Object description

The Evangelistas Lighthouse is one of the most exposed, isolated and least accessible in the world. Sited on the Evangelistas Islets on Chile's continental shelf in the south-eastern Pacific Ocean, it is the landfall light for ships crossing the Pacific eastwards to traverse the Strait of Magellan. A notable engineering accomplishment of its time, it was built by Scottish engineer George Henry Slight who had been recruited by Chilean President Jorge Montt, through the Chilean ambassador in London Agustin Ross, in order to establish a lighthouse service in Chile. Work on the lighthouse commenced on 30 April 1895. Slight's diary records his impressions of the Evangelistas on his arrival there: