An Account of the Bell Rock Light-House: Including the Details of the Erection and Peculiar Structure of That Edifice; to Which Is Prefixed a Historical View of the Institution and Progress of the Northern Light-HousesStevenson, Robert
History
An Account of the Bell Rock Light-House: Including the Details of the Erection and Peculiar Structure of That Edifice; to Which Is Prefixed a Historical View of the Institution and Progress of the Northern Light-Houses
Stevenson, Robert
Bell Rock Lighthouse (Scotland); Lighthouses -- Scotland
In the month of August 1815, when Sir William Rae, Bart. then Sheriff
of the shire of Edinburgh, Mr Robert Hamilton, Sheriff of Lanarkshire,
and Mr Adam Duff, Sheriff of Forfarshire, Commissioners of the Northern
Light-houses, visited this island, they concurred in judging it highly
proper to make special observations on the state of the weather at
the Calf Island. In the beginning of November following, the author
accordingly sent Mr Macurich, a shipmaster in the light-house service,
to that island, with directions to reside there, and make monthly
returns of the state of the weather, agreeably to a printed form.
During his stay of seven months, it appears, upon the whole, that the
fog rested only twice upon the highest land of the Calf, while it
cleared partially below. On one of these occasions, I was on board of
the Light-house yacht, then at anchor off the island, when the fog was
for a time general; and as the weather became clear, I observed that it
first disappeared upon the lower parts of the island; and that in half
an hour the whole of the Calf was seen. In the journal of the weather
alluded to, the Calf Island is represented as often perfectly free of
fog, while the higher parts of the opposite mainland of Man, was hid in
mist. To account for this, it may be noticed, that the mass of matter
in the Calf island is much less, and the land is also much lower, than
in the main island. Part of this effect may also be ascribed to the
rapidity of the tides, which create a current of wind, particularly
in the narrow channel between the Main and Calf islands; which have
a direct tendency to clear away the fog; as I have observed at the
Skerries in the Pentland Firth , and in similar situations on different
parts of the coast, where rapid currents prevail.
[Sidenote: ~1816.~]
[Sidenote: Distinguishing Light for the Calf of Man.]
From these observations, the author was led to report to the
Commissioners, that the light-house on the Calf of Man should hold
an intermediate position between the highest part of the island,
called Bushel’s Hill, and the lower site called Kaager Point; and,
further, that by erecting two light-house towers in a certain relative
position to each other, they would point out the line of direction of
the dangerous sunken rocks called the Chickens, and by adopting that
description of light known to mariners as a _Revolving light without
Colour_, this station would be sufficiently distinguished from the
lights which surround the Isle of Man on the Scotch, Irish, and English
shores.
[Sidenote: ~1817.~]
[Sidenote: Lights of the Isle of Man completed.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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