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| Bill asked, several weeks ago now, in a thread labelled "Simple celestial navigation in 1897"-
|
|| Back to Sumner, I eagerly await the results of George's inquiries into
|| Small's/Smalls (and other?) "migrating" lighthouse(s).  It was clearly IMHO
|| within the abilities of civil engineers to erect such a structure on a
|| submerged shoal or foundation circa Smalls # 2.  Is relocation the case, or
|| were there measurement problems?

I have tried to get information about the earlier incarnation of the Smalls lighthouse from Trinity
House, the lighthouse authority for English waters. They have proved a dead loss, in spite of
several nudgings and promises.

So I've been to the mailing-list of the Royal Institute of Navigation, at rinforum@rin.org.uk   and
had an immediate response from Malcolm Tennant, who kindly responded-

==============

Current position according to the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office
(UKHO)is 5143.27N, 540.19W.
Information on earlier positions of the light will be available in the
UKHO Archives but there may be a charge for research.

Make your request to research@ukho.gov.uk

Rgds

Mal Tennant
Head of Sailing Directions
+44 (0)1823-337900 x 3382
mal.tennant@ukho.gov.uk

============

So I did just that, and the following day a collection of scans of the relevant parts of several old
charts and surveys, of the Sumner era, arrived, without any charge, from -

Guy Hannaford
Archives Research Manager
UK Hydrographic Office
Taunton
Somerset
TA1 2DN
UK
Tel: 01823 337900 Ext 3409
Guy.Hannaford@UKHO.gov.uk

I provide these details because it's such a pleasant change to have a prompt, efficient, and
relevant response from a government organisation. Nav-L members might like to be aware of the
service that's available. I think I was quite lucky to get away without being charged; perhaps
because the query was of interest to them. If anyone wants it, I have a copy of their "terms of
trading".

================

The end-result of all this is to prove what I had suspected; that the old Smalls lighthouse that
Sumner saw, and its replacement in 1861, are within a few feet of the same spot on the same rock,
the only rock that's always above sea level. And it's all of 5 miles away from the spot that Sumner
showed it on his sketch map. Unless Sumner happened to possess a chart or light-list that showed the
light 5 miles North of where it really was, it seems that he falsified the position of the light so
as to make a more dramatic story out of the first "Sumner line". In my eyes, that rather diminishes
the stature of Captain Thomas Sumner.

George.

===============

contact George Huxtable at george@huxtable.u-net.com
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.

   

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