The lighthouse at the end of the world

This is the “Lighthouse at the End of the World” — a candy cane of concrete on a rocky island in the Beagle Channel, off the southern tip of Argentina.

Next stop south is Antarctica.

Local Argentines have named it “Faro del Fin del Mundo”, but officially it is Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse. Slightly conically shaped, it is on the most north-eastern of the five Les Eclaireurs islands.

“Les Eclaireurs” means “the Scouts” — a bunch of outliers off the mainland.

Sea lions lounge around in a burst of sun, and the black and white cormorants are a permanent feature on Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse island, 9km east of Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego.

Technically, it is an 11m tall brick tower which is 3m wide at the base, painted red, white and red and topped off with a black lantern house and gallery. On an average tide, the light is just over 22m above sea level, flashing white every 10 seconds. The light can be seen for up to 13.9km.

It is remote-controlled, automated, uninhabited and isn’t open to the public, though boats bring tourists out, while the solar-powered light works away, doing its job, as it has done for more than a century; a warning at Ushuaia’s rocky sea entrance.

SOME CONFUSION…

Although this little tower on the Les Eclaireurs is today’s “Lighthouse at the End of the World”, author Jules Vernes had other idea.

He wrote a novel of the same name based on the San Juan de Salvamento lighthouse, much further east, on another remote island, Isla de los Estados. The novel was published in 1905.

This bottom end of Argentina has lots of islands and wind-swept straits — and Isla de los Estados is separated from the big island of Tierra del Fuego by a rough stretch of water.

Built in 1884, for a long time this was the only lighthouse in the area.

Long after its demise, the director of the Maritime Museum of Ushuaia, Carlos Pedro Vairo, and Oscar Zanola, from the Museum of the End of the World, arranged to have what was left of the lighthouse brought to Ushuaia.

In February 1997, they turned up on the icebreaker Almirante Irizar, which was on the way back from Antarctica and had called at Isla de los Estados.

They were used in the replica lighthouse in Ushuaia.

One part of the lighthouse’s story is the fame that Jules Verne’s father drew. But its bigger story, actually, is one that gives it significant historical value.