CHAPTER II.LANDMARKS, BEACONS, AND BUOYS.TTocomplete our account of the defences of our coast, we must refer to works of less pretension than lighthouses and lightships, and of less utility, though still of very considerable importance. They present themselves under various forms, and they have different names, according to their respective positions and objects.[59]Let us first direct our attention to landmarks and beacons; by which, in nautical language, we mean every terrestrial object that assists the seaman in calculating his data, and determining his course. The spires of churches, the towers of castles, windmills, tall isolated trees, or rocks of a characteristic configuration, are useful for this purpose. Solitary peaks, like that of Teneriffe—volcanoes surmounted by a canopy of smoke—are gigantic landmarks which assist the navigator in rectifying his geographical position.Among the very numerous class of landmarks we meet with a few as celebrated as, or even more celebrated than,the majority of our lighthouses. Such are the Pillars of Hercules—anciently designated the Columns of Saturn or of Briareus—and Pompey’s Pillar, near Alexandria. One thing is wanting, however, to the glory of the Pillars of Hercules—that they should have existed. Hesychius, nevertheless, asserts that there were three or four, while, according to Edrisi, six were placed on the sea-coast; the easternmost at Cadiz, in Andalusia; the others in the islands of the Shadowy Seas, as a warning to navigators not to advance beyond them. But Strabo, when speaking of the foundation of Cadiz by the Tyrians, puts forward some doubts as to the accuracy of this statement, and his doubts seem not to have been ill-founded. We believe with him that these famous Pillars of Hercules existed only in the imagination of the writers of antiquity, who were frequently as enthusiastic in belief of fable as of truth.The best known sites of the pillars, whether they were real or fabulous, were at Calpe, on the European shore of the Straits of Gibraltar, and at Abyla, on the African. Butwhatthe pillars were, none of the ancient authorities are agreed. According to Strabo, some believed them to be rocky headlands, others, islands; the former rising up from the land, the latter starting out of the sea, like gigantic columns. Others, again, understanding the wordστῆλαιliterally, looked for artificial mounds, or columns, or statues, which Hercules himself had erected to indicate the limit of his conquests, or the Phœnician navigators had dedicated to their tutelary deity, to record the extent of their discoveries.[60]Strabo informs us that this literal interpretationwas held by the Iberians and Libyans, who denied that there existed at the Straits anything resembling columns, but pointed out, as the Pillars of Hercules, the bronze columns in the temple of the god at Gades, on which the expenses of building the temple were inscribed. He adds that this opinion was held by Poseidonius, in opposition to the Greeks in general, who considered the pillars to meanpromontories.A monument not less famous, and whose existence cannot be doubted, inasmuch as it still answers the purpose of a landmark, is the so-called Pompey’s Pillar, at Alexandria. This structure is the first object to attract the eye when you approach the classic shores of Egypt; from afar it dominates over the town, the minarets, the obelisks, and the lighthouse.Pompey’s Pillar—theAmood é sowariof the Arabs—occupies the summit of a dreary, solitary mound, which overlooks the Lake Mareotis and the modern city of Alexandria. It may be described as a handsome and stately Corinthian column; the shaft, a monolith of red granite, 73 feet in height; the total height, including capital and base, 98 feet 9 inches; the circumference, 29 feet 8 inches. Its history is involved in considerable obscurity. The Arab chronicler, Abdallatif, represents it to be the sole remaining pillar of the four hundred which once adorned and enclosed the celebrated Serapeion, or Temple of Serapis; the Portico, where Aristotle expounded his philosophical theories; the Academy, which Alexander erected when he founded the city, and where the great library was placed—the glory of Alexandria—erroneouslysaid to have been destroyed by order of the Caliph Omar.COLUMN AT ALEXANDRIA (Known as Pompey’s Pillar).The Serapeion was razed to the ground at the instigation of a furious zealot, the patriarch Theophilus. Its columns were rent and shattered, and finally piled up, as a break-water, on the sea-shore—all save the one stately pillar—the loftiest of the four hundred—the “pillar of the colonnades,” as the Arabs emphatically termed it—which is still the cynosure of European pilgrims. This was re-erected by Publius or Pompius, prefect of Egypt, and a new capital and base were provided for it; the whole being dedicated, as an inscription on its pedestal records, in honour of the Emperor Diocletian, “the Invincible,” and in commemoration of the deliverance of Alexandria from the insurgent bonds of the pretender Achilleus (A.D.297).The summit may either have been crowned with a statue, or have simply assisted in sustaining the cupola of the Serapeion.Pompey’s Pillar—as, in defiance of history, men still continue to call it—stands to-day in a wild and dreary waste—widely different from the scene that surrounded it when, of old, the Nile swarmed with gilded barges, and the waters of the Mediterranean were ploughed by countless argosies, and the flickering glare of the pharos was the guiding star of the commerce of the world. You reach it, as Miss Martineau tells us, through the dreariest of cemeteries, where all is of one dust colour, even to the aloe which is fixed upon every grave. From the base, the view is curious to novices. Groups of Arabs are at work in the crumbling, whitish, hot soil, with files of soldiers keepingwatch over them. To the south-east you obtain a fine view of Lake Mareotis, whose slender line of shore seems liable to be broken through by the first ripple of its waters. The space between it and the sea is one expanse of desolation. A strip of vegetation—some marsh, some field, and some grove—looks well near the lake; and so do a little settlement on the canal, and a lateen sail gliding among the trees.As commerce increased, and flowed into fresh channels, men very naturally multiplied on every coast the landmarks which played the same useful part by day as did the pharoses by night. If we may believe Coulier, we owe to the Etruscans the invention of that system of beacons which, neglected for many centuries, has been resuscitated of late years, and developed according to fixed principles. Where natural landmarks are non-existent, we now-a-days rear small but durable constructions of timber or masonry, at suitable points of the shore, painting them of a brown colour if they stand defined against the sky, as on the summit of a lofty hill, or of a white colour, if they are projected on the land. When it is desirable to indicate the position of a submarine reef, on whose hidden point a good many ships might otherwise go down, abuoyis placed there—that is, a floating frame-work of iron or wood, with or without a bell, and painted of various colours. Some of these buoys, as in the channel of a river or the water-way of a harbour, are hollow cones of iron, kept in their positions by stout cables and a heavy anchor. Others, of larger dimensions, resemble a kind of cage; not a few are built up of masonry, where the wateris shallow, like small turrets; and these are provided with chains and ladders for the convenience of shipwrecked seamen. The floating buoys are generally furnished with great bells, which are swung to and fro with a solemn and overpowering peal, by the oscillations of the waves. “Beware! beware!” they seem to cry; but, alas! their warning sounds are often heard too late, and the “tall ship,” swept onward by the demon of the storm, frequently clashes against the very buoy that gave warning of the danger.A FLOATING BEACON OR BUOY.As a general rule, the buoys in a river channel are painted red, striped with white, if the homeward-bound vessel is to leave them on the right; and black, when she has to pass them on the left. Others are painted with horizontal stripes of red and black, or in squares and diamonds, according to the various purposes they are intended to serve. Obstacles, such as wrecks, are marked by green buoys.A buoy, recently invented by Mr. Hubert, and adopted by the Trinity Board, is so constructed, with regard to the centre of flotation, and the point where the mooring-chain is attached, that it will keep upright in almost any weather.Another buoy, invented by Messrs. Brown and Lenox, is ingeniously contrived to render itsbellaudible even when the buoy itself is not visible; the stream of water passing through the lower part of the framework keeps in motion an undershot water-wheel, which incessantly rings the bell.The average size of the buoys now in use is about eight feet, but many are of larger dimensions; and some,like North-east Spit Buoy, at the east end of Margate Sand, are twenty feet. Various plans for lighting them have been suggested, but with no very successful result. The only felicitous instance is that of the Arnish Beacon on the north coast of Scotland; it consists of a cone of cast-iron plates, surmounted with a lantern containing a glass prism. The prism is illuminated by a light directed upon it from Stornaway Lighthouse; and so perfect is the deception that the fishermen long refused to believe there was not a real light on the beacon.THE ARNISH BEACON.Nearly a thousand buoys are posted about the coast of England and in the channels of her principal rivers. Scotland and Ireland have about two hundred each. These bear their own particular denominations, forming a very diversified and somewhat amusing vocabulary. We find amongst them an “Eagle,” a “Gull,” a “Swallow,” a “Horse,” a “Mussel,” a “Firefly;” also a “Cutler,” a“Constable,” a “Columbine,” and a “Fairy;” a “Royal Sovereign,” a “Protector;” and a “Tongue,” an “Elbow,” and a “Longnose.”The position of every buoy on the British coast is verified once a quarter; and every half-year—that is, in March and September—all buoys, except the largest, are “shifted,” being replaced by clean ones. After a certain period of immersion they lose their brilliancy of colour, and become encrusted with salt, as well as with organic matter. “Buoy-shifting,” says a recent writer, “is a duty which calls forth all the skill and energy of the officers and men comprising the crews of the Trinity House vessels, for the buoys are mostly placed to indicate the position of dangerous shoals, and not unfrequently the change is effected under very inauspicious circumstances. The buoys brought in are carefully examined, and if fit for further use, repainted and repaired.”The cost of a buoy varies, according to its size, from twenty-five to two hundred and fifty pounds.
T
Tocomplete our account of the defences of our coast, we must refer to works of less pretension than lighthouses and lightships, and of less utility, though still of very considerable importance. They present themselves under various forms, and they have different names, according to their respective positions and objects.[59]
Let us first direct our attention to landmarks and beacons; by which, in nautical language, we mean every terrestrial object that assists the seaman in calculating his data, and determining his course. The spires of churches, the towers of castles, windmills, tall isolated trees, or rocks of a characteristic configuration, are useful for this purpose. Solitary peaks, like that of Teneriffe—volcanoes surmounted by a canopy of smoke—are gigantic landmarks which assist the navigator in rectifying his geographical position.
Among the very numerous class of landmarks we meet with a few as celebrated as, or even more celebrated than,the majority of our lighthouses. Such are the Pillars of Hercules—anciently designated the Columns of Saturn or of Briareus—and Pompey’s Pillar, near Alexandria. One thing is wanting, however, to the glory of the Pillars of Hercules—that they should have existed. Hesychius, nevertheless, asserts that there were three or four, while, according to Edrisi, six were placed on the sea-coast; the easternmost at Cadiz, in Andalusia; the others in the islands of the Shadowy Seas, as a warning to navigators not to advance beyond them. But Strabo, when speaking of the foundation of Cadiz by the Tyrians, puts forward some doubts as to the accuracy of this statement, and his doubts seem not to have been ill-founded. We believe with him that these famous Pillars of Hercules existed only in the imagination of the writers of antiquity, who were frequently as enthusiastic in belief of fable as of truth.
The best known sites of the pillars, whether they were real or fabulous, were at Calpe, on the European shore of the Straits of Gibraltar, and at Abyla, on the African. Butwhatthe pillars were, none of the ancient authorities are agreed. According to Strabo, some believed them to be rocky headlands, others, islands; the former rising up from the land, the latter starting out of the sea, like gigantic columns. Others, again, understanding the wordστῆλαιliterally, looked for artificial mounds, or columns, or statues, which Hercules himself had erected to indicate the limit of his conquests, or the Phœnician navigators had dedicated to their tutelary deity, to record the extent of their discoveries.[60]Strabo informs us that this literal interpretationwas held by the Iberians and Libyans, who denied that there existed at the Straits anything resembling columns, but pointed out, as the Pillars of Hercules, the bronze columns in the temple of the god at Gades, on which the expenses of building the temple were inscribed. He adds that this opinion was held by Poseidonius, in opposition to the Greeks in general, who considered the pillars to meanpromontories.
A monument not less famous, and whose existence cannot be doubted, inasmuch as it still answers the purpose of a landmark, is the so-called Pompey’s Pillar, at Alexandria. This structure is the first object to attract the eye when you approach the classic shores of Egypt; from afar it dominates over the town, the minarets, the obelisks, and the lighthouse.
Pompey’s Pillar—theAmood é sowariof the Arabs—occupies the summit of a dreary, solitary mound, which overlooks the Lake Mareotis and the modern city of Alexandria. It may be described as a handsome and stately Corinthian column; the shaft, a monolith of red granite, 73 feet in height; the total height, including capital and base, 98 feet 9 inches; the circumference, 29 feet 8 inches. Its history is involved in considerable obscurity. The Arab chronicler, Abdallatif, represents it to be the sole remaining pillar of the four hundred which once adorned and enclosed the celebrated Serapeion, or Temple of Serapis; the Portico, where Aristotle expounded his philosophical theories; the Academy, which Alexander erected when he founded the city, and where the great library was placed—the glory of Alexandria—erroneouslysaid to have been destroyed by order of the Caliph Omar.
COLUMN AT ALEXANDRIA (Known as Pompey’s Pillar).
COLUMN AT ALEXANDRIA (Known as Pompey’s Pillar).
The Serapeion was razed to the ground at the instigation of a furious zealot, the patriarch Theophilus. Its columns were rent and shattered, and finally piled up, as a break-water, on the sea-shore—all save the one stately pillar—the loftiest of the four hundred—the “pillar of the colonnades,” as the Arabs emphatically termed it—which is still the cynosure of European pilgrims. This was re-erected by Publius or Pompius, prefect of Egypt, and a new capital and base were provided for it; the whole being dedicated, as an inscription on its pedestal records, in honour of the Emperor Diocletian, “the Invincible,” and in commemoration of the deliverance of Alexandria from the insurgent bonds of the pretender Achilleus (A.D.297).
The summit may either have been crowned with a statue, or have simply assisted in sustaining the cupola of the Serapeion.
Pompey’s Pillar—as, in defiance of history, men still continue to call it—stands to-day in a wild and dreary waste—widely different from the scene that surrounded it when, of old, the Nile swarmed with gilded barges, and the waters of the Mediterranean were ploughed by countless argosies, and the flickering glare of the pharos was the guiding star of the commerce of the world. You reach it, as Miss Martineau tells us, through the dreariest of cemeteries, where all is of one dust colour, even to the aloe which is fixed upon every grave. From the base, the view is curious to novices. Groups of Arabs are at work in the crumbling, whitish, hot soil, with files of soldiers keepingwatch over them. To the south-east you obtain a fine view of Lake Mareotis, whose slender line of shore seems liable to be broken through by the first ripple of its waters. The space between it and the sea is one expanse of desolation. A strip of vegetation—some marsh, some field, and some grove—looks well near the lake; and so do a little settlement on the canal, and a lateen sail gliding among the trees.
As commerce increased, and flowed into fresh channels, men very naturally multiplied on every coast the landmarks which played the same useful part by day as did the pharoses by night. If we may believe Coulier, we owe to the Etruscans the invention of that system of beacons which, neglected for many centuries, has been resuscitated of late years, and developed according to fixed principles. Where natural landmarks are non-existent, we now-a-days rear small but durable constructions of timber or masonry, at suitable points of the shore, painting them of a brown colour if they stand defined against the sky, as on the summit of a lofty hill, or of a white colour, if they are projected on the land. When it is desirable to indicate the position of a submarine reef, on whose hidden point a good many ships might otherwise go down, abuoyis placed there—that is, a floating frame-work of iron or wood, with or without a bell, and painted of various colours. Some of these buoys, as in the channel of a river or the water-way of a harbour, are hollow cones of iron, kept in their positions by stout cables and a heavy anchor. Others, of larger dimensions, resemble a kind of cage; not a few are built up of masonry, where the wateris shallow, like small turrets; and these are provided with chains and ladders for the convenience of shipwrecked seamen. The floating buoys are generally furnished with great bells, which are swung to and fro with a solemn and overpowering peal, by the oscillations of the waves. “Beware! beware!” they seem to cry; but, alas! their warning sounds are often heard too late, and the “tall ship,” swept onward by the demon of the storm, frequently clashes against the very buoy that gave warning of the danger.
A FLOATING BEACON OR BUOY.
A FLOATING BEACON OR BUOY.
As a general rule, the buoys in a river channel are painted red, striped with white, if the homeward-bound vessel is to leave them on the right; and black, when she has to pass them on the left. Others are painted with horizontal stripes of red and black, or in squares and diamonds, according to the various purposes they are intended to serve. Obstacles, such as wrecks, are marked by green buoys.
A buoy, recently invented by Mr. Hubert, and adopted by the Trinity Board, is so constructed, with regard to the centre of flotation, and the point where the mooring-chain is attached, that it will keep upright in almost any weather.
Another buoy, invented by Messrs. Brown and Lenox, is ingeniously contrived to render itsbellaudible even when the buoy itself is not visible; the stream of water passing through the lower part of the framework keeps in motion an undershot water-wheel, which incessantly rings the bell.
The average size of the buoys now in use is about eight feet, but many are of larger dimensions; and some,like North-east Spit Buoy, at the east end of Margate Sand, are twenty feet. Various plans for lighting them have been suggested, but with no very successful result. The only felicitous instance is that of the Arnish Beacon on the north coast of Scotland; it consists of a cone of cast-iron plates, surmounted with a lantern containing a glass prism. The prism is illuminated by a light directed upon it from Stornaway Lighthouse; and so perfect is the deception that the fishermen long refused to believe there was not a real light on the beacon.
THE ARNISH BEACON.
THE ARNISH BEACON.
Nearly a thousand buoys are posted about the coast of England and in the channels of her principal rivers. Scotland and Ireland have about two hundred each. These bear their own particular denominations, forming a very diversified and somewhat amusing vocabulary. We find amongst them an “Eagle,” a “Gull,” a “Swallow,” a “Horse,” a “Mussel,” a “Firefly;” also a “Cutler,” a“Constable,” a “Columbine,” and a “Fairy;” a “Royal Sovereign,” a “Protector;” and a “Tongue,” an “Elbow,” and a “Longnose.”
The position of every buoy on the British coast is verified once a quarter; and every half-year—that is, in March and September—all buoys, except the largest, are “shifted,” being replaced by clean ones. After a certain period of immersion they lose their brilliancy of colour, and become encrusted with salt, as well as with organic matter. “Buoy-shifting,” says a recent writer, “is a duty which calls forth all the skill and energy of the officers and men comprising the crews of the Trinity House vessels, for the buoys are mostly placed to indicate the position of dangerous shoals, and not unfrequently the change is effected under very inauspicious circumstances. The buoys brought in are carefully examined, and if fit for further use, repainted and repaired.”
The cost of a buoy varies, according to its size, from twenty-five to two hundred and fifty pounds.