Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
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Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
Wow.
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Halfwise, son of Halfwit. Brother of Nitwit, son of Halfwit. Half brother of Figwit.
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halfwise- Quintessence of Burrahobbitry
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
Braver men than me
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azriel- Grumpy cat, rub my tummy, hear me purr
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
I couldn't do that
Mrs Figg- Eel Wrangler from Bree
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
I'm actually more amazed at the technology and construction than at the guys riding out there. If the lighthouse is that close, why not just put it on top of the mountains instead of going to crazy expense and effort to build it there in the water?
And what's up with the cable that seems to be going straight up from the platform?
And what's up with the cable that seems to be going straight up from the platform?
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Halfwise, son of Halfwit. Brother of Nitwit, son of Halfwit. Half brother of Figwit.
Then it gets complicated...
halfwise- Quintessence of Burrahobbitry
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
halfwise wrote: If the lighthouse is that close, why not just put it on top of the mountains instead of going to crazy expense and effort to build it there in the water?
I'm betting that lighthouse is built on top of a submerged rock that stuck up in the middle of the best channel and had ripped the bottom out of several ships, probably with loss of life. That's what usually got lighthouses built in mind boggling places. By mid 20th century explosives had gotten better (thank you WWI and WWII )
Most of those rocks with lights on them had been blown to smithereens, at least around here, which is kind of mind boggling in its own way.
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David H- Horsemaster, Fighting Bears in the Pacific Northwest
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
St. George's Reef light is my favorite lighthouse on this coast. It's on a solitary rock six miles off shore. A lot of lives were lost building it, but many more were saved. There's no safe place to moor a boat, so in the old days they'd lower that boom on the right, hook onto the supply boat and crane people and supplies on and off. Now they use a helicopter. In it's day it was every bit as remote as serving on a space station.
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David H- Horsemaster, Fighting Bears in the Pacific Northwest
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
ooooooooH fookily dookily ! No way could I live in one of those. When that sea comes crashing up in anger I dont wanna be there !
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"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.”
"There are far, far, better things ahead than any we can leave behind"
If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always got
azriel- Grumpy cat, rub my tummy, hear me purr
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
Your right about the lighthouse being built on a death trap David. You are a clever bodkin That lighthouse is where I live. Nowadays you find plenty of rusting cars at the bottom of that cliff where poor sad depressed people drive over
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"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.”
"There are far, far, better things ahead than any we can leave behind"
If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always got
azriel- Grumpy cat, rub my tummy, hear me purr
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
I imagine Winter in that thing would be a nightmare.
Mrs Figg- Eel Wrangler from Bree
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
Once you run out of wood or coal, the romance is basically off.
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Halfwise, son of Halfwit. Brother of Nitwit, son of Halfwit. Half brother of Figwit.
Then it gets complicated...
halfwise- Quintessence of Burrahobbitry
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
I find the idea of living in an old school lighthouse like that to be interesting, but mostly terrifying. I can't imagine that kind of seclusion for weeks or months on end. It might be nice in the short term but not anything longer. There's an old lighthouse in Baltimore's inner harbor that, when it was operational, was out in the Chesapeake Bay (they relocated it so it could be part of a nautical museum). IIRC, the lighthouse keepers would bring their families and like some chickens and they'd all live in the lighthouse with almost no outside contact for months at a time.
Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
There certainly is something somehow romantic about the idea of it. Though the reality probably isn't. Also there's this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannan_Isles#Mystery_of_1900
http://www.poetry-archive.com/g/flannan_isle.html#bR9UZXxbvevgTLv0.99FLANNAN ISLE
by: Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
HOUGH three men dwell on Flannan Isle
To keep the lamp alight,
As we steer'd under the lee, we caught
No glimmer through the night!
A passing ship at dawn had brought
The news; and quickly we set sail,
To find out what strange thing might all
The keepers of the deep-sea light.
The winter day broke blue and bright,
With glancing sun and glancing spray,
As o'er the swell our boat made way,
As gallant as a gull in flight.
But, as we near'd the lonely Isle;
And look'd up at the naked height;
And saw the lighthouse towering white,
With blinded lantern, that all night
Had never shot a spark
Of comfort through the dark,
So ghastly in the cold sunlight
It seem'd, that we were struck the while
With wonder all too dread for words.
And, as into the tiny creek
We stole beneath the hanging crag,
We saw three queer, black, ugly birds--
Too big, by far, in my belief,
For guillemot or shag--
Like seamen sitting bold upright
Upon a half-tide reef:
But, as we near'd, they plunged from sight,
Without a sound, or spurt of white.
And still too mazed to speak,
We landed; and made fast the boat;
And climb'd the track in single file,
Each wishing he was safe afloat,
On any sea, however far,
So it be far from Flannan Isle:
And still we seem'd to climb, and climb,
As though we'd lost all count of time,
And so must climb for evermore.
Yet, all too soon, we reached the door--
The black, sun-blister'd lighthouse door,
That gaped for us ajar.
As, on the threshold, for a spell,
We paused, we seem'd to breathe the smell
Of limewash and of tar,
Familiar as our daily breath,
As though 'twere some strange scent of death:
And so, yet wondering, side by side,
We stood a moment, still tongue-tied:
And each with black foreboding eyed
The door, ere we should fling it wide,
To leave the sunlight for the gloom:
Till, plucking courage up, at last,
Hard on each other's heels we pass'd
Into the living-room.
Yet, as we crowded through the door,
We only saw a table, spread
For dinner, meat and cheese and bread;
But all untouch'd; and no one there:
As though, when they sat down to eat,
Ere they could even taste,
Alarm had come; and they in haste
Had risen and left the bread and meat:
For on the table-head a chair
Lay tumbled on the floor.
We listen'd; but we only heard
The feeble cheeping of a bird
That starved upon its perch:
And, listening still, without a word,
We set about our hopeless search.
We hunted high, we hunted low,
And soon ransack'd the empty house;
Then o'er the Island, to and fro,
We ranged, to listen and to look
In every cranny, cleft or nook
That might have hid a bird or mouse:
But, though we searched from shore to shore,
We found no sign in any place:
And soon again stood face to face
Before the gaping door:
And stole into the room once more
As frighten'd children steal.
Aye: though we hunted high and low,
And hunted everywhere,
Of the three men's fate we found no trace
Of any kind in any place,
But a door ajar, and an untouch'd meal,
And an overtoppled chair.
And, as we listen'd in the gloom
Of that forsaken living-room--
O chill clutch on our breath--
We thought how ill-chance came to all
Who kept the Flannan Light:
And how the rock had been the death
Of many a likely lad:
How six had come to a sudden end
And three had gone stark mad:
And one whom we'd all known as friend
Had leapt from the lantern one still night,
And fallen dead by the lighthouse wall:
And long we thought
On the three we sought,
And of what might yet befall.
Like curs a glance has brought to heel,
We listen'd, flinching there:
And look'd, and look'd, on the untouch'd meal
And the overtoppled chair.
We seem'd to stand for an endless while,
Though still no word was said,
Three men alive on Flannan Isle,
Who thought on three men dead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannan_Isles#Mystery_of_1900
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Bluebottle- Concerned citizen
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
And if that wasnt enough, there be mermaids & sea monsters and captain Jack Sparrow !
{{{ dont know why I mentioned Jack but it sounded good }}}
{{{ dont know why I mentioned Jack but it sounded good }}}
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"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.”
"There are far, far, better things ahead than any we can leave behind"
If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always got
azriel- Grumpy cat, rub my tummy, hear me purr
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
azriel wrote: Nowadays you find plenty of rusting cars at the bottom of that cliff where poor sad depressed people drive over
Maybe they were just following the light?
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David H- Horsemaster, Fighting Bears in the Pacific Northwest
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
Mrs Figg wrote:I imagine Winter in that thing would be a nightmare.
I couldn't find a good picture, but in the big winter storms they say that windows on the tower have been broken by the force of the waves. Only the light at the top is sticking out.....
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David H- Horsemaster, Fighting Bears in the Pacific Northwest
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
Oh my gawd !
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"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.”
"There are far, far, better things ahead than any we can leave behind"
If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always got
azriel- Grumpy cat, rub my tummy, hear me purr
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Mrs Figg- Eel Wrangler from Bree
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
This is the French lighthouse Phare de la Vieille in that kind of weather. Not a job I'd volunteer for....
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David H- Horsemaster, Fighting Bears in the Pacific Northwest
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
Might be fun on a warm summer's day. but winter....
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Halfwise, son of Halfwit. Brother of Nitwit, son of Halfwit. Half brother of Figwit.
Then it gets complicated...
halfwise- Quintessence of Burrahobbitry
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
Shrouded within the park of Villa Demidoff (just north of Florence, Italy), there sits a gigantic 16th century sculpture known as Colosso dell'Appennino, or the Appennine Colossus. The brooding structure was first erected in 1580 by Italian sculptor Giambologna. Like a guardian of the pond in front of him, the giant is in an endless watchful pose, perched atop his earthy seat.
At one point, the colossal figure stood amidst a number of other bronze statues, many of which have now gone lost or stolen. The massive brick and stone structure withstood centuries in the same spot, managing to maintain its figurative composition in all that time. The park that the colossus is situated in, once built as an estate for the mistress of an Italian duke, serves as the perfect setting for the gentle giant. His presence demonstrates a connection between man and nature. The massive size of the structure also echoes the relationship that is greater than reality. The colossus presents a surreal bond to nature.
At one point, the colossal figure stood amidst a number of other bronze statues, many of which have now gone lost or stolen. The massive brick and stone structure withstood centuries in the same spot, managing to maintain its figurative composition in all that time. The park that the colossus is situated in, once built as an estate for the mistress of an Italian duke, serves as the perfect setting for the gentle giant. His presence demonstrates a connection between man and nature. The massive size of the structure also echoes the relationship that is greater than reality. The colossus presents a surreal bond to nature.
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"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.”
"There are far, far, better things ahead than any we can leave behind"
If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always got
azriel- Grumpy cat, rub my tummy, hear me purr
- Posts : 15649
Join date : 2012-10-07
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Location : in a galaxy, far,far away, deep in my own imagination.
Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
oooh I never saw that before
Mrs Figg- Eel Wrangler from Bree
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Re: Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]
I think hes lovely
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"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.”
"There are far, far, better things ahead than any we can leave behind"
If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always got
azriel- Grumpy cat, rub my tummy, hear me purr
- Posts : 15649
Join date : 2012-10-07
Age : 64
Location : in a galaxy, far,far away, deep in my own imagination.
chris63- Adventurer
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chris63- Adventurer
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