacon lit,” said Samuel. Joseph was thankful he had begun training Samuel to assist him. Edward helped Joseph to his feet and they drew away from the edge of the bluff, puffing from the exertion. 

Teddybear sniffed Samuel as if he was checking to see if he was alright. Joseph reached down and pulled Teddybear into a close hug.

"Good boy, you're my hero dog," he said.

Joseph and Edward saw Samuel’s lantern shine on its way to the lighthouse.

******

Captain Belanger left the wheelhouse, went out onto the deck, and felt the splash of water on his face as waves crashed against the ship and the wind carried water drops through the air.

He looked into the darkness and frowned. “Still no beacon shining. But we must be there now,” hollered above the roar of the waves to his officer. “We should be seeing it now.”

He knew the volcanic sea stacks and jagged coast jutted out into the ocean.

“How close might they be now to the rocks and reefs? Were the currents dragging them off course? The cloudy sky means there is no moonlight or starlight. The sextant could not get a navigation reading without seeing the star locations. I can’t see anything in this pitch black night,” he thought.

*****

 Samuel ran up the spiral steps inside the lighthouse tower. He carried a supply of kerosine for the beacon and his own lantern. At the top he set his lantern down, trimmed the wicks and filled the beacon’s kerosine container.

He lit the wicks, the flames grew brighter, and the beacon began to revolve. The weak flash grew into the strong beam, and Samuel saw the ocean and white capped waves hundreds of feet below the bluff.

When he gaze looked to the north he gasped. The beacon light flashed on the form of a large ship, dangerously close to rocky shore. 

*****

Captain Belanger's eyes went blind for a few seconds when the nearby lighthouse beacon flashed brightly.

He stumbled into the wheelhouse.

"Turn about," he hollered.

The officers frantically steered the rolling ship against the swells to head out to sea.

The ship's bow rose up on each swell and plunged down into each valley. Ocean spray surged over the deck.

Captain Belanger heard the steam powered engines roar and the ship vibrated. His heart pounded and he broke out into a sweat. 

At regular intervals the beacon flooded the deck and wheelhouse with light when it rotated.

Slowly the ship fought its way against the stormy seas. After a tough battle, the ship chugged out to sea and safety.

*****

In the lighthouse beacon room, Samuel trembled and gasped for air. When the rotating beacon swung around it flashed on the ship, highlighted against the dark night. “So close.” Samuel whispered a prayer.

Samuel watched the ship fighting the waves and saw it turn and move out to sea.

When he saw the ship’s lanterns must be a mile out to sea or more, he went back down the tower's spiral steps and headed to the house.

At the trail's curve he saw Edward’s lantern light, Joseph resting, and Teddybear leaning affectionately against Joseph’s legs. Samuel knew the dog loved cuddles and closeness.

Together they carefully made their way down the path to the white Victorian house.

Jeanie saw their light approaching the porch. When they came inside, they gathered around the warming stove in the dining room, smelling the savory stew waiting for them. Teddybear curled up in a corner on his blanket, tired after the excitement. Elsie brought him his dinner and a treat.

Joseph changed out of the muddy clothes and returned to the dining room. spooned some of the spicey stew into his mouth. "It smells so good,” he thought.

He explained how he sent Teddybear to get help. "That is one incredible dog," he said in a voice filled with wonder and love.

Elsie did not mind when Teddybear pressed against her father and gazed at his face. She went over to cuddle up to the shaggy pup and stroke his back. The dog wore a gentle smile and his tail slowly wagged.

 Looking at his family in the warm firelight, Joseph was filled with gratitude. He still loved the coast and the sea. A sense of pride flowed through him when he thought of his son lighting the beacon wicks for him.

He kept one hand resting on the shoulder of the trusty pup who had sounded the alert to rescue him.

*****

Out on the sea, Captain Afonse Belanger sat in the wheelhouse of his ship while it pitched and rolled with the swells. He reached for a fresh cup of thick, dark coffee and sighed with pleasure while he sipped it.

“Captain, the wind is dying down. I think we’ll have calm seas for a while now,” said his navigator.

“Calm seas,” said the captain. “I can use some peace now.”

He leaned back and his chair and stretched his feet out. I’ll be glad when we dock in San Francisco,” he said. “These winter voyages in the storms can be tough. It might time to retire.”

Captain Belanger closed his eyes, and pictured the summer seas and quiet waves stretching out until they blended with the blue sky on a sunny day. 

“There’s nothing like the sea,” he thought.