Oh dear! Poor old
Ena has had it – it’s a death sentence!
Regular readers will recall Simon reporting a neighbouring vessel in the
marina was having trouble staying afloat when the tide came in. She is/was an
interesting sailing barge built in 1906 and a registered Dunkirk little ship. Well the
owner has thrown in the towel and she is doomed. Once a proud working barge
(Photo 1161); restored as recently as 2002; and for sale (starting price
£85,000) in 2011.
She is being
extensively stripped to lighten her as much as possible prior to loading on a
floating ‘dock’ for transportation to her grave. This will probably be a site
further down the estuary where there are already numerous skeletons rotting
away (Photo 1162). Sad.
On a brighter note, Tony Lane has been
digging in his archives and he found some interesting stuff about Cormorant. In
a document dated 1934 there is a description of the lightships owned by the
Commissioners for Irish Lights. These vessels used incandescent oil burners,
with a candle power of 70,000 white or 28,000 red. They were fitted with submarine bells (Photo
1163) and firing jibs (explosive fog warnings).
In this document
there is no mention of a diaphone foghorn and the first reference Tony has to
diaphones Tony has is in the Admiralty List of Lights
for 1951, where the initial diaphone signal is referred to as 1943. Certainly
the 1943 blueprints I have show the revamped Cormorant as having a diaphone.
Tony’s document states that the light at this time is 2,000 c.p, fl. 15
secs, so obviously all the high-powered IOB installation with its
compressed air and oil cylinders had been disposed of.
David
No comments:
Post a Comment