Smalls Lighthouse

Smalls Lighthouse
Smalls Lighthouse in 2009
United Kingdom
Location The Smalls
off Marloes Peninsula
Pembrokeshire
Wales
Coordinates 51°43′16″N 5°40′11″W / 51.721239°N 5.669831°W / 51.721239; -5.669831Coordinates: 51°43′16″N 5°40′11″W / 51.721239°N 5.669831°W / 51.721239; -5.669831
Year first constructed 1776 (first)
Year first lit 1861 (current)
Automated 1987
Construction stone tower
Tower shape tapered cylindrical tower with balcony, lantern and helipad on the top
Markings / pattern unpainted tower
Height 41 metres (135 ft)
Focal height 36 metres (118 ft)
Current lens 1st Order catadioptric
Light source solar power
Intensity 39,800 candela
Range 18 nautical miles (33 km; 21 mi)
Characteristic Fl (3) W 15s. (24h)
Admiralty number A5278
NGA number 5600
ARLHS number WAL-023
Managing agent

Trinity House[1]

[2]
Heritage Grade II listed building Edit this on Wikidata

Smalls Lighthouse stands on the largest of a group of wave-washed basalt and dolerite rocks[3][4] known as The Smalls approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Marloes Peninsula in Pembrokeshire, Wales, and 8 miles (13 km) west of Grassholm. It was erected in 1861 by engineer James Douglass to replace a previous lighthouse which had been erected in 1776[5] on the same rock. It is the most remote lighthouse operated by Trinity House.[6]

Previous lighthouse

A model of the original lighthouse, on view at the Science Museum in London

The original Smalls Lighthouse was erected between 1775 and 1776, to the plans of Liverpool musical instrument maker Henry Whiteside.[5] It stood on nine oak pillars, allowing the sea to pass through beneath. Although it suffered from some rocking, it stood for 80 years. During its life a significant number of extra struts were added beyond the original nine.[7] The pillar-based design has since been used successfully in many maritime structures.

When Whiteside visited the lighthouse in 1777, he was stranded for a month by gales which showed no sign of abating so that supplies were almost exhausted. He wrote a message to a friend in St David's placed in a bottle inside a casket with a note to the finder "We doubt not but that whoever takes this up will be so merciful as to cause it to be sent to Thomas Williams, Esq, Trelithin, near St. David's, Wales". Two days later it arrived almost outside the door of the addressee to whom it was duly delivered.[8]

The old lighthouse brought about a change in lighthouse policy in 1801 after a gruesome episode. The two-man team, Thomas Howell and Thomas Griffith, were known to quarrel, so when Griffith died in a freak accident, Howell feared that he might be suspected of murder if he discarded the body into the sea.[9] As the body began to decompose, Howell built a makeshift coffin for the corpse and lashed it to an outside shelf. Stiff winds blew the box apart, though, and the body's arm fell within view of the hut's window and caused the wind to catch it in such a way that it seemed as though it was beckoning. Working alone and with the decaying corpse of his former colleague outside Howell managed to keep the lamp lit. When Howell was finally relieved from the lighthouse the effect the situation had had on him was said to be so extreme that some of his friends did not recognise him. As a result, lighthouse teams were changed to rosters of three men, which continued until the automation of British lighthouses in the 1980s. In 2011, the affair was the subject of a BBC radio play called The Lighthouse, written by Alan Harris.[10] The 2016 film The Lighthouse directed by Chris Crow is based on the incident.[11] Francis Lynch composed a chamber opera based on the incident, For Those in Peril, which premiered on 9 Feb 2018 at St Matthew's Church in Evanston, Illinois.

In 1831, the tower was assaulted by a wave of such proportions that the floor of the keepers' room was torn up and slammed against the ceiling, injuring all the keepers, one so severely that he died. However the damage was repaired and the lighthouse survived another twenty years before it was replaced.[12]

Current lighthouse

The Smalls Lighthouse from several miles away

The first stone of the lighthouse tower was laid on 26 June 1857,[13] Trinity House having bought out the previous leaseholders in 1836.[14] The tower was completed in 1861.[15][16]

In 1978 a helideck was erected above the lantern and in 1987 the lighthouse was automated. It is the first wind- and solar-powered lighthouse in the UK. Although it has only a 35-watt bulb, with the aid of lenses, this can be seen up to 21 miles (34 km) away. It was the first lighthouse in the country to have a flushing toilet installed.

The lighthouse's story was presented in the 2006 BBC Television programme Coast, Series 1, episode "Bristol to Fishguard".

Captain T H Sumner

Smalls Lighthouse is important in the history of navigation. In 1837 Captain Thomas Hubbard Sumner discovered the concept of celestial position lines as he was approaching Smalls Lighthouse in thick weather; they form the basis of nearly all modern celestial navigation and were sometimes called Sumner Lines.[17][18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Smalls The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 2 June 2016
  2. ↑ Smalls Lighthouse Trinity House. Retrieved 2 June 2016
  3. ↑ British Geological Survey 1978 1:50,000 scale geological map sheet (England & Wales)226/227 Milford, (Keyworth, Notts)
  4. ↑ Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale Explorer map sheet OL36 South Pembrokeshire
  5. 1 2 Lighthouse management : the report of the Royal Commissioners on Lights, Buoys, and Beacons, 1861, examined and refuted Vol. 2. p. 101.
  6. ↑ Nicholson, Christopher (1995). Rock lighthouses of Britain The end of an era?. Whittles Publishing. p. 53. ISBN 1-870325-41-9.
  7. ↑ Nicholson, Christopher (1995). Rock lighthouses of Britain The end of an era?. Whittles Publishing. p. 60. ISBN 1-870325-41-9.
  8. ↑ Beaver, Patrick (1971). A History of Lighthouses. London: Peter Davies. p. 39. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  9. ↑ Nicholson, Christopher (1995). Rock lighthouses of Britain The end of an era?. Whittles Publishing. pp. 58–59. ISBN 1-870325-41-9.
  10. ↑ Retrieved 13 Sept 2011 "The Lighthouse" at bbc.co.uk
  11. ↑ The Lighthouse (2016) on IMDb
  12. ↑ Beaver 1971, p. 40.
  13. ↑ "General News", The Cardiff Times, p. 7, Jan 21, 1860, The new lighthouse on the Smalls off the entrance to Milford Haven is complete as far as the exterior is concerned, the lantern having been placed on the tower, and the workmen being now engaged in finishing the interior. A landing-wharf is being erected to the north-east, to be formed of huge blocks of granite, bolted togetherin the strongest manner possible, to resist the heavy seas. The first stone of the new tower was laid on the 26th of June, 1857, so that little more than three years have been occupied in its erection. It stands 120 feet above the rock, and is very prominent at sea.
  14. ↑ Nicholson, Christopher (1995). Rock lighthouses of Britain The end of an era?. Whittles Publishing. p. 61. ISBN 1-870325-41-9.
  15. ↑ Nicholson, Christopher (1995). Rock lighthouses of Britain The end of an era?. Whittles Publishing. p. 62. ISBN 1-870325-41-9.
  16. ↑ "Lancaster Gazette". 24 November 1860. p. 6. The new lighthouse on the Smalls, at the entrance to Milford Haven, is complete as far as the exterior is concerned, the lantern having been placed on the tower, and the workmen are now engaged in finishing the interior.
  17. ↑ Bowditch, American Practical Navigator (1958) HO Pub No 9, p55
  18. ↑ "Sumner Position Line". The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea. Oxford University Press. 2007. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
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