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.

Multiples - Thematic Photography

One of the things I like about the weekly challenge set by Carmi is that it makes you look at your photos in a different way. This week it's "Multiples" and although I could take a shot of the multiple snowflakes falling as I write,  it's easier to raid my archives again.

Birds figure on Carmi's shot used as the prompt; I'm starting with birds as well.

Beechwood Rookery - 2011

The rooks were making quite a din when I walked by earlier today when there was many more birds to see and hear. Not as many though as in my next shots taken on the Isles of Scilly.

Gulls on Tresco - August 2008

If ten is not enough, look what happened when I move to a different vantage point.

Tresco Gulls (and multiple cattle too)

Back in Bristol you might need to take this shot with a pinch of salt.

Barrel Store on Quayside for SS Great Britain

Meanwhile in my local town you can find multiple arches in a half-mile stretch, far more than in this photo.

Yarm - Railway Viaduct

That completes my repertoire for this week. For multiple more multiples check out Thematic-photographic-230.

The Natural World - Thematic Photograpy

As I'm in Michigan it seemed right to me to post some photos taken there even if they are from previous visits.

Traverse City Harbour

OK, I'll admit that man has changed the view a bit as he has also in the next shot.

Lake Michigan from the Mountain Dew golf course

This shot was taken from an elevated tee on the golf course at the Homestead, Michigan's fresh water resort. That island on the horizon is South Manitou  which in the Ojibwe Indian legend of the sleeping bear is one of the two cubs of Mishe Mokwa. Mishe Mokwa and her two cubs tried to swim the Lake to escape a fire. The cubs did not make and drowned. The great spirit Manitou formed the two islands North and South Manitou as the cubs' resting places. Meanwhile Mishe Mokwa became the sleeping bear dunes on the Lake Michigan shore - where she had waited for her cubs in vain..

Meanwhile nearer home it was foggy on the island of Tresco in the Scilly Isles.

Tresco - 2008

Also in Tresco near the Island Hotel we could see a pile of rocks - not put there by man.

These reminded me of a rocky place in Yorkshire.

Brimham Rocks, Yorkshire
(photo by Penny Mayes - CC A-S A 2.0 generic license)

If that leaves you between a rock and a hard place I can only suggest you take a look at some more of the natural world at Carmi's thematic-photographic-198

Tresco Abbey Gardens - Sepia Saturday

In 2008 our children took my wife and I to Tresco on the Scilly Isles to celebrate our Golden Wedding Anniversary. One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to Tresco Abbey Gardens.

Tresco Abbey - 2008

With the garden theme this week I now regret not taking more photos while we were there, but here's a few.

The Abbey garden is now one of the foremost in the country. The whole garden is protected by a belt of trees that were originally planted in the early 19th century by Augustus Smith who had leased the island from the Duchy of Cornwall. Up to that time there had been no trees growing in Tresco. In 1990 a series of storms culminated in a hurricane that blew down many of the trees; since then over 60,000 replacements  have been planted to re-establish the shelter belt.

Central path leading to the Temple of Neptune

Somehow it seems appropriate that there is a statue of an early Earth goddess,

Gaia

Then we came across this rather splendid tree, all I need is a guidebook to tell me what it is.

It has not been manicured in any way; this is how it grows.

Also in the gardens is a museum with a collection of figureheads from ships wrecked on the islands.

Valhalla

Valhalla is now managed by the National Maritime Museum.

Statue of Children

This statue can be viewed at the end of a path between the Abbey Garden's trees.

But I'll admit you can't see it at all clearly in this shot.

But outside the garden, near the island's refuse tip there is no mistaking this greedy lot waiting for their meal.

Expectant Gulls

For more garden treats you need to fly off to SS 122

At Leisure On The Beach

It seems strange posting views on English beaches when I'm on holiday in Michigan but here's two I'll share.

The first was taken in 2008. You may say this is not an old photo, but as it was taken while we celebrated our golden wedding I think that makes it qualify.Doesn't my son look lonely paddling in the sea?

Beach on Tresco in the Scilly Isles

The second photo is of my late father-in-law and one of his daughters, we're not sure which but the photo must be approaching 70 years old.

For more beach scenes visit Alan Burnett's Sepia Saturday.79

A Mystery Tour? - Sepia Saturday

It may seem strange that a tour with a nautical flavour starts at a pub in the village where I was born.

The Railway Inn at Ketton, Rutland

Suitable refreshed our next stop is on the North Yorkshire Moors to get directions from a sailor who knew his way around the world.

Captain Cook's Monument

Before we go too far I want us to stop in the town of Fowey on Cornwall's south coast for a pint or two with the King of Prussia.

But we don't want to arrive on a day like this.

While we are there you may want to take a trip across the river to see the house in which Daphne du Maurier wrote her first novel, The Loving Spirit.

 

Ferryside

Look closely at the right-hand edge of the house, almost touching the trees. You should be able to see the figurehead  from the schooner Jane Slade; Daphne was inspired to write her book after discovering the wreck of the schooner in the nearby Pont Creek.

If you are inspired by figureheads then you might want to travel on to the Scilly Isles and check out the maritime museum in Tresco Abbey Gardens.

Now it's time for us to go further afield and call at Copenhagen and see what sailors fantasised about.

The Little Mermaid

However it is Stavanger in  Norway that is our final port of call.

The Square in Stavanger in 1913 leading to the quayside (source - unknown)

Of course it looked different in the 1980s when SS Norway was in town.

Follow this link for more Sepia Saturday fanatics.

[King of Prussia photos by courtesy of  Ade; the rest excluding the sepia of Stavanger are down to me.]