The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 2Finden, W. (William)
History
The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 2
Finden, W. (William)
Coasts -- Great Britain -- Pictorial works; Great Britain -- Pictorial works
"After our ship did split,
When you, and that poor number saved with you,
Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother,
Most provident in peril, bind himself--
Courage and hope both teaching him the practice--
To a strong mast that lived upon the sea,
Where, like Orion on the dolphin's back,
I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves
So long as I could see."
TWELFTH NIGHT.
The Nass Lights were erected by the late Mr. Nelson, in 1832, under the
direction of the Trinity House. The eastern, or upper Light, burns at
the height of one hundred and sixty-seven feet, and the western, or
lower one, at one hundred and twenty-three feet above high-water mark.
They are one thousand feet apart, built of the stone of the country, and
stand on Nass Point, near Dunraven Castle, Glamorganshire.
It unfortunately was not merely the dangers of the ocean to which the
luckless mariner was in past times exposed upon this iron-bound coast,
to them was too frequently added the infamous deceptions of the
wreckers, who were accustomed to resort to the artifice of driving to
and fro an ass bearing two lanterns, so as to represent a distant vessel
in motion, and thus lured many a ship to destruction among the rocks and
sands. Numerous are the legends of fearful interest which the older
inhabitants relate descriptive of the accidents attendant upon these
murderous practices, now happily only matters of history.
The erection of lighthouses, beacons, and other means for the prevention
of shipwreck, is every year becoming an object of greater importance to
the members of that excellent corporation, the Trinity House. Within the
last thirty years, great and permanent advantages have been secured to
commerce by the vigilance and activity of that body. Much, however, is
still left to call aloud for the exercise of their high privilege,
skill, and humanity. The navigation of our coasts is still attended in
many parts with imminent danger. Rocks, and shoals, and quicksands,
indeed, cannot be obliterated by the hand of man; but the perils they
involve, in respect to the shipping, may be greatly diminished by
increasing the number of those monitory beacons to which the eye of the
mariner is so often turned with intense anxiety. The erection of the
two lighthouses which here illustrate the subject, has been attended
with the happiest consequences. Many a shipwreck, we will venture to
say, has been prevented by a timely regard to these friendly beacons.
The Bristol Channel has often been the scene of sad catastrophes in the
chronicles of seafaring life; but at present the danger to the foreign
and coasting-trade has been greatly obviated by those judicious measures
which have emanated from the above society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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