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On June 12, 2003, a group of students from Middle Musquodoboit School, grades two and three, visited the Pleasant Point Lighthouse (also known as French Point Light) on Kent Island on the south central coast of Nova Scotia. The excursion was part of a lighthouse after-school program, the brainchild of volunteer/coordinator Ann-Kay Ross. The participating students learn about lighthouse history, and get some valuable exercise walking to the lighthouse as a bonus.

The students were greeted at the lighthouse by Ivan Kent, grandson of the light’s first keeper. Ivan and his wife Mildred operate the Seaview Bed and Breakfast near the lighthouse. Mr. Kent regaled the visiting children with stories of the lighthouse’s resident ghost.

According to an interview with Ivan Kent by Chris Mills in the December 2001 issue of The Lightkeeper, the newsletter of the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society, the ghost predates the lighthouse. Ivan Kent’s great grandfather built a house about 1817 close to the site of the present 1904 lighthouse, and his family claimed the ghost was in the house from the time it was built.

Some recent visitors have reported supernatural activity in the tower, and a woman told Mr. Kent that the ghost is that of Lord Horatio Nelson, the British admiral. It turns out that Ivan Kent’s great grandfather had sailed with Nelson as his navigator and was with him when the admiral was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar. Kent surmises that the spirit of the British naval hero followed his navigator all the way to Nova Scotia.

Needless to say, the kids from the Middle Musquodoboit School enjoyed these stories. After returning to their school they got to locate the lighthouse on a giant outdoor map, and all received a special pin as a reward.

For more information on the bed and breakfast near the lighthouse: Seaview Fisherman’s Home Bed and Breakfast, 99 Kent Rd, RR#1, Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia B0J 2L0. Phone: (902) 889-2561.

This story appeared in the September 2003 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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