How to become a lighthouse keeper or lighthouse keeper

(autotranslated, could have mistakes)

When meeting lighthouse workers, you may get the impression that lighthouse keepers (lighthouse keepers) go to work at lighthouses, some for purely romantic reasons, some in search of solitude. In fact, as a rule, these are employees of the hydrographic services of the national navies, which include lighthouses. Lighthouses can be both military and civilian, including retired naval officers, for whom order and discipline are the order of the day.

The work of a lighthouse operator is not only the daily switching on and off of the lighthouse according to the table of sunrises and sunsets (on automatic lighthouses, naturally, switching on/off is performed by electronics), but also the maintenance of lighthouse facilities - maintenance of radio beacons, automatic weather stations, radio stations for communication with sea vessels, navigation signs.

People often ask how to become a lighthouse keeper or how to become a lighthouse keeper?

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Or maybe somewhere a lighthouse assistant is needed, or just labor to restore/ensure the operation of the lighthouse.

In Russia, unfortunately, it is difficult to get along with lighthouses from the outside. In the Far East and Primorye, one of our acquaintances is very fond of lighthouses and wants to live on them, but unfortunately, lighthouse positions open there extremely rarely. Some lighthouse workers live with families and some have no housing other than the lighthouse at all, i.e. Just as they began to serve a long time ago, they are passed on from generation to generation.

For example, one seaside lighthouse owner has nothing except a house next to the lighthouse, and the state doesn’t give him an apartment, so he says, and I’ll die right here.

In the Russian south, of course, life is more comfortable, but there are also fewer lighthouses. In general, everything is gradually being transferred to automation or abandoned. So far, Primorye is holding on for the most part, because... There is very active shipping there and locals say that they will support the lighthouses, despite GPS and so on.

One of the problems with getting a job as a lighthouse is that they are often in military territories or are considered by the state as special objects. And the state doesn’t really care about the conditions in which lighthouses are kept, so it’s very difficult for lighthouse workers to work. We can say that this is a constant feat and survival.

So becoming a lighthouse in Russia is not an easy matter, but it can be done.

By the way, in some more developed countries, this is no longer possible. For example, in the UK it is unfortunately too late to become a lighthouse keeper as the last lighthouse in the UK to be automated was in 1998 - the North Foreland Lighthouse in Kent.

What do lighthouse keepers do?

In dry formal language, the essence of the activities of a lighthouse keeper is described in Standard job description for a lighthouse keeper (lighthouse keeper)

If the question arises, where in Russia to turn if you want to throw in your lot with lighthouses

All issues of lighthouse construction in Russia, and then in the USSR, were dealt with by the Hydrographic Service of the Navy, formed in 1827.

This service is periodically renamed,

• since 1992, this is the Main Directorate of Navigation and Oceanography of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (GUNIO MO RF) - has been managing the creation of navigation and oceanography facilities and equipping them with ships of the Navy and ships of other departments of the country, organizing the operation and repair of these facilities.

• In 2006, it was renamed the Directorate of Navigation and Oceanography of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (UNiO MO RF).

Area of ​​responsibility: Study of oceans and seas. Publication of nautical charts and sailing directions. Development of a navigation equipment system.

Vacancies: For questions regarding recruitment, new open vacancies, employment, work at the enterprise, including shift work, as a driver, please contact the HR department.

Location of the hydrographic service

Since the creation of the Office of the Hydrographer General, the Hydrographic Department has been located in the building of the Main Admiralty.

During the Soviet period, the office of the Russian Hydrographic Service was transferred to the building where the Nikolaev Maritime Academy had previously been located.

Address: 199034, St. Petersburg, 11th line of Vasilievsky Island, no. 8

Contacts: tel./fax: +7 (812) 323-70-29; tel.: +7 (812) 323-05-60;

Fax: (812) 323-70-29

E-mail: [email protected]

Department of Navigation and Oceanography of Russia Federal State Unitary Enterprise on the map

You can read more about the history of this department in Wikipedia or here

There list of heads of hydrographic services

Where else to go?

There are various sites with job offers for seafarers, you can try your luck on them:

• http://www.morehod.ru/

Is it possible to restore abandoned beacons on your own? Or build your own lighthouse?

Regarding the restoration of the abandoned.

Lighthouses in Russia and former USSR countries belong to the military. They are practically not interested in lighthouses. Therefore, if you want to restore a collapsing lighthouse, then you also need to raise the question of transferring lighthouses from the military to the civilian department, like the English Trinity House.

So in Russia - only if the military left this territory and the land was transferred to civilians, for example, to municipal authorities, in this case there is a chance other than zero, you will have to somehow formalize the rights to the land and buildings, communicating with the municipal authorities. If the lighthouse that you will restore will no longer be listed in the register and will formally be some kind of building (domestic, if they live in it) or not household, if it’s a simple structure. The scale of concerns will be greater or comparable to if you simply bought land and built a structure in the form of a lighthouse on it (I am writing in the form, because it will be more of a decorative value), although in Russia I have come across projects where people either made a lighthouse house or built a lighthouse for a village (now the Expedition is planning to build one, however, far from the water).

Restoring an abandoned lighthouse is even more difficult and difficult to implement; building a lighthouse in a suitable location similar to a new one is more feasible, especially since there are examples in Russia. They often build a house with a lighthouse, some are a decorative lighthouse at a yacht club, some, for example, Expedition, plans to build in a residential village, far from the water.

Where can I find information about abandoned lighthouses or those in need of repair?

We began to maintain a list of such beacons in the article SOS beacons!

Regarding foreign lighthouses. Can I work on them or buy them?

If you know the language, then you can try working in lighthouses abroad, it’s much better there. Although some there are also considered (well, in Germany, for example - for sure, because I lived there) as “military objects” and therefore, even with such knowledge of the language, a Russian young lady is unlikely to be allowed there.

Not often, but about once a year I come across advertisements for the sale of lands with lighthouses that have been decommissioned. The last one was somewhere in the Baltic states (with a simple lighthouse without a house, and there was a person there who wanted to sell it to those who would later reconstruct it.

Some abandoned lighthouses in Russia are being reconstructed, I even contacted such a company (they had a website on the Internet). The volume of work performed is not large, because the budget for this is meager, but you can try to find them and take part in the repairs somewhere as a hired force, if they hire you.

If you are from Ukraine, then you can try contacting the State Hydrography organization. This is the state. a structure engaged in the maintenance of beacons and navigation equipment. Large ports may still have local services to maintain their own navigational marks.

There are, of course, fewer problems with maintaining lighthouses now than centuries ago, so in some warm regions, for example, on the Black Sea, keepers can still engage in gardening in the area near the lighthouse (if management allows, of course).

There is also an article on this topic How ​​to live in a lighthouse