FLASHBACK #41: Bengtskär, Finland's Southermost Attraction (59° 43,4' N 22° 30,1' E)

There are time when we all come across as ungrateful. We don't mean to, it just happens. When Bree planned a weekend away, it started out badly when we pulled into our overnight accommodation at a Christian Hostel just outside Hanko. After a recent clash with a religious friend of mine who had somehow managed to hold me hostage at her parent's place, I was feeling a little bit anti-religious.

With reluctance on my part, we checked in late one Saturday afternoon. And why were we staying overnight in Hanko? Well, Bree had recently read an newspaper article about a lighthouse that was now a tourist attraction, 25kms out at sea. It was very difficult to summon any enthusiasm for a visit to a lighthouse, but as a loving partner, you sometimes do these things for your loved one; that's what makes relationship work.

Creating this entry in hindsight, I clearly didn't give the day out the attention it deserved. Only now am I researching this 'Bengtskär', learning what I should have learnt if they had bothered to provide a guided tour in English.

Anyway, the following morning started with a short drive to the port of Hanko, from where we boarded a rather large fishing trawler. Only when we were far out at sea did we learn why it was a trawler and not a more touristic kind of boat - the sea out here is so choppy that you should have seen us queueing for our serving of soup. Ever tried carrying a bowl of soup in very bad weather at sea? It's hilarious and unfunny at the same time! I, for one, thought I had good sea legs, but I was relieved to get off the boat after the 2-hour trip.

Having reached the spot of Scandinavia's tallest lighthouse (52 meters high), we took time to recover from the sea-sickness before learning more about the Lighthouse's history. The incidence of frequent shipwrecks led to the planning of the immense 'Baltic Lighthouse' and, at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900, architect Florentin Granholm unveiled his design for the unique structure. It wasn't until the steamship, Helsingfors, foundered and sank in the Gulf in January 1905, however, that the Imperial Senate granted the materials necessary to commence construction in 1906.

We went for a wander among the rocks, marvelling back at the lighthouse that just sits there, very much alone, on the granite surface of the island. 120 workers and artisans worked on the structre and, after the roof was raised in 1906, work continued on the tower and the 252 steps of the spiral staircase leading up to the reflector room. Visitors are allowed to ascend the steps which illustrates just how isolated this island really is for you can see nothing in the surrounding see. A special petrol lantern, designed and built in Paris, was brought to Bengtskär and installed atop the tower on December 19th, 1906; it's powerful beam could be seen twenty nautical miles away.

When World War I started, in 1914, the lighthouse men and their families were evacuated to the mainland and the lantern was placed in storage. During that same year, two Imperial German Naval cruisers, Magdeburg and Augsburg, subjected the lighthouse to considerable shelling, only damaging the granite structure slightly. By the following summer, the lighthouse men and their families had returned to their homes on Bengtskär. It wasn't until 1919 that the Gulf of Finland was declared safe for shipping and the lantern re-lit.

In November 1939, Soviet Russian troops attacked Finland and, by 1941, the shore of Hanko was in Russian hands. Under the cover of fog, in the earlier hours of July 26, 1941, two Russian patrol boats, with an armed force of one hundred, secretly landed at the southern part of Bengtskär with orders to destruct the lighthouse so that it could no longer play a role in hampering Russian war activities.

The small Finnish garrison of forty-one men, including four lighthouse keepers, repelled the first Russian attack and, from a distance of ten kilometers, batteries on the neighbouring island of Örö and Granholmen shelled the Soviet patrol boats and the enemy soldiers hiding in the rock crevasses on the island. Finnish gunboats and coast guard vessels arrived in the early hours while Finnish Fighter bombers flew over the island, targetting the invaders. At dawn, Finnish Commandos from the nearby island of Hitis landed and joined the struggle to repel the Soviet force.

After a hard and bloody battle, the small Finnish garrison emerged victorious, but at a price; the battle had claimed thirty-one lives and forty-five wounded from the Finnish ranks. Russia lost sixty Russian troops, with twenty-eight taken prisoner. In retalation, a Russian warplane flew over the island and dropped a bomb on July 27th; it struck the living quarters, killing seven of the Finnish defence force.

Intermittent repairs to the facility continued during the post-war period with the lighthouse finally reopening in 1950. The lighthouse keepers returned to the rock, but this time without their families. With technology came modernisation and Bengtskär was later operating unmanned. During this time, vandals damaged the interior and exterior, and Bengtskär was leased to the Centre of Extension studies of Turku University.

Renovations were completed in 1995 and the Lighthouse was reopened to serve its new role as a tourist, conference, research and education center. The lower floor houses Finland's first Lighthouse Museum and a permanent exhibit "Bengtskär 1941", which gives a vivid account of the dramatic hours of the battle for the island. On the first floor in the former living quarters is a cafeteria, post office and a Chapel.

It's certainly worth paying a visit to this unique place. My only regret is that I didn't appreciate it's importance at the time of the visit. Interesting, Bengtskär celebrates it's 100th Anniversary in 2006.

www.bengtskar.fi