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Lighthouse, Dassen Island
Cape Town, Western Cape
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Click to view map Coordinates: | Consequent to various shipping disasters on the reefs surrounding Dassen Island, particularly that of the Windsor Castle on 1876:10:18 the Lighthouse Commission, established in 1890, recommended to the Cape colonial Government that a powerful light be installed on the island without delay. To this end funds were approved by parliament. Sir James Douglass, engineer-in-chief at of Trinity House in England, was consulted. He recommended the appointment of his son, William Tregarthern Douglas, for the preparation the contract drawings, specification as well as inspection of the manufacture of the cast-iron tower and lantern. Messrs Chance Brothers of Birmingham, England were awarded the tender for the supply of a 24m cast-iron tower, its lantern and optics. Back in the Cape the Chief Inspector of the Public Works Department, William M GRIER, who had taken a personal interest in the project, had a base constructed on the highest point of the island at its southern end, under his personal supervision, constructing a circular base of cement and rubble quaried on the island ''of great strength and handsome appearance''. His health failed in the course of the project and he was unable to see it through to completion. Various modifications and modernizations were carried out to the lights over the years [precised from Williams, 1993:74-78]. Books that reference Lighthouse, Dassen Island
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