Construction of military stations and settlements on Sakhalin Island needed a constant supply from the Russian mainland which was why the number of military and merchant ships in Sakhalin waters continued to increase. That is why a broad Program of Strengthening Lighthouses in the Ports of the Eastern Ocean was developed with the injunction of His Imperial Majesty (May 5, 1872). . This program presumed the building of signal towers and lighthouses on Sakhalin Island. Signal towers had to be installed in places that were not abundant in specific natural objects.
Special attention was paid to the La Perouse Strait where navigation was difficult during the early summer due to strong currents, fog and rip tides. The Rock of Danger in the center of the Strait made navigation extremely hazardous which was why any command to make the navigation there easier is valuable and should be accepted gratefully. Navigators sailing the waters of the La Perouse Strait used a rather simple means to detect rocks in the fog - they had listeners on board whose job was to detect the roar of Sea Lions living on this small piece of land.
A command was given to install a lighthouse on Cape Kriljon and a signal tower on the Rock of Danger. According to Order #149 from the Chief Commander of the Ports of the Eastern Ocean, A. O. Feldgauzen (April 23, 1883), the construction of the Kriljon lighthouse was placed in the hands of the Chief of Hydrography of the Ports of the Far Eastern Ocean, Captain V. Z. Kazanov. The construction of the lighthouse began on May 13, 1883. In order to tow the wooden beams to the construction site, the schooner Tunguz was provided by the Sea Department. Sakhalin Island authorities sent 30 convicts to build it and the construction lasted only 35 days. The wooden tower was 8.5 meters high and the station included the Keepers house, barracks, bathhouse and a vegetable garden - all were enclosed within a fence. A powder magazine and a road from the coast to the lighthouse were also built. The construction of the lighthouse station cost the federal government 1,103 rubles. The light-reflecting apparatus was equipped with 15 argand burners. To signal during fog, a two-pound signal gun and a 20-pood (800 pounds) bell were installed. On June 24, a trial lighting was made: in good weather the light could be seen for 15 miles.
On July 2, 1885, the Chief Commander of the Eastern Ocean Ports, Rear Admiral A. O. Feldgauzen, sent the builder of the Kriljon Lighthouse, Captain V. Z. Kazarinov, back to Sakhalin Island. This time he had to build a lighthouse on Cape Zhonkier. By this time the new Law about the Management of Sakhalin Island was passed. Due Station was no longer the administrative center of Northern Sakhalin. Alexandrovskiy Station became the administrative center for both the island and the region and began to play an increasingly important role in both the economic and political life of Sakhalin. To make sailing to Alexandrovskiy Station easier, it was necessary to build a lighthouse nearby as the light of the lighthouse in Due could not be seen from the ships sailing to Alexandrovskiy Station. Besides, the lighthouse in Due did not operate due to a typhoon in 1884. Cape Zhonkier was chosen to be the location for the new lighthouse.
If a lighthouse was built there, its light could be seen from both Alexandrovskiy and Due. By the spring of 1886 the construction of the new lighthouse was complete. The hexagonal wooden lighthouse tower with an octagonal lamp was connected to the keepers apartment. They also built barracks for the attendants, a bathhouse, and sheds for food supplies and equipment. All the buildings were painted yellow. The road leading to the lighthouse had ten zigzags. Near the lighthouse, the ship communication mast and the bell for the fog signals were set. The lamp of the lighthouse had a silvered reflector and 15 oil lamps. The angle of illumination of the horizon was 225 degrees and the visibility in fine weather was 21.8 miles due to the unusually high position of the lighthouse - 180 meters above sea level. The Main Hydrographic Administration paid 15,000 rubles to build the lighthouse. The expenses were only 4,800 rubles not including the price of lime, iron, glass, and the lamp delivered from Vladivostok. This cost reduction was made possible because the Governor of the island, Major General A. I. Gintze, provided prisoners to work at the building site. In memory of this assistance, the Commander of Vladivostoks port, Rear Admiral A. O. Feldgauzen, asked the Main Hydrographic Administration to name the Zhonkier Lighthouse the Lighthouse of General Gintze. The new lighthouse began operations on April 25, 1886.
In the early 1890s, it became necessary to build new lighthouses and range marks on Sakhalin Island. On one hand, it was caused by the appearance of newly perfected beacon systems and on the other hand - by the deplorable condition of the existing lighthouses on Sakhalin.
The Main Hydrographic Administration in St. Petersburg developed The Plan of Monthly Works in the Eastern Ocean intended for 1892-1897. Soon the contract with the firm Barbiet et Benard was concluded. The reputation of the firm was so trustworthy that even England, famous for its sea priorities, purchased lighting devices from this firm. They consisted of a kerosene-glowing, incandescent burner (instead of 15 oil burners in the old system) and produced a beam of 150,000-candle power instead of several hundreds as in the older versions. The light of the burner was focused in a lens that was 1.5 meters in diameter and consisted of several rows of glass rings in a bronze frame. A bell glass in steel casing on a stone base covered the lighting device.
Construction of the new lighthouses began in 1894. On August 7, the foremen, Shipulin and Yakovleff, and 25 Korean workers arrived at Cape Kriljon. On August 8, they began to clear the site. It was decided, taking into consideration specific navigation in the La Perouse Strait, not to stop operations of the old lighthouse but to build a new lighthouse nearby. First of all, a narrow-gauge railway about 200 meters long was built from the coast to the building site to deliver construction materials using two cars. All the construction materials, with the exception of rubble stone being extracted on the Cape, were delivered by the steamer Truzhenik. The basic cargo, red brick, was delivered from Japan. Oregon pine was delivered from North America. Truzhenik. The Chief Engineer of the Lighthouses of the Eastern Ocean, Colonel Engineer K. I. Leopold explained his decision to construct all the buildings out of red brick instead of other materials: If you looked at the lighthouse from the sea, it merged with the sky. It was necessary to make it more distinguishable.
By August 1, 1896, the installation and adjustment of the lighting device in the Kriljon Lighthouse had been completed. In the building on the southern part of Cape Kriljon, the new pneumatic horn with a kerosene engine produced by the English firm Cunter, Charl & Co was assembled. It was designed to make 5-second fog signals with 100-second intervals. Near the horn building there was a special signal gun on a wooden gun carriage, signal mast with gaff and yardarm for communicating with ships in accordance with the Code of International Signals and Storm Warnings. A reserve fog bell was also installed. It was supposed to make ten, double-struck signals each minute if the horn didnt work.
The construction of the Zhonkier Lighthouse began in July 1895. It was necessary to change the location, as the old lighthouse light was often invisible due to high fog. The site for the new lighthouse was 70 meters above sea level. The lighthouse and inhabited buildings were constructed out of stone and concrete. To make the construction easier, Engineer K. I. Leopold suggested selling the wooden buildings of the old lighthouse at auction. Using prison labor also lowered expenses. On July 6, 1897, the Commission approved the lighthouse. In addition to the lighthouse, the warehouse and railroad with a capstan were built on the coast near the location where longboats landed. The octangular, 18 meter tower had a lighting device with white flashing light, 3-second long signals with 300 second intervals. The working distance was 17.8 miles. There was a signal tower, a bell and 4-pood gun unicorn to make fog signals with intervals of 5 to 10 minutes. The new location had only one disadvantage: its light could not be seen from the roads at heart of the Alexandrovsk as Cape Zhonkier blocked the light. But instead, the ships sailing to the pier of Alexandrovsk used its signal light.
The next stage in the construction of lighthouses and navigational aids was during the 40-year governorship of Karafuto (Sakhalin). The first navigational mark installed by the Japanese was a bell buoy situated to the east of the rock, Nidzhe-gun (The Stone of Danger) in 1906. But because of the constant eastern current (with speeds of four to five knots) in the La Perouse Strait, the buoy location was often shifted. That was why, in 1913, a concrete tower with an autonomic beacon and fog bell was built on the rock.
In 1914, a quadrangular tower was built at Cape Hinode-Bana (Observatsii) on the eastern coast of Kaibatoo Island (Moneron). It was connected to the staff rooms, the horn, the diesel engine room and meteorological station. This isolated complex of buildings was very convenient given the severe climate of the island. Such a complex was also built on Cape Sony (Kusnetsovo) in the southwestern section of the Gulf of Tatar. And a lighthouse was built at Kennushi (Lopatina) which finished the illumination of the southern part of the Gulf of Tatar. In addition, the lighthouses and folding marks were installed in the ports being built in Honto (Nevelsk), Maoka (Kholmsk), and Otomary (Korsakov). In 1929, a beacon was installed on the southern part of the new breakwater in Honto.
In the 1930 and 40s, in southern Sakhalin, lighthouses were built on Capes Tonin (1935), Slepikovsky, and Lamanon (1940). All of them were built according one plan: a round tower was connected to all the other buildings. The optical system was produced in Japan and had a 60 cm. diameter. The first kerosene-tempering burners were later replaced with electric lamps. The rotation of the lighting device was accomplished using a clockwork mechanism.
A unique plan was utilized to construct a lighthouse on Cape Aniva. The Aniva Lighthouse was installed in 1939 on the small rock, Sivuchya, not far from the hard-to-reach Cape Aniva.
The lighthouse at Cape Aniva is a round concrete tower with a small wing. It stands 31 meters high and the height of the light is 40 meters above sea level. The tower has seven floors. There are diesel engine and accumulator rooms on the first floor; the kitchen and storerooms are on the second floor; the radio station, equipment room and watchmen are on the third floor; and there were living rooms and storerooms on the other floors. A flashing, lighting device was put into operation using a clockwork mechanism. The lighting device was in a bowl with 300 kilos of mercury used as a bearing surface. The pipe with the pendulum (a 270-kilo weight) was at the center of the tower and was wound every three hours to rotate the optical system.
During forty years of the governorship of Karafuto in Southern Sakhalin, twenty-five lighthouses and folding marks were installed. The navigational security in the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan was improved.
During the years of the political events of the February and October revolutions and the five-year Japanese occupation of Northern Sakhalin, the construction of lighthouses was almost halted entirely. Only in 1929 The Decree of Survey and Protection of the Eastern Seas was passed by the Soviet of Labor and Defense. With the onset of oil mining, Northern Sakhalin began to play an important role in the economy of the Far East. Hundreds of ships sailed there during each navigational season. Their navigational safety was not complete. The first thing to be done was the illumination of the northern part of Sakhalin - Capes Marie and Elizabeth. In 1932, the Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse was installed. The stone, tetrahedral gray tower is near the beacon-technical building (MTZ). Also near this building an automatic radio beacon and bell to produce double-struck sounds (two strikes a minute) were installed. The text on its lower edge states: Cast in the factory of the trading house of Peter Gilev in Tumen, 1906. The weight is 24 poods, 25 pounds. (about 394 kilos) In 1935, the horn building was constructed near the MTZ.
On Cape Marie, a wooden tetrahedral tower was installed. In 1935, it was replaced by a fundamental building. The new lighthouse is an 18-meter, octahedral, stone tower on a square foundation. Near the lighthouse is a bell that produces three double-struck sounds a minute. It was cast in the factory of the trading house of Citizen P. I. Olovyanishkov and Sons in Yaroslavl. Its weight is 48 poods, 17 pounds. (approximately 775 kilos) The central part had bias-relief which pictures Saint Mary with Infant and the Three Apostles and the text Announce the Good News, Glorify Heaven for Gods Glory.
During the early postwar years, the Hydrographic Service of the Soviet Union had a lot of work to do: to rebuild the destroyed navigational aids and to build new ones. By the early 1950s, Soviet industry had begun mass production of light-optical devices with 50,000 to 3 million candlepower and working distances of up to 30 miles. There were new monolithic concrete lighthouse towers: they were built with the help of movable, metal forms. In 1953, such a tower was constructed on Cape Terpenia.
Nowadays, a special quartz lamp of 17000 candlepower (about 11.2 million candles per square meter) is the typical source of light. In addition to the light beacons, the radio beacons (main and reserve) and nautophone (foghorn) are also in the lighthouse complex. The lighthouses were built more than a century ago. It is difficult to say how many lives and ships they have saved. But one thing is certain: they have always been the loyal friends of the sailor and showed them the safe way home.