Sunday, November 10, 2024

To the lighthouse

I've actually seen Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse up close. It's on the waterfront in Baltimore, which is a beautiful area. The lighthouse itself is quite fascinating as well. It's a screw-pile lighthouse, and thus looks quite a bit different from what we generally associate with the word "lighthouse." Different design for a different situation, I guess.

2 comments:

susan said...

Lighthouses, like old sailing ships, have a charm that can't be reproduced. I hadn't known about screw-pile lighthouses but they are an interesting example of how something very useful can be modified depending on the situation. It also looks like a comfortable abode - so long as the seas aren't high and you don't have small children.

The one I was reminded of when reading about the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse was the particularly famous one off the coast of Brittany - several of the Patrick O'Brian books mentioned the treacherous seas off the northern coast of France so I'm sure La Jument was a most welcome sign of caution for sailors.

https://youtu.be/AH02UMFTknI?si=hsblk4JJcbOPFiOL

Ben said...

I get a similar feeling about lighthouses. It's a shame that they've been automated, since once upon a time a certain kind of person might get away from it all by becoming a lighthouse keeper. Although Canada, to its credits, still apparently has 49 staffed lighthouses. Screw-piles looks to be solidly built, so it seems like they would be comfortable. The thing about keeping small children there probably doesn't come up that often.

La Jument looks very impressive. It's out there in the water, but if you see it you at least know you're getting close to shore. In the same area is the Créac'h Lighthouse, which is very pretty. Its unusual name comes from the Breton language, which is of course Celtic.

"A defiant finger pointing out to the Atlantic." Heh.