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Irish
Coast Guard Historic |
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Setting the Scene |
COASTGUARD LIGHTS. The coastguard required reliable
light to be available when required, in the days before portable electricity
Coastguard Lights were general issue. The lights were flares which
when ignited, produced a brilliant white light for a specific duration;
a “Long Light” for example would burn for up to 30 minutes.
The Long Light was about 24 inches (600 mm) long and built using short
3” (70 mm) sections soldered together and the whole light filled
with an incendiary compound. It was ignited with another flare and
as it burned up the light the solder melted and released the burned
out shell, this provided a continuous white light for about 30 minutes
close to the ground where it was needed. It was suspended on a wooden
triangle (name used before tripod). The Short Lights could be hand
held but had a pointed cone on the bottom and could be pushed into
the ground if required, they burned for just over 4 minutes. On the
Brocks lights there was a tube closed at the top, open at the bottom
taped to the light, the inside diameter of this tube is ½”
(12 mm), the reason for this is a mystery to date. If a stick is inserted
into this tube the light faces down and the steel cone upwards possibly
burning through the wooden stick, unless a steel rod was used. These
supplemented the Candle lanterns, Hurricane lamps and Carbide lamps.
The earliest dated light I have is dated Nov.1905, the latest June
1951. The invention of the “Gas mantle” and the ability
to convert oil into a vapour revolutionized portable lighting. Two
examples would be the “Primus stove” and the “Tilley
lamp” this meant portable heat and light. The Tilley ‘Storm
lamp’ is well known and was widely used by all including the
coastguard. Another type used was the Tilley AL 21 floodlight. This
could run for up to 12 hours on one fill of Paraffin / Kerosene, it
emitted about 12.000 candlepower and with a modification over the
lens, could be used for sending Morse signals. Although the Signalling
mechanism was factory produced, the attachment to the lens was individually
constructed locally, this lamp and modification, it appears, was used
in Ireland only. Later another larger and more powerful Tilley lamp,
the Tilley Floodlight Projector was constructed emitting about 20.000
candlepower with a much larger lens; no modification was used on this.
Later on battery powered lights and portable generators replaced these
types of lights although the Tilley storm lamp was still carried as
a very portable source of light. COMMUNICATIONS. Communication between the vessel and
the rescuers was of course essential, before electricity and radio
this was very basic indeed and could be reduced to three categories,
Sound, Sight and Light. A Megaphone was used to amplify sound, Signal
flags for daylight communication and a Lantern for night use. The
signal flags were Red (2) 3ft x 2ft (90mm x 60mm) on 5ft (1.50 mts)
staff, and a pair of semaphore flags 24inch x 24inch (60mm x 60mm)
for sending messages. The lanterns varied over the years from oil
lamps, Carbide lamps, pressure lamps with a mantle (Tilley type),
battery lamps to electric lamps. Interestingly even today ships lights
and fixed lights used at sea are still called Lanterns. Flares and
Rockets were and are still used for day and night signalling and come
in a variety of colours and PYROTECHNICS. Pyrotechnics have played a vital
role in safety and life saving at sea since early days when gunfire
was used to attract attention, and firework rockets were used. It
was obvious from the beginning that some sort of system must be available
to attract attention by day and by night to a vessel in distress.
In .
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