Longships Lighthouse
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox lighthouse
Longships Lighthouse is an active 19th-century lighthouse about Template:Convert off the coast of Land's End in Cornwall, England. It is the second lighthouse to be built on Carn Bras, the highest of the Longships islets which rises Template:Convert above high water level. In 1988 the lighthouse was automated, and the keepers withdrawn. It is now remotely monitored from the Trinity House Operations & Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex.<ref name=TH1>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
HistoryEdit
In the second half of the 18th century, Trinity House was petitioned repeatedly by ship owners for a lighthouse to be built on one of the rocks off Land's End. In 1790 John Smeaton surveyed the area, and recommended either Wolf Rock or the Longships reef as potentially suitable locations. Trinity House sought a leaseholder, who would be responsible for building the tower and maintaining the light in return for the right to levy dues on passing ships. The lease was eventually granted, for a period of fifty years, to a Lieutenant Henry Smith (who had previously been involved in trying to establish a beacon on the rocks). He engaged Samuel Wyatt, who had recently been appointed the Surveyor of Trinity House, as architect for the project.<ref name="Robinson1974">Template:Cite thesis</ref> Work on site began in 1793; however, Smith underestimated the time required and costs involved, and struggled to raise sufficient funds (since the levying of dues depended on the lighthouse being operational). He took out expensive loans to see the work through, but was unable to repay them as promised; (he ended up being sent to the Fleet Prison as a debtor in 1801).<ref name="Boyle1997" />
The first lighthouseEdit
Smith's lighthouse was first lit on 29 September 1795. Built to Wyatt's design, it was a round tower, three storeys high and built of granite, on top of which was a glazed lantern storey with a copper-covered dome. Within the tower itself, the lower level contained a water tank and coal store, the middle floor housed the oil tanks and a kitchen, while the top floor served as a bedroom. The lantern contained a fixed array of eighteen Argand lamps with reflectors, arranged in two tiers and shining out to sea,<ref name="WoodmanWilson">Template:Cite book</ref> probably the first time Argand lamps and reflectors had been installed in an offshore lighthouse.<ref name="Nancollas2018">Template:Cite book</ref> The tower was only just over Template:Convert high, but was built on top of a rock pinnacle meaning that the lantern was Template:Convert above sea level; nevertheless very high seas obscured its light.<ref>Trinity House website; Longships lighthouse Template:Webarchive; retrieved April 2010</ref> In the early 19th century it was manned by two teams of two keepers, each team being on station for a month at a time.<ref name="Nicholson" />
Template:Stack In 1836, Trinity House bought out the lease of the Longships (and other remaining privately owned lighthouses). The Corporation built a set of keepers' dwellings onshore, near Sennen Cove, in 1855, facing the lighthouse out to sea; keepers' families lived there, as did the keepers themselves when not on station.<ref name="Boyle1997" /> By this time there were still four keepers, but three now manned the lighthouse while one (by monthly rotation) was ashore.<ref name="RC1861">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The current lighthouseEdit
In 1869 Trinity House began constructing a replacement tower to the designs of William Douglass.<ref name=CN72>Template:Cite book</ref> The building of the present granite tower used much of the equipment that had previously been used in the construction of the Wolf Rock Lighthouse;<ref name=CN72/> construction was supervised by Michael Beazeley, who had been assistant engineer to Douglass at Wolf Rock.<ref name="Nicholson" /> The new lighthouse was just over Template:Convert tall. It was equipped with a first-order fixed catadioptric optic built by Dr John Hopkinson of Chance Brothers.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The lens array, itself over Template:Convert tall, was placed on a Template:Convert pedestal within the lantern; the light source was an eight-wick 'Douglass' oil lamp, powered by colza.<ref name="Boyle1997" />
The tower was first lit in December 1873, having cost £43,870 to build,<ref name=CN72/> and displayed a fixed white light with two red sectors (to warn ships away from the Brisons, to the north-east, and Rundlestone, to the south-east).<ref name="Elliot1875">Template:Cite book</ref> Initially the new lighthouse was fitted with a fog bell, which sounded two strokes every fifteen seconds;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After the new tower was completed Wyatt's tower was dismantled and the higher pinnacles of rock on Carn Bras were removed.<ref name="Nicholson" />
In 1883 Longstone was altered to show an occulting light (eclipsed for three seconds every minute). An explosive fog signal was introduced at the same time,<ref name="Gazette1883">London Gazette, Issue: 25226, Page: 2315, 1 May 1883</ref> using Brock fog rockets to sound a signal twice every ten minutes. The bell was retained for use as an alternative signal, put to use if the explosive signal was not working, until 1897 when it was removed.<ref>London Gazette, Issue: 26901, Page: 5734, 19 October 1897</ref> Even after these improvements, however, the S.S. Bluejacket was wrecked on rocks near the lighthouse on a clear night in 1898, nearly demolishing the lighthouse in the process. Often due to bad weather there was a delay in relieving the men and supplying stores. In January 1901 there was some concern that the men had run short of provisions due to the severe weather. It was found that there was plenty of stores and the only hardship was their lack of tobacco. They had taken to smoking coffee, hops and tea leaves instead.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The explosive signal was altered to sound twice every five minutes in 1899.<ref>London Gazette, Issue: 27040, Page: 93, 6 January 1899</ref>
In 1904 the multi-wick lamp was replaced with a Matthews incandescent oil burner. A new Matthews-designed explosive fog signal apparatus was also installed on the lantern gallery at around the same time.<ref name="Boyle1997" /> In 1925 the lamp was again replaced, this time with a Hood petroleum vapour burner.
In 1967 the light was electrified and the tower modified: the 1873 optic was removed and in its place a pair of Lister diesel generator sets were installed on the old lamp room floor (occupying the lower part of the lantern).<ref name="Boyle1997" /> Above them an additional floor was inserted to support a new (reduced height) first-order dioptric optic, with an electric lamp replacing the old paraffin burner.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It displayed an isophase light (one long five-second flash every ten seconds) and was visible up to Template:Convert distant. At the same time, the explosive fog signal was removed and a 'supertyfon' fog horn was installed:<ref name="Nicholson">Template:Cite book</ref> compressed air was provided by a pair of Worthington-Simpson compressor units to three sounders, each placed alongside its own air tank on the lantern gallery.<ref name="Boyle1997">Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1974 a helipad was constructed on top of the lantern, greatly easing access.<ref name="WoodmanWilson" />
In 1988 the lighthouse was automated:<ref name="Nicholson" /> the keepers were withdrawn, a new set of generators was installed and the fog horn was replaced by a new electric emitter.<ref name = "Renton2001">Template:Cite book</ref> It was initially monitored by a telemetry link from the Lizard Lighthouse; since 1996 it has been monitored from Harwich.<ref name="Boyle1997" />
Starting in February 2025, a technical fault caused the fog horn to sound every 13 seconds<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
OperationEdit
The light was converted to solar power in 2005;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> it now flashes twice every ten seconds.<ref name="TH1" /> Seaward flashes are white but they become red – due to tinted sectors – for any vessel straying too close to either Cape Cornwall to the north or Gwennap Head to the south-southeast. The white light has a range of Template:Convert, and the red sector light a slightly shorter range of Template:Convert. During poor visibility the fog horn sounds once every ten seconds.<ref name=ngall>Template:Cite ngall</ref>
GalleryEdit
- Longships lighthouse.jpg
Longships lighthouse from the landward side.
- Rough Sea On Longships Lighthouse Lands End Cornwall 1938 RP Postcard 149c.jpg
The lighthouse on a windy day in 1938.
- Longships Lighthouse2 Fossick.jpg
As of 2021 solar panels surround the lower half of the lantern.
- Viewpoint towards Longships lighthouse, Lands End - geograph.org.uk - 2398471.jpg
View of the lighthouse from Land's End.
- Longships - geograph.org.uk - 1956847.jpg
Aerial view of the rocks.
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
Template:Lighthouses of Trinity House Template:Lighthouses in England Template:Authority control