Mystery Lights At Port de Grave
These days, mention the lights of Port de Grave to almost any Newfoundlander and they'll probably think of Christmas.
Every December, the fishing boats in this Conception Bay community come alive with thousands of colourful lights, transforming the harbour into one of the province's must-see holiday displays.
But this is not a story about decorations.
Long before anyone thought of hanging a bulb on a fishing boat, Port de Grave was already known for its dazzling lights. Nearly a century-and-a-half earlier, Reverend Philip Tocque, who’s sometimes called Newfoundland’s first man of letters, recorded a tale of a mysterious illumination seen off the community’s shores in his book, Wandering Thoughts, or Solitary Hours.
An Awful and Brilliant Light
In the summer of 1841 Philip Tocque was in Port de Grave spending the evening in the company of gentleman by the name of John Butler. The men were talking when Butler said, “We shall have a gale of wind from the north-east.”
Tocque was curious; there was nothing in the evening’s atmosphere to suggest a change in weather.
“I saw the light,” explained Butler.
It was local knowledge that prior to a north-east wind a light would be seen moving across the surface of the water.
Tocque had to see it for himself.
He stepped out of the house and peered into the darkness of Conception Bay. There it was, just above the waves: a pale light. It seemed to be about five miles from shore, in the direction of Kelly's Island, moving slowly westward. He didn't know what it was, but it looked far too large to have come from a ship's lantern.
As strange as that distant light sight must have been, it paled in comparison to some of Butler’s sightings. He had seen the light approach the shore and, as Tocque put it, “burst out into a mass of awful and most brilliant light.”
A week later Tocque saw the weather light again and, within 10 minutes, he heard the gale whistling around the house.
Weather Lights
The phenomenon Tocque described is a familiar piece of Newfoundland folklore, usually known as a weather light. I remember, as a child, hearing similar stories told of lights off the shore of my hometown in Bonavista Bay.
Even today, I'm not sure anyone has offered a truly satisfying explanation for what people were describing.
Tocque suggested that tiny insects or some other organisms on the surface of the water might have been responsible for the glow. Perhaps, he speculated, they could sense an approaching change in the weather and behaved differently before a storm.
But if that were true, he wondered, why did the Port de Grave light appear so consistently in the same place — between Port-de-Grave and Kelley's Island?
He had no answer.
Back to Christmas
Something we know a lot more about is the modern lights of Port de Grave — the holiday tradition of lighting the boats in the community.
Check out the episode The ‘Gift of Light’ from season 50 of CBC’s Land & Sea to learn more about the origin of the colourful contemporary custom.
-
Trinity, Evening Telegram, October 28, 1922
Wandering Thoughts, or Solitary Hours, Philip Tocque, 1846
Philip Tocque, Encyclopedia of Newfoundland, 1994
Philip Tocque, Dictionary of Canadian Biography
The Gift of Light, CBC’s Land & Sea
Long before Port de Grave became famous for its Christmas lights, mysterious glowing lights were reported off its shores. Discover Philip Tocque's 1800s account of Newfoundland's eerie "weather lights" and the mystery that still has no clear explanation.