At night, if a ship from the east or north arrives in the archipelago of Seychelles, its captain expects to detect a flashing light located at precisely 03 47.81’S, 055 40.02’E, 95km (59 miles) north of the main island of Mahe.

For 127 years, the lighthouse of Denis island has provided navigational safety to thousands of ships.

And yet it was not the colonial government’s voluntary decision to build a lighthouse on Denis in 1881. It was a peremptory demand made by French shipping company Messageries Maritimes, which had been operating regular services to Seychelles since 1864.

In early May of 1881, they informed the chief civil commissioner Henry Cockburn Stewart (1844-1899) that their ships would discontinue their service to Seychelles in January the next year if a lighthouse was not erected on either of the two islands on the northern rim of the Seychelles Bank – Bird and Denis.

Their concern was the dangerous shallows and treacherous breakers near these islands, which made night navigation hazardous.

Being aware of the potential dire effects that such an eventuality could have on the economy of the archipelago, chief civil commissioner Stewart could not ignore the warning. It was mainly the steamships of Messageries Maritime that brought passengers, goods and mail to Seychelles, and took the country’s agricultural produce abroad to the export markets.

No time was wasted in deciding which of the two islands would be the ideal place for a lighthouse – Denis was chosen.

This low-lying 350-acre sand cay, one mile long and three-quarters of a mile wide, at the northern edge of the Seychelles Bank, was discovered by Jean François Denis de Keredern, Comte de Trobrian 1730-1780) on August 11 1773.

With a general elevation of 8ft above sea level, the island had a thick layer of guano that covered the surface of the phosphatic sandstone in many places. Casuarina trees grew inside the coastal fringe of veloutier and besides the coconut palms, takamaka and badamier were the main features of the island.

Badly timed

The obligation to build a lighthouse on this coralline island far away from Mahe came at an inopportune moment for the colonial administration of Seychelles, which was governed as a dependency of Mauritius.
Almost a decade earlier, in 1872, a board of civil commissioners was appointed and the country’s finances were separated from those of Mauritius – in preparation for Seychelles to be given complete colonial autonomy by 1903.

In 1881 Stewart was temporarily replacing Francis Theophilus Blunt, who had died in February, aged 44. Even though the boom in vanilla production, together with the export of thousands of hectolitres of coconut oil, was bringing in a considerable amount of revenue, the 37-year-old acting chief civil commissioner found that handling and managing the country’s earnings and expenditure meant walking on thin ice.

And the cost of building a lighthouse, which entailed the assistance of a mechanical engineer, the expert counsel of a builder, the work of labourers and, above all, a site for the infrastructure had not been contemplated.

Nevertheless, to appease the Messageries Maritimes concern, work began in August under the supervision of the superintendent of public works and the government surveyor, Jules Cauvin.

It was decided that the lighthouse should be built on the northern headland of the island, and an acre of land was leased from the guano company.
 
But building a pharos on Denis island was a task of Sisyphus! It was beset with difficulties, and on December 10 a tower of coral stones that had reached 40ft foundered, causing severe injury to several labourers and prisoners who had been working on it.

Work was suspended pending a commission of enquiry into the incident, and in February 1882, Arthur Cecil Stuart Barkley (1843-1890) arrived to assume his duties as chief civil commissioner.
Despite being preoccupied with other aspects of his administration – including having to handle a petition from a group of residents asking that Seychelles remain a dependency of Mauritius, and that secular education should be introduced – building the Denis island lighthouse remained an imperative feature on his colonial agenda.

Port Victoria got lighthouse in 1876

Increasing maritime traffic in the Indian Ocean maintained regular contact between Seychelles and the outside world. During 1881, 76 vessels had dropped anchor in Port Victoria, which had received its own lighthouse in 1876.

However, work on the Denis lighthouse remained in abeyance during the whole of 1882. The “accident” of 1881 was ascribed to the gross negligence of public works superintendent Cauvin, whose imprudence in allowing a heavy tower of coral stone to be built on the sandy soil of Denis island had nearly been fatal to the workers. Moreover, he was accused of flogging prisoners.

Barkly told the secretary of state for the colonies of his discontent with Cauvin and asked that an officer from the surveyor-general’s department be sent to take charge of public works. Cauvin resigned in December 1882.

It is clear from the copious correspondence that the chief civil commissioner dispatched to his superior in Mauritius that he was eager to finish the lighthouse on Denis. In one of his reports on the subject, he advised against building a stone structure and recommended that instead “the lattice-work principle in much use in America, and which was employed in temporarily repairing the Grand River Bridge in Mauritius after the hurricane of 1868” would be suitable. He even enclosed a cutting from an American newspaper.

Early in 1883 work resumed. By March, when the foundations for the tripod were completed, Barkly expressed his concern about the lack of an experienced lighthouse-keeper in Seychelles and asked if Mauritius could supply one.

The wooden tripod arrived from Mauritius and, by April, the lantern was fixed on top. Denis island now had its lighthouse – it was 55ft high.

Forty-one ships arrived at Mahe during that year, among them the usual steamers of the Messageries Maritimes – Alphee, Erymanthe, L’Imperatice, Denaii Camdodge and Hydaspe.

In December 1885, the acting chief civil commissioner Georges Hollier Griffith wrote to the governor of Mauritius, Sir John Pope Hennessey (1834-1891), regarding the dilapidated state of the tripod, which had been imported from Mauritius in 1883.

He suggested that a new lighthouse of capucin wood be constructed on the outside of the rotten one – instead of demolishing it, which would mean discontinuing the light display for an indefinite period of time – after which the light apparatus would be transferred to it.

Years passed and, apart from slight repair work to the decrepit structure, the major overhaul that it urgently required remained merely an elaborately written proposal on paper.

Until 1890 when the administrator, Thomas Risely Griffith, strongly recommended the construction of a masonry tower. “It would be money better laid out in the interests of the dependency to spend R14,000 for a stone lighthouse than about £800 in adding three more wooden legs to the present structure,” he wrote. 
 
But, unsurprisingly, when the geological morphology and topography of Denis island were once again taken into account, Griffith’s sagacity was promptly ignored!

And in 1892 a new lighthouse measuring 66ft high was built using hardwood timber. The light was now visible at a distance of 12 miles from all points of the compass. On December 20, 1893 the new Denis island lighthouse was lit.

However the tropical climate has an insidious way of taking its toll on even the most durable timber – even capucin. So in March 1907 governor Walter Edward Davison (1859-1923) reported to the secretary of state for the colonies the “unsound state” of the lighthouse structure on Denis and strongly recommended that a new one be built with a steel tripod that would bear the weight of two tons.

Admired for his intuitive knack in practical matters, Davidson said he felt it unfair for the colony of Seychelles to bear the full cost of a new lighthouse, which would serve not only ships that came to Victoria harbour but also those on their ocean journeys elsewhere.

So he made a request to the secretary of state, the Earl of Elgin and Kincadine, for Seychelles to be given a grant of £400 from Trinity House towards the cost.

Trinity House was the authority in charge of the lighthouses, lightships and buoys of England and Wales. Founded in the 16th century, it had its headquarters on Tower Hill in London.

In 1907 the lighthouse-keeper on Denis was Joseph Lascagne (1873-1918), who received an annual salary of R720.

‘100-year lifetime’

To find out the condition of the lighthouse, Davidson sent public works superintendent William Vaudin, engineer Henry Pare and the port officer Captain Daniel Sauvage to visit Denis and examine it.

They returned to Mahe with urgent recommendations, and in April 1908 the firm Baty, Bergne & Co. proposed to supply and erect a steel tripod 72 feet high to carry the lantern and staircase, at a cost of R10,600.

Davidson declined their offer. A few months later, after a lengthy consultation with his executive council, the governor was rewarded with the best of all possible proposals that would give Denis island a lighthouse that would last for many decades. For a century…

During the year 1909, the labourers worked in the scorching sun of Denis Island. The excavation work for the foundation was tough. Gradually a majestic structure of tubular steel began to sprout, 30 feet…. 70feet… 85 feet.  A small store originally acquired with the land bought for the extension of Victoria market had been carried to Denis Island and erected for storing materials for the construction of the lighthouse. 

The materials were brought by a steamer of the German East African Line which had arrived on 22nd May, 1908.  The iron fittings came from France, furnished by the firm Barbier, Bernard and Turenne at a cost of Rs 32, 490.  It was in August 1910, that the lighthouse was completed with the assistance of J.H. Brown, a mechanical engineer from Trinity House.

The project was expected to cost at least Rs 40,000 but instead, the precise sum spent on it was R59, 983.35 cts.   The lantern of collodian mantles with flashing light of 70,000 candles intensity came from the English firm, Chance Brothers.  It was a revolving device with vaporized kerosene as illuminant.  The flashing light was visible at 25 miles.

As for the old lighthouse of dilapidated capucin timber, it was dismantled and re-erected on Mamelles Island, where it was lit for passing ships for the first time on 15th December, 1911. 

So, during the next century, the lighthouse of Denis Island sent its light over the sea, winking comfortingly at ships on the ocean all around, as the lantern revolved on its mercury trough.  Over the years, its steel tripod is painted regularly, and the lighting apparatus meticulously inspected.  The casuarina trees on the island are regularly cut so as not to affect the arc of visibility. 

Like it has done for the last hundred years, and for many  more years yet to come, it will continue to advise caution and alert to ships and vessels navigating the approaches to the island in good and in stormy weather. 
We cherish it, like a National  Monument. The lighthouse of Denis Island.