History of lighthouses with demands, and to the loss of a number of ships, most notably the Dutch merchant ship Vreede in 1800 with the loss of 380 lives. After the reforms of the Lighthouse Act 1836, owners still managed to collect large dues, of which the largest were for the Smalls Lighthouse which collected £23,000 in 1852 and Trinity House was forced to spend over £1m in buying back leases, including £444,000 for the Skerries Lighthouse. The modern era of lighthouses began at the turn of the 18th century, as lighthouse construction boomed in lockstep with burgeoning levels of transatlantic commerce. Advances
History of lighthouses in Canada History of lighthouses in Canada The history of lighthouses in Canada dates back to 1734. The first lighthouse in what was to become Canada, (the second on the entire coast of North America after Little Brewster Island in Boston Harbour which was built in 1713), went into service at the French fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island in 1734. Louisbourg Lighthouse is one of the most famous light houses in Canada. Patterned after the built off La Rochelle in 1682, the Louisbourg Light was destroyed by British troops during the siege of 1758, and not rebuilt until 1842; the