Tom Goes Nomad – How Victorians Built This Lighthouse at Sea
An evening pause: Built fast and cheaply, despite real cutting edge engineering challenges, at the turn of the 19th century.
Hat tip Cotour.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
An evening pause: Built fast and cheaply, despite real cutting edge engineering challenges, at the turn of the 19th century.
Hat tip Cotour.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Beachy Head was also known for a great number of suicide jumpers.
Lighthouses have been destroyed on occasion. Krakatoa’s tsunami toppled at least one at Anjer back in 1883.
The Scotch Cap lighthouse fell victim to seismic sea waves. One haunting depiction was of a beam striking the huge wave only a few yards away right before the moment of impact.
Usually, tsunami run up a coastline more like a flash flood from the ocean….but there are occasional some that come in as a breaking wave…or vertical like a tidal bore… perhaps explaining why they were referred to as tidal waves…though that isn’t strictly accurate, though some think a sysygy can trigger earthquake tsunami…so… partially true?
Cotour–
“Spectacle Reef Light Station, Lake Huron.”
(2nd most remote Lighthouse in the USA)
Restless Viking (2021)
https://youtu.be/gdIPVSomcZs
(10:02)
“Construction started on the spectacle shaped reef (hence the name) in July of 1870 and was completed four years later with the Light entering service on June 1st of 1874. It is the most expensive lighthouse on the Great lakes and is made of interlocking, hand cut limestone blocks with a height of 86 feet above the water and was equipped with a second order Fresnel lens with a range of up to 28 miles. “
Someone just yesterday on X was making the observation that the tech differential between Britain and the rest of the world in the 19th century cannot be overstated; that it is as though an alien civilization was invading the Earth and chose Britain as its forward operating base. This look at Beachy Head lighthouse and how it was built sure as heck underlines that impression. We Yanks could *probably* have done something similar at that moment, but I don’t think anyone else could have.
Which makes it all the more sad to see what has become of the Britain of the 2020’s.
Richard Lender (formerly Richard M): The Yanks not only could have done similar then, they could have done better. You haven’t read enough of American 19th century history if you have any doubt about that.
Oh, my bad: I accidentally slipped in my, uh, real name thanks to the Chrome autofill. Careless of me. You can edit it back to “Richard M” if that is possible!
More substantively: I admit, lighthouse engineering is not a field of my expertise! But thinking of American lighthouses similarly situated….er, as *challenging* as Beachy Head, the most obvious possibility is Michigan’s White Shoal Light off Mackinac — operational in 1910, just under a decade after Beachy Head. (Possible runner-up: Rock of Ages lighthouse, in Lake Superior, built in 1908, so also a rough contemporary.)
I’m not sure it’s *quite* on par with Beachy Head, but it certainly was an impressive feat, and it was at about the same time. America was catching up with Britain in industrial and engineering prowess pretty well by the turn of the century, and I was thinking more strongly of the early Victorian Age . . . I might be overcompensating out of fear of making jingoistic outbursts, however!
Check out Orlando Metcalfe Poe. (1832-1895)
“Sherman’s Chief Engineer, oversaw the burning of Atlanta during the Civil War. Became Chief Engineer for the US Lighthouse Board in 1865 and appointed Chief Engineer for the Great Lakes 11th Lighthouse District in 1870. He personally designed 8 “Poe Style,” Lighthouses for the Great Lakes and oversaw the construction of several more.”
His greatest accomplishment is considered the construction of the Stannard Rock Lighthouse, the most remote light station in the USA.
Richard M: I have made the change, but I must say I don’t see why you don’t simply use your name.
Neither a borrower nor a….never mind
Certainly, have to hand it to the British when it comes to building stuff, too bad they turned into a bunch of panzies.
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Build enough Lighthouses and they Name a Lock after you…
The Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan:
(best way to detect AI speech; it can’t handle pronouncing “Sault Ste. Marie” correctly
“The Poe Lock,” completed in 1896 was engineered by Orlando Poe prior to his death, and at 800 ft long and 100 ft wide, was the largest in the world. The lock was re-built in 1968 to accommodate larger ships, after the Saint Lawrence Seaway opened and made passage of such ships possible to the Great Lakes. The Poe is the only lock that can handle the large lake freighters used on the Upper Lakes. The Locks bypass the St. Mary River which drops 23 feet A new lock is under construction and is to be completed by 2030. Groundbreaking was held on June 30, 2009. The lock will be equal in size to the Poe Lock and will provide additional capacity for the large lake freighters. The new lock replaces two locks (Davis Lock and Sabin Lock), which were obsolete and used infrequently.”
“Certainly, have to hand it to the British when it comes to building stuff, too bad they turned into a bunch of panzies.”
They had an entire generation gutted on the Western Front in 1914-18, so many of their best and brightest, and traumatized many of the rest. I don’t think they ever recovered from that.
I recall reading that JRR Tolkien had lost every single childhood friend he had but one by the end of the Great War. A lot of stories like that, sadly.
Not to deny agency to British elites in the years that followed, but I think it’s hard to overestimate just how deeply the world wars hurt Britain.
“His greatest accomplishment is considered the construction of the Stannard Rock Lighthouse, the most remote light station in the USA.”
I forgot about Stannard Rock! Amazing structure; amazing that they could build *anything* like that out in the freaking middle of Lake Superior, a body of water not for the faint of heart. Impressive engineering feat to think about, even today.
Richard M:
I actually like the British people, but good reasons we needed to part ways with the Crown, and the whole burning the White House thing, in 1814. Great allies, at a distance. Too much admiration for monarchy for my taste, and technocracy & socialism. They perfected the stereotype.
Not really a Lighthouse person but I live in Michigan, and they are very cool! This Poe guy is very interesting and an accomplished engineer.
People also underestimate how large Lake Superior is, 5 States can fit in that area and building something that will handle the winter ice is daunting.
If Robert Forward were alive, he’d take this opportunity to expound upon the utility of tethers/cables :)
Turn of the 20th century
I don’t understand why they didn’t build the lighthouse on top of the cliff.
Lighthouses were not always at the highest point—-low clouds obscure them.
Here, the pharos is close to the dangerous rocks it warns people away from—not so much lighting a path to—the shore.
The Point Reyes (“Antonio Bay”) Lighthouse in Marin County California is a similar example (as seen in THE FOG.)
Blobfish,
To add to Jeff Wright’s points: Building the lighthouse farther out than the hazard guarantees that every ship that stays on the ocean side of the lighthouse will avoid the hazard and will be safe. If they build it atop the cliff, then the ships do not know how close they can get.
This lighthouse need not be seen at extreme distances, only by ships that approach the hazard. Only the closer ships are in danger, and only the closer ships have to avoid the hazard.
In fog, a lighthouse atop the cliff becomes harder to see than one that is lower and closer to the hazard. As noted in the video, the lighthouse also made noise in order to be noticed when it was too foggy to see the light. Close proximity to the hazard helps with this type of warning, too.
“A new lock is under construction and is to be completed by 2030. Groundbreaking was held on June 30, 2009.”
Twenty-one years to build a lock? SLS could have launched, seven, maybe eight times.