Lighthouses - Sepia Saturday

While looking for some information I came across this verse by Rachel Lyman Field

I'd like to be a lighthouse
All scrubbed and painted white.
I'd like to be a lighthouse
And stay awake all night
To keep my eye on everything
That sails my patch of sea;
I'd like to be a lighthouse
With the ships all watching me.

It seemed so appropriate for this week’s prompt:

 It also reminded me of a poem I learnt at school, (all 69 lines of it), called The Inchcape Rock - by Robert Southey:

No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,

The ship was still as she could be,

Her sails from Heaven received no motion,

Her keel was steady in the ocean.

Without either sign or sound of their shock

The waves flow’d over the Inchcape Rock;

So little they rose, so little they fell,

They did not move the Inchcape Bell.

The Abbot of Aberbrothok

Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock;

On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,

And over the waves its warning rung.

When the rock was hid by the surge’s swell,

The mariners heard the warning bell;

And then they knew the perilous Rock,

And blest the Abbot of Aberbrothok.

A short story about the Inchcape Rock may be read at http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/9364/ and Southey’s full poem at http://www.bellrock.org.uk/misc/misc_poem.htm

Fortunately for all Robert Stevenson built a lighthouse (1807 – 1810) on the reef known as the Inchcape or Bell Rock which is located off the east coast of Angus, Scotland.

Bell Rock Lighthouse - 2006
(by Derek Robertson - CC BY-SA 2.0 - Geograph project collection)

This video tells how it was built. I suggest you watch the first 4.1/2 mins. (After this it’s about the man, who became Baron Inchcape and later the Earl of Inchcape, before ending as little more than PR for the Inchcape motor group.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fARzgkEQnt8

Britain also boasts of the smallest island in the world with a building on it – the Bishop Rock off the Isles of Scilly. The Bishop Rock Lighthouse stands on a rock ledge 46 metres long x 16 metres wide, 4 miles west of the Scillies.

Bishop Rock from Periglis Bay, St Agnes - 2006
(By John Davey - CC BY-SA 2.0 - Geograph project collection)

The first lighthouse on the rock did not last long

First lighthouse

It was started in 1847 but was washed away in 1850, before it could be commissioned.

Second lighthouse

The second Bishop Rock Lighthouse was started in 1858 – a solid tower structure constructed from dovetailing blocks of Cornish granite. It soon became apparent that even this was not strong enough to resist the large waves to which it was subjected. Cracks snaked up the sides of the tower and vibrations caused by the waves make the lighthouse shake violently. In 1874 waves over 40metres high broke over the tower washing away the lantern; tons of water coming down inside the tower threatened to drown the keepers.

Bishop Rock Lighthouse

In 1881 an outer stone skin built around the existing tower increased its height and strength; there have been no problems since, Changing keepers by boat was a hazardous operation. A helicopter pad added in 1976 mad this easier. The last keeper left in 1992 and the Bishop Rock Lighthouse has been fully automated since.

Bishop Rock Lighthouse - 2005
(By Richard Knights - CC BY-SA 2.0 - Geograph project collection)

For further enlightenment don't forget to cross over to Sepia-saturday-188.