Galera Point is surrounded by extremely treacherous waters, made even more dangerous by the vicious underwater currents created by the meeting of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The ocean bed in the immediate vicinity of the promontory is littered with large rocks which have broken away from the mainland with the passage of time. It is therefore a very dangerous area for unsuspecting sea vessels. It was due largely to the dangers of the area coupled with the need for guidance and warning to ships in the night that the erection of a lighthouse was deemed necessary.
The positioning of a lighthouse at Galera was also important due to its strategic location to ships coming down the Caribbean, its close proximity to Tobago and the absolute necessity for proper navigational guidance to those ships en route to and from Tobago.
The lighthouse at Galera was commissioned in 1897, at a time when shipping provided the major form of transportation and communication to rural, coastal villages around Trinidad and Tobago. In fact, the northeastern coast of Trinidad was devoid of proper overland communication and remained inaccessible to motor vehicular traffic right up to 1930. Villages like Toco, Cumana, Grande Riviere, Matelot and Blanchisseuse depended on the operation of the Round the Island Coastal Steamer Service and later on the “SS Belize” for transportation and communication with the rest of the island. Therefore, the erection of a lighthouse at Galera Point was a major milestone in the development of proper navigational facilities on the northeastern coast of Trinidad.
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