Lightships and Lighthouses (eBook)

Frederick A. Talbot (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2016 | 1. Auflage
666 Seiten
anboco (Verlag)
978-3-7364-1601-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Romances innumerable have been woven around the flaming guardians of the coast, but it is doubtful whether any purely imaginative work is so fascinating and absorbing as the plain unvarnished narrative of how some famous lightship or lighthouse has been brought into existence. And the story of construction is equalled in every way by that relating to the operation and maintenance of the light, against all odds, for the guidance of those who have business upon the ocean. This volume is not a history of lightships and lighthouses; neither is it a technical treatise. Rather my object has been to relate how the difficulties, peculiar and prodigious, have been overcome by the builders in their efforts to mark some terrible danger-spots, both on the mainland and isolated sea-rocks. While the lines of the lightship and lighthouse are familiar to all, popular knowledge concerning the internal apparatus of the building or ship is somewhat hazy. Therefore I have explained, with technicalities simplified as much as possible, the equipment of the tower and vessel, and the methods whereby both visual and audible warnings are given. The very latest developments in this field of engineering and science are incorporated, so as to render the subject as comprehensive as possible within the limits of a single volume. In the compilation of this book I have received the heartiest assistance from those who are prominently associated with the work of providing adequate aids to navigation, and am particularly indebted to the engineers to the Commissioners of Northern Lights, Messrs. D. and C. Stevenson;vi Lieutenant-Colonel William P. Anderson, the Engineer-in-Chief to the Lighthouse Department of the Canadian Government; the various officials of the Lighthouse Board of the United States of America; the Engineer-in-Chief to the French Service des Phares; the lighthouse authorities of New South Wales and New Zealand; Mr. Gustaf Dalén and his assistants; Messrs.

Textauszug

CHAPTER I

THE ORIGIN OF THE LIGHTHOUSE

The mariner, in pursuit of his daily business, is exposed to dangers innumerable. In mid-ocean, for the most part, he need not fear them particularly, because he has plenty of sea-room in which to navigate his ship, and in case of thick fog he can ease up until this dreaded enemy lifts or disperses. But in crowded coastal waters his position is often precarious, for he may be menaced by lurking shoals or hidden reefs, which betray little or no indication of their whereabouts, and which may be crossed with apparent safety. If the ship blunders on in ignorance, it is brought up with a thud as it buries its nose in the sucking sand, or gives a mighty shiver as it scrapes over the rocky teeth, perhaps to be clasped as in a vice, or to be battered and broken so fearfully that, when at last it tears itself free and slips off into deep water, it can only founder immediately. Here, if fog blots out the scene, the ship is in danger of being lured to certain destruction by currents and other natural forces, since the captain is condemned to a helplessness as complete as of a blind man in a busy street.

It is not surprising, then, that the captain, as he approaches or wanders along a tortuous shoreline, scans the waters eagerly for a glimpse of the guardian monitor, which, as he knows from his reckonings and chart, should come within sight to guide him on his way. The danger-signal may be one of many kinds—a misty, star-like glimmer thrown from a buoy dancing on the waves, the radiant orb from a lightship bobbing up and down and swinging rhythmically to and fro, a fixed flare-light, or dazzling, spoke-like rays revolving across the sky. If sight be impossible owing to fog, he must depend upon his ear for the measured tolling of a bell, the shriek of a whistle, the deep blare of a siren, or the sharp report of an explosive. When he has picked up one or other of these warnings, he feels more at ease, and proceeds upon his way, eyes and ears keenly strained for warning of the next danger ahead.

The lighthouse is the greatest blessing that has been bestowed upon navigation. It renders advance through the waters at night as safe and as simple as in the brilliancy of the midday sun. But for these beacons the safe movement of ships at night or during fog along the crowded steamship highways which surround the serrated shores of the five continents would be impossible. It is only natural, therefore, that the various nations of the world should strenuously endeavour to light their coasts so adequately that the ship may proceed at night as safely and as comfortably as a man may walk down an illuminated city thoroughfare.

Whence came the idea of lighting the coastline with flaring beacons? It is impossible to say. They have been handed down to modern civilization through the mists of time. The first authentic lighthouse was Sigeum, on the Hellespont, which undoubtedly antedates the famous Pharos of Alexandria. The latter was a massive square tower, 400 feet high, and was known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was built about 331 B.C. The warning light was emitted from a huge wood fire, which was kept burning at the summit continuously during the night; the illumination is stated to have been visible for a distance of forty miles, but modern knowledge disputes this range. The precise design of this wonderful tower is unknown, but it must have been a huge structure, inasmuch as it is computed to have cost the equivalent in modern money of over £200,000, or $1,000,000.

For sixteen hundred years it guided the navigators among the waters from which it reared its smoking crest, and then it disappeared. How, no one knows, although it is surmised that it was razed by an earthquake; but, although it was swept from sight, its memory has been preserved, and the French, Italian, and Spanish nations use its name in connection with the lighthouse, which in France is called phare; in the other two countries mentioned, faro.

The Romans in their conquest of Gaul and Britain brought the lighthouse with them, and several remains of their efforts in this direction are to be found in England, notably the pharos at Dover.

In all probability, however, the lighthouse in its most primitive form is at least as old as the earliest books of the Bible. Undoubtedly it sprang from the practice of guiding the incoming boatman to his home by means of a blazing bonfire set up in a conspicuous position near by. Such a guide is a perfectly obvious device, which even to-day is practised by certain savage tribes.

When the Phœnicians traded in tin with the ancient Britons of Cornwall, their boats continually traversed the rough waters washing the western coasts of Spain, where, for the safer passage of their sailors, doubtless, they erected beacons upon prominent headlands. The oldest lighthouse in the world to-day, which in some quarters is held to be of Phœnician origin, is that at Corunna, a few miles north of Cape Finisterre. Other authorities maintain that it was built during the reign of the Roman Emperor Trajan. In 1634 it was reconstructed, and is still in existence.

At the mouth of the Gironde is another highly interesting link with past efforts and triumphs in lighthouse engineering. The Gironde River empties itself into the Bay of Biscay through a wide estuary, in the centre of which is a bunch of rocks offering a terrible menace to vessels. This situation achieved an unenviable reputation in the days when ships first ventured out to sea. Being exposed to the broad Atlantic, it receives the full force of the gales which rage in the Bay of Biscay, and which make of the Gironde River estuary a fearful trap. The trading town of Bordeaux suffered severely from the ill fame attached to the mouth of the waterway upon which it was dependent, for both the sea and the roads exacted a heavy toll among the ships which traded with the famous wine capital of Gascony. How many fine vessels struck the rocks of Cordouan and went to pieces within sight of land, history does not record, but the casualties became so numerous that at last the firms trading with Bordeaux refused to venture into the Gironde unless a light were placed on the reef to guide their captains. Alarmed at the prospect of losing their remunerative traffic, the citizens of Bordeaux built a tower upon the deadly reef, with a beacon which they kept stoked with wood, four men being reserved for its service. In return the authorities exacted a tax from each vessel arriving and leaving the port, in order to defray the expense thus incurred. Probably from this action originated the custom of lighthouse dues.

This bonfire served its purposes until the Black Prince brought Gascony under his power. He demolished the primitive beacon, and erected in its place another tower, 40 feet high, on which the chauffer was placed, a hermit being entrusted with the maintenance of the light at night. Near the lighthouse—if such it can be called—a chapel was built, around which a few fishermen erected their dwellings. When the hermit died, no one offered to take his place. The beacon went untended, the fishermen departed, and the reef once more was allowed to claim its victims from shipping venturing into the estuary.

In 1584 an eminent French architect, Louis de Foix, secured the requisite concession to build a new structure. He evolved the fantastic idea of a single building which should comprise a beacon, a church and a royal residence in one. For nearly twenty-seven years he laboured upon the rock, exposed to the elements, before he (or rather his successor) was able to throw the welcome warning rays from the summit of his creation. This was certainly the most remarkable lighthouse that has ever been set up. It was richly decorated and artistically embellished, and the tower was in reality a series of galleries rising tier upon tier. At the base was a circular stone platform, 134 feet in diameter, flanked by an elegant parapet surrounding the light-keepers’ abode. This lower structure was intended to form a kind of breakwater which should protect the main building from the force of the waves. On the first floor was a magnificent entrance hall, leading to the King’s apartment, a salon finely decorated with pillars and mural sculptures. Above was a beautiful chapel with a lofty roof supported by carved Corinthian columns. Finally came the beacon, which at that date was about 100 feet above the sea-level.

Access to the successive floors was provided by a beautiful spiral staircase, the newels of which were flanked by busts of the two French Kings, Henry III. and Henry IV., and of the designer de Foix. The architect died not long before his work was completed, but the directions he left behind him were so explicit that no difficulty was experienced in consummating his ideas, and the Tour de Cordouan shed its beneficial light for the first time over the waters of the Bay of Biscay in 1611. So strongly was the building founded that it has defied the attacks of Nature to this day, although it did not escape those of the vandals of the French Revolution, who penetrated the tower, where the busts of the two Henrys at once excited their passion. The symbols of monarchy were promptly hurled to the floor, and other damage was inflicted. When order was restored, the busts were replaced, and all the carvings which had suffered mutilation from mob law were restored. At the same time, in accordance with the spirit of...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 30.9.2016
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Geowissenschaften ► Geografie / Kartografie
• Themenwelt: Technik
• ISBN-10: 3-7364-1601-6 / 3736416016
• ISBN-13: 978-3-7364-1601-7 / 9783736416017