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| Trail Map |
Though there is little evidence today, there was once a lighthouse on the headland at Goats Cove that helped guide boats sailing into Cupids harbour on dark and stormy nights.
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| View to where the lighthouse once stood, about 250 m from the signpost. The trail from here to the site is quite steep in places. |
In 1875, the Water Witch, a schooner under the command of Samuel Spracklin of Cupids, sank at Horrid Gulch (near Pouch Cove), with tragic loss of life.¹ Twelve people who died in the disaster are buried in the United Church graveyard in Cupids. The event added extra fuel to the desire for safer navigation. A lighthouse was installed here in Goats Cove in 1916.²
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| The lighthouse in Goats Cove, date unknown. Photo courtesy of Roy Dawe. |
The lighthouse was described in the List of Newfoundland Lights as a round iron tower with a small storage building connected to it by a covered passage. The light itself was a white occulting light — it was visible for a period of four seconds, then eclipsed for another four seconds. The lightkeeper was Chesley LeDrew.³ Uncle Ches, as he was called, lived across Cupids harbour from the light. He would row over every day to do his work,⁴ for a yearly salary of $90.⁵
Sometime in the 1930s, the lighthouse was decommissioned and dismantled. It is not known precisely when or why this happened. The lighthouse last appears in the List of Lights in 1933, so it likely occurred the following year.
According to Roy Dawe, a resident of Cupids, the storage building connected to the lighthouse was floated across the harbour and used as a shed in the backyard of Ted Abbott, son-in-law of Ches LeDrew.⁶ Some people believe that the light was reused in a lighthouse in St. Anthony.⁷
¹ Pitt, Robert D. W., Joseph R. Smallwood, Catherine Horan, Bertram G. Riggs, Cyril F. Poole, and Robert Cuff. Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador. St. John's: Newfoundland Book Publishers, 1981.
² Piccott, A.W., Esq.,"Lighthouse Inspector's Report," in Annual Report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries 1916, April 25, 1917.
³ Government of Newfoundland. The Year Book and Almanac of Newfoundland 1919. St. John's: J. W. Withers, King's Printer, 1919.
⁴ Nataliya Bezborodova, "Lighthouses: Memories and Symbols of the Community," in Work in Cupids. Edited by Jillian Gould and Diane Tye, 18–20. St. John's, NL: Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Folklore, 2017.
⁶ Roy Dawe, interview with Katie Crane, June 3, 2021.
⁷ Bill Akerman, interview with Kelly Butler, August 14, 1997, Cupids Historical Society, Cupids Legacy Centre.