Calf of Man
Description of Calf of Man Light.
“There are two leading lights on the Calf of Man, situate on the western side of the small island called the Calf, in north Lat. 54° 5´, and Long. 4° 46´ west of London. These two light-houses are distant from each other 560 feet. The higher light bears by compass from the Mull of Galloway, S. SW. distant 37 miles; Peelhead, in the Isle of Man, SW. distant 11 miles; Langness Point, W. by N. ½ N. distant 6 miles; and from the sunken rocks, called the Chickens, NE. ⅓ E. distant about 1¼ mile.
“These lights are from oil, each light-room being furnished with a distinct reflecting and revolving apparatus, by which they are distinguished from the other lights on the coast, and rendered useful as leading lights for passing the dangerous rocks called the Chickens. The light-house towers, as before noticed, are built at the distance of 560 feet apart, bearing from each other NE. ⅓ E. and SW. ¼ W. Consequently, to an observer, in the direction of the Chickens, both lights will appear in one, or be seen in the same line of direction, and be known to mariners as “Double-revolving and Leading-lights without colour.” These lights will respectively attain their most luminous effect at the end of every two minutes; but, in the course of each periodic revolution of the reflector frames, they alternately become fainter and more obscure, and, to a distant observer, are totally eclipsed for a short time. The two light-rooms at the Calf of Man are glazed all round, but are hid from the mariner by the high land of Peel Head towards the NE. and by Spanish Head in an eastern direction; both lights, however, will be visible at about ¼ of a mile from Langness Point. The lower light is elevated 305 feet above the medium level of the sea, and the high light 396 feet, and they will be seen like two stars of the first magnitude, at the distance of six or seven leagues, in a favourable state of the atmosphere.”
Extension of the Northern Lights to the Irish Sea.
By the extension of the works of the Scotch Light-house Board to the Isle of Man, the system of the Northern Light-houses may now be said, in a general way, to extend over the whole of the coast of Scotland, while the lights of Man are of immediate importance to the extensive shipping of the coasts of England and Ireland, which bound the Irish Sea. The trade of Dublin and Newry, &c. on the one side, and of Liverpool, Lancaster, Whitehaven, and Workington, &c. on the other, find the traffic with those ports much more safe since the erection of these lights. Instead of shunning the Isle of Man, as formerly, owing to the projecting points, sunken rocks, and sand-banks connected with it, the mariner now steers boldly for this island, and takes shelter under it in stormy weather.