People ask what you do out there for eight weeks. You keep the light. That is not a modest answer, it is the whole answer. The light does not keep itself and it has never once been late.
R. VancePrincipal Keeper, Ordane Rock1968 to 1991
AIDS TO NAVIGATION
Six stations, each carrying a character that cannot be confused with any other. Everything that moves on this site is keeping one of them.
THIS LAMP3 white flashes every 15 secondsA-1140 · Ordane Rock
READING A LIGHT
Fl(3)W15s43m24M
ORDANE ROCK, RUNNING NOW
Fl(3)
The form
Flashing, in a group of three. The lamp is dark for most of the cycle and shows a short burst of light. Three panels of glass turning past you, one flash each.
W
The colour
White. Red and green appear too, but never decoratively. A red sector means there is something under the water in that direction, and it means nothing else.
15s
The period
Fifteen seconds from the start of one group to the start of the next. Count it with a watch and you have identified the station, without needing to see anything else.
43m
The elevation
Forty-three metres above mean high water. Height sets how far over the curve of the earth the light can be seen before the horizon takes it.
24M
The range
Twenty-four nautical miles in clear air. This is the last number, and in fog it is the first one to stop being true.
THE REGISTER
Six stations, six rhythms.
A-11403 white flashes every 15 secondsOrdane Rock
43m · 24MGranite tower on sea-washed stack
A-11466 quick white flashes followed by a long flash every 15 secondsCorvenn Reef
11m · 8MGalvanised lattice tower on tidal reef
A-1152red occulting light every 8 secondsSaltmere Head
61m · 19MRendered masonry tower and keepers' dwelling
A-1158green isophase light every 4 secondsHallow Pier
9m · 6MCast-iron column at the pier head
A-1163morse U white light every 15 secondsVane Shoal
24m · 14MConcrete caisson with helicopter platform
A-1171white flashing light every 5 secondsBractan Range
88m · 21MSteel column on inland ridge, rear leading light
SECTORED LIGHTS
The same lamp tells you something different depending on where you stand.
Saltmere Head shows white across open water and red across the ledge that dries at low tide. Nothing about the lamp changes. The glass in front of it does.
- BEARING
- 020°
- SECTOR
- White
- WHAT IT MEANS
- Open sea to the north-east
THE CHARTER
A light exists to be recognised. Not admired, not noticed, recognised. Every decision this division has ever made about a station comes back to a single question asked from the deck of a vessel in poor visibility: which light is that, and how long have I got.
THE KEEPERS
The mercury float at Saltmere carries four tonnes of glass and you can start it turning with one hand. Nobody builds like that now. I am not sentimental about much, but I am about that.
M. OyelaranOptical Technician, Division Workshop1994 to present
THE DIVISION
A lens that has not been improved on since 1822.
Concentric prisms bend a single source into one flat beam. Every station on the register still uses the principle.
- STATIONS
- COMBINED RANGE
- OLDEST
The workshop
Every optic on the coast passes through this room.
CHARACTERS IN USE
- 3 white flashes every 15 seconds
- 6 quick white flashes followed by a long flash every 15 seconds
- red occulting light every 8 seconds
- green isophase light every 4 seconds
- morse U white light every 15 seconds
- white flashing light every 5 seconds
Positions are still checked by hand before they are published.
F W · FIXED
Pharos Division does not exist. The craft that built it does.
Every rhythm on this site was derived from one idea and carried through every route, every hover and every transition. That is the part we would bring to your brand.
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