You don’t spend twenty-three years as a lighthouse keeper in rural Newfoundland without collecting a few stories.

Barry Porter staffed lighthouses at Long Point, Twillingate, Surgeon’s Cove Head on Exploits Island and Bacalhao Island Lighthouse at Herring Neck.

Porter has written “Adventures of a Lightkeeper” about his experiences, including a mysterious encounter with a strange 60-foot longliner at Exploits Island back in 1992.

He says the boat nearly crashed into the rocks about 2 km off from the lighthouse. Porter and his partner talked to the man, who appeared to be “totally out of it” and got him back to the safety of the harbour where he tied up at the Government wharf. The next morning the man and his boat were gone leaving only the tie lines which had been cut.