Start Point Light-house
1806.
Shipwrecks still take place on Sanday.
Notwithstanding the precautions which had been taken to prevent the frequent occurrence of shipwreck upon the island of Sanday, by the erection of a Beacon or Tower of masonry on the Start Point, the loss of ships did not appear to be diminished. It had even become proverbial with some of the inhabitants to observe, “that if wrecks were to happen, they might as well be sent to the poor island of Sanday as any where else.” On this and the neighbouring islands, the inhabitants have certainly had their share of wrecked goods; for here the eye is presented with these melancholy remains in almost every form.
Striking examples of this.
For example, although quarries are to be met with generally in these islands, and the stones are very suitable for building dikes, yet instances occur of the land being inclosed, even to a considerable extent, with ship timbers. The author has actually seen a park paled round, chiefly with cedar wood and mahogany from the wreck of a Honduras built ship; and in one island, after the wreck of a ship laden with wine, the inhabitants have been known to take claret to their barley meal porridge, instead of their usual beverage. On complaining to one of the pilots of the badness of his boat’s sails, he replied to the author with some degree of pleasantry, “Had it been His (God’s) will that you came na here wi’ these lights, we might a’ had better sails to our boats and more o’ other things.” It may further be noticed, that when some of Lord Dundas’s farms are to be let in these islands, a competition takes place for the lease, and it is bona fide understood, that a much higher rent is paid than the lands would otherwise give, were it not for the chance of making considerably by the agency and advantages attending shipwrecks on the shores of the respective farms. The author was so struck with some of these circumstances, that he collected, and shall here insert a list of shipwrecks for the twelve years immediately following the erection of North Ronaldsay light-house, in procuring which he was obligingly assisted by the Rev. William Grant, minister of Cross-kirk parish, including the island of North Ronaldsay, and part of Sanday.
List of Shipwrecks for Twelve Years.
LIST OF WRECKS on the contiguous islands of North Ronaldsay, Sanday and Stronsay, during a period of Twelve Years, immediately after the erection of North Ronaldsay Light-house, in 1789.
| Year. | Voyage. | Cargo. | Tonnage. | Supposed Value of Ship and Cargo. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1789. | Norway to America, | Spirits, &c. | 150 | L. 3500 0 0 |
| 1790. | Hamburgh to do. | Cordage, &c. | 100 | 2800 0 0 |
| 1792. | Norway to Wales, | Wood and Iron, | 90 | 1100 0 0 |
| —— | Sweden to Liverpool, | Grain, | 120 | 3100 0 0 |
| —— | Do. to Greenock, | Timber, | 400 | 3400 0 0 |
| 1793. | Norway to Spain, | Fish and Oil, | 100 | 2000 0 0 |
| —— | Copenhagen to Santa Cruz, | Silks, &c. | 250 | 35,000 0 0 |
| 1794. | Copenhagen to Surinam, | Muslins, &c. | 250 | 20,000 0 0 |
| —— | Do. to Dundee, | Flax, &c. | 90 | 2000 0 0 |
| 1795. | Do. to America, | Cloth, &c. | 300 | 12,200 0 0 |
| 1796. | Do. to Liverpool, | Timber, | 250 | 2500 0 0 |
| —— | Do. to Whitehaven, | Timber, | 150 | 1300 0 0 |
| —— | Liverpool to Ostend, | Wine and Rum, | 400 | 15,300 0 0 |
| 1797. | Baltic to Liverpool, | Grain, | 120 | 3000 0 0 |
| 1798. | Sweden to Hull, | Timber and Iron, | 200 | 2500 0 0 |
| —— | Norway to Liverpool. | Timber, | 200 | 1800 0 0 |
| —— | Do. to America, | Cloth, &c. | 200 | 5000 0 0 |
| —— | Altona to Do. | Spirits and Cloth, | 450 | 18,000 0 0 |
| —— | London to Gibraltar, | Stores, | 300 | 5000 0 0 |
| 1799. | Do. to Dublin, | Staves, | 150 | 2200 0 0 |
| 1800. | Hamburgh to America, | Cambric and Linen, | 200 | 45,000 0 0 |
| —— | Dantzic to Liverpool, | Timber, | 900 | 10,000 0 0 |
| 22 vessels wrecked in 12 years, supposed value | L. 196,400 0 0 | |||
Start Point Tower proposed to be converted into a Light-house.
This list of shipwrecks strongly points out the dangerous nature of the navigation of the seas and friths of the northern islands of Orkney. From a consideration of these numerous accidents, being almost at the rate of two wrecks in the year, and seeing the mangled remains of some fine ships which still appeared upon the island of Sanday, the author was induced to bring this matter again under the notice of the Commissioners of the Northern Light-houses, in his report to the Board in the year 1805, when he proposed that the Start Point Beacon should be converted into a light-house, and that North Ronaldsay light should be discontinued, and its tower converted into a beacon, as wrecks were found to happen comparatively seldom upon that island, while hardly a year passed without instances of this kind on the island of Sanday; for, owing to the projecting points of this strangely formed island, the lowness and whiteness of its eastern shores, and the wonderful manner in which the scanty patches of land are intersected with lakes and pools of water, it becomes even in day-light a deception, and has often been fatally mistaken for an open sea.
North Ronaldsay Light-house to be converted into a Beacon.
The removal of the light from North Ronaldsay to Sanday, was also calculated to be equally, if not more, useful to the navigation of North Ronaldsay Firth; the Start Point being only four miles from the sunken rock called the Reef-dyke, as will be seen from the general chart of the coast which accompanies this work. It therefore appeared that if only a single light were allowed for the protection of this coast, it would be much better upon Sanday than on North Ronaldsay.
Opinion of persons conversant with the Navigation of these Seas.
On this subject, however, the author was instructed to take the opinion of persons acquainted with the navigation of these seas. Accordingly, when on his annual voyage to the Northern Light-houses, he submitted the subject to the consideration of Mr William Ellis, Commander of the Ross Revenue Cutter, who had then been cruising for several months off these islands, by order of Government, for intelligence relative to the motions of the Dutch fleet, which then threatened to attempt a landing on the Western Coast of Ireland. It was also submitted to Mr Riddoch, Collector, and Mr Manson, Comptroller of the Customs, at Kirkwall; to Mr John Traill, Mr Fotheringham, and Mr Strang of Sanday; and to the ship-masters of Kirkwall and Stromness. These gentlemen all united in opinion as to the superior usefulness of a light upon the island of Sanday.
Light-house resolved on.
This measure having been resolved on by the Board, the plans were remitted, with powers to proceed, to Mr William Rae, (now Sir William Rae, Bart. Lord Advocate of Scotland,) who was then Sheriff of the county of Orkney. The works at the Start Point were accordingly commenced early in the summer of 1805; by the month of November the light-room was finished, and the light exhibited on the 1st day of January 1806. Intimation was at the same time given to the public, that the beacon or tower of masonry erected in the year 1803, upon the island of Sanday, having been found insufficient for preventing the numerous shipwrecks upon the low shores of that island, had been converted into a light-house.
Description of Start Point Light.
The Start Point of Sanday is situate in the county of Orkney, in North Lat. 59° 20´, and Long. 2° 34´ west of London, from which North Ronaldsay light-house Tower bears by compass, N. NE. ½ E., distant 8 miles, and the Lamb Head of Stronsay SW., distant 15 miles. The light at the Start Point is from oil with reflectors, elevated 100 feet above the medium level of the sea, and is visible from all points of the compass, at the distance of 15 miles, in a favourable state of the atmosphere. To distinguish this light from the other lights on this coast, it is known to mariners as a Revolving light, without colour, exhibiting a brilliant light once in every minute, and becoming gradually less luminous; to a distant observer it totally disappears. In this manner, each periodic revolution of the reflector-frame, alternately shows a brilliant light, and a light becoming fainter and more obscure, until it be totally eclipsed.
The Foreman and Artificers sail for Leith in the Traveller.
The alteration of the Start Point beacon into a light-house, and the erection of houses for the light-keepers, were placed under the management of Mr George Peebles, an experienced mason, and executed with every possible attention. When the works were completed, he, and such of the artificers as had been retained, proceeded to Stromness on the mainland of Orkney, from whence they were most likely to get a passage to the southward. The party consisted of six in number; and Charles Peebles, the foreman’s brother, wishing to go directly to his native place, took his passage in a vessel bound from Stromness to Anstruther, while Mr George Peebles, and the remaining four men, embarked on board of a schooner, called the Traveller, Cruickshanks master, bound for Leith.
The Traveller is wrecked.
This vessel sailed with a fair wind early on the 24th of December 1806. On the following morning they got sight of Kinnaird Head light-house, in Aberdeenshire, and had the prospect of speedily reaching the Firth of Forth; but the wind having suddenly shifted to the south-east, increased to a tremendous gale, which did much damage on the coast. The Traveller immediately put about, and steered in quest of some safe harbour in Orkney. At two o’clock in the afternoon, she passed through the Pentland Firth, and got into the bay of Long Hope; but could not reach the proper anchorage; and, at three o’clock, both anchors were let go in an outer roadstead. The storm still continuing with unabated force, the cables parted or broke, and the vessel drifted on the island of Flotta.
Captain Manby’s Apparatus much wanted.
The utmost efforts of those on board to pass a rope to the shore, with the assistance of the inhabitants of the island, proved ineffectual, (for want of some apparatus like Captain Manby’s); the vessel struck upon a shelving rock, and, night coming on, sunk in three fathoms water.
The Foreman and four of the Artificers are drowned.
Some of the unfortunate crew and passengers attempted to swim ashore, but in the darkness of the night, they either lost their way, or were dashed upon the rocks by the surge of the sea; while those who retained hold of the rigging of the ship, being worn out with fatigue and the piercing coldness of the weather during a long winter night, died before morning,—when the shore presented the dreadful spectacle of the wreck of no fewer than five vessels, with many lifeless bodies, the mournful subjects of the care and pity of the islanders. In one of these wrecks, all on board were lost; and, in the Traveller, only the cabin-boy escaped. This poor boy, from whom these particulars were learned, had, for a time, been sheltered from the severity of the blast, by one of the crew, but being at length left alone, he clung to the top-mast, from which he was with great difficulty removed in the morning, when the storm had somewhat abated.
A very trifling circumstance prevented the vessel bound for Anstruther, from leaving Stromness along with the Traveller, so that Charles Peebles escaped this gale, and arrived with the sad tidings of the fate of his brother and companions. In Mr George Peebles, the light-house service lost a most active and faithful servant, whose next charge would have been at the operations of the Bell Rock light-house. From the peculiar circumstances of this case, the Commissioners were pleased to grant small annuities to the mother of the foreman, and also to the family of another of the sufferers.