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From: George Huxtable (no email)
Date: Sat Apr 01 2006 - 19:17:17 EST
| Bill asked, several weeks ago now, in a thread labelled "Simple celestial navigation in 1897"-
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|| 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 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
Rgds
Mal Tennant
Head of Sailing Directions
+44 (0)1823-337900 x 3382
============
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
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
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
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