[
    {
        "id": 215579,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2001",
        "page_number": 356,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "306\n\nWhen it was manned there was that special feeling of the island being \"inhabited.\" Hands were always available to tend flowerbeds or to do odd jobs in off-duty hours. That was when a small group of buildings and its contents were \"loved\" and better looked after - with brass gleaming like treasured altar plate - than the most fastidious housewife cares for her home. Without a human presence, a lighthouse is dead.\n\nThe smell of cooking, the clink of cups, and the buzz of conversation were replaced by the silent, cadaverous chill of the tomb. Yet at times this is broken by weird insect-like noises emitted by banks of grey cabinets of electrical equipment which demand neither leave nor pensions.\n\nIn 1989, with automation, at Waglan an era had ended.\n\nConclusions\n\nSome people, both visitors and lighthouse keepers, saw Waglan in the days when it was manned as a place lacking creature comforts and mod cons. Life was simple and austere. Conversely, others viewed it as a jewel in the South China Sea and close to nature.\n\nNear the shores of Hong Kong Island or Kowloon, especially in the vicinity of the harbour and to the west of the Territory, pollution is commonplace. There are the murky, estuarine waters of the Pearl River. But out at Waglan, one can experience the true tang of the ocean. One feels at peace. This is how lighthouse keeper Sydney Frank Bamsey, whose ashes were at one time buried there, saw it.\n\nConversely, it is also possible to feel like another keeper, Lai Kwok-keung. He told the press when automation was introduced in 1989, ‘I am not sad to leave.’\n\nHave you been to Waglan? What were your feelings about the island? One thing, however, is certain. Lighthouse keepers around the world are a fast-dying breed.\n\nAcknowledgements\n\nThe two authors are deeply indebted to the staffs of the Antiquities",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]