Culm in the water?
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Where: Leinster, County Wexford, Ireland
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When: Unknown
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A neighbour was a lighthouse keeper and that could be quite a lonely occupation but at least the lighthouses were on terra firma. What was it like to be a light keeper in a lightship? The Fastnet wasn't going anywhere once the tower had been built but those things could shift or even lose their moorings and take off which was likely to be in a storm. They were great men!
Photographer: Ball, Robert S. (Robert Stawell), 1840-1913
Collection: Commissioners of Irish Lights Photographic Collection
Date: Circa 1890 - 1909
NLI Ref: NPA CIL99
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
Source: Flickr Commons
Views: 6680
Photographer: Ball, Robert S. (Robert Stawell), 1840-1913
Collection: Commissioners of Irish Lights Photographic Collection
Date: Circa 1890 - 1909
NLI Ref: NPA CIL99
You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
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Owner: National Library of Ireland on The CommonsSource: Flickr Commons
Views: 6680
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Deirge (Del)
Has the morning Mary been playing with the Colm? As Helen's mother said (quote:... I used to believe that Tuskar was a man and the Blackwater Lightship was a woman and they were both sending signals to each other and to other lighthouses, like mating calls. He was forceful and strong and she was weaker but more constant, and sometimes began to shine her light before darkness had really fallen. And I thought they were calling to each other; ...)
suckindeesel
Don’t know anything about lightships, but it looks very different to other Irish lightships. Where is the light? Is that it at the bottom of the mast waiting to be raised aloft? Other lightships have a substantial fixed structure supporting the light.
O Mac
The man on the taffrail looks to be flying a kite.
Foxglove
active until 1968... must dig out my Toibin ...
Niall McAuley
The Blackwater Bank off the Wexford coast was marked by a lightship from 1857 until 1968
Tom Kennedy1
Robert Ball was scientific adviser to Irish Lights for many years and often accompanied the Commissioners on their annual tour of inspection. www.google.com/search?q=irish+lightships&oq=&aqs=... www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tTP1TcwSS-2rDRg9OIvzixS...
Niall McAuley
suckindeesel
I take it that ‘Blackwater’ was the name of the lighthouse station, rather than the name of the vessel itself? Can anybody shed any ‘light’ on this?
Niall McAuley
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] :D I think it was both the name of the light ship and the name of the bank over which it was moored.
Deirge (Del)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley Thanks Niall. Great map. It verifies the content & quote from Colm Tóibín's novel "The Blackwater Lightship" where it is claimed both it and the Tuskar Rock lighthouse (about 10km SE of Rosslare Harbour) can be seen from the Grandmother's cottage somewhere around the Blackwater (village) area to the north of Wexford Habour. The novel also mentions that Irish Lights took the lightship away. The novel was shortlisted for the "booker" prize in 1999. Well if I'm coming in on the boat to Rosslare again I'll be looking (if I'm not asleep) for the Tuskar lighthouse!
suckindeesel
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/] Also a TV movie which won an Emmy for ‘Dora’ www.imdb.com/title/tt0377524/
suckindeesel
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/ It’s just that I can’t find a listing for it
O Mac
One ball/sphere on top of another is the day signal for a "boat not under command" Rule 27..If she was on station I'd imagine she would have just the one sphere showing...ie at anchor.... 3 balls is signal for "aground".
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] Morning Mary would never stoop so low as to mess about with coal dust and yellow clay! The two would get under her newly shellacked nails and spoil the effect. For a lightship that was about for over 100 years doing it's duty in all weathers it is amazing that there is, apparently, no record of it anywhere. I was looking at the main mast and wondering about the light and those two basket balls at the top. Clearly that is the light at the bottom of the mast for replenishment/maintenance but what function did they serve?
Deirge (Del)
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland] Now a sister of an ex-Arigna miner was telling me last week I wouldn't want to know what her late mother did with the coal (anthracite?) but it burned great in the fire rather than the turf. (I am boggling if dung/horse manure or something was a yellow clay substitute). Now nails get shellacked when your footing the turf in the West of Ireland ... shellaced nails are not what you get when you're saving the turf. Now there seems to be a difference between a lightship and a lightvessel station. So I assume what happens is that the duty lightship allocated to the Blackwater lightstation has "BLACKWATER" painted big on the sides so the mariners from Wexford would look for Blackwater Lightship to guide them home.. But the name of the actual vessel fulfilling the duty at a point in time might be "Shearwater" or whatever. So Blackwater lightship really means the lightship at the Blackwater light station.
O Mac
A sister lightship with one ball shape on mast.......meaning she's at anchor. catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000741183
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] Thank you, that makes sense of it!
Deirge (Del)
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]] Also looking through the list of other NLI Irish Lightship images I note this one of the Barrelsrock lightship which seems to have the lantern thing round the mast raised. It would be good to note which lightships served which lightvessel stations. I also note a Lightships off the Irish Post blogpost which also provides some background.
Niall McAuley
Deirge O'Dhaoinebeaga from that blog: The “Petrel” was built in Dublin in 1913 and served until 1968 which we learned earlier is the year the Blackwater lightship was withdrawn
Niall McAuley
No, streetview says that is a different ship
Niall McAuley
not the Guillemot at Kilmore Quay either
Niall McAuley
Way before construction of the Alf Skua
Niall McAuley
Smaller than the Kittiwake
Niall McAuley
ah, they reused those names from earlier ships, so never mind...
Niall McAuley
I remember as a child walking on the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire, there always seemed to be a lightship or two parked in the harbour
Deirge (Del)
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley] If you expand the "lightships" button on this Dún Laoghaire Harbour page it confirms Irish Lights had 15 lightships until the 1960s though most were become automatic and unmanned towards the end (and being more strictly called a light float). It also notes that by that time each vessel spent typically 2 years on the light station which was painted in capitals on the side before being replaced by a different vessel, thereby noting a lightstation might be served by several different lightships over the years. I finally note this image of the Guillemot (1923) in Wexford harbour in the 1970's with the vessel name visible on the stern.