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Monday, December 28, 2015

A CLEVER SOLUTION...

It`s a bright sunny day for a change and my mind wanders to those bright sunny days on the Cornish coast.   One of the most memorable was the walk westwards towards Gwennap Head from the hamlet of Porrthgwarra.   I remember it was very windy, but I guess it always is where the Atlantic hits the coast, and I was fascinated to come across these strange looking cones, which I managed to photograph whilst standing close to the cliff edge and hoping for the best.

These two navigation markers were erected by the Corporation of Trinity House and they provide day marks to warn vessels of the very real hazards of the submerged Runnel Stone and a series of other submerged rocks nearer the shore.   Mariners at sea should always keep the black and white cone in sight - if it becomes completely obscured by the red cone, then the vessel would be directly on top of the Runnel Stone.   These daymarks provide a clever solution to a serious problem which, between 1880 and 1923, accounted for the loss of over thirty identified steamships either wrecked, stranded or sunk in the area.   There have been none since..........




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