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William Douglass (engineer, Born 1831)
William Douglass (1831 – 10 March 1923) was for twenty-six years an engineer for Trinity House and engineer-in-chief to the Commissioners of Irish Lights from 1878 to 1900. He built a number of offshore lighthouses and was responsible for the design of the second Fastnet Rock lighthouse. Early life His father was Nicholas Douglass, who in 1839 was engaged by Trinity House in London as a constructive engineer, rising in the course of time to be its superintending engineer. His two sons, James and William, would accompany their father to his place of work from an early age. William, born in London, was apprenticed to Robert Stevenson, Civil Engineer working for the Northern Lighthouse Board. In 1847 Mr Nicholas Douglass was selected by his employers, Trinity House, to erect the first lighthouse on the Bishop Rock on the Isles of Scilly. The first attempt, designed by the engineer-in-chief, James Walker, decided on a tower comprising accommodation and a light on top of iron leg ...
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Fastnet Rock Lighthouse
Fastnet Lighthouse is a 54m high lighthouse situated on the remote Fastnet Rock in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the most southerly point of Ireland and lies southwest of Cape Clear Island and from County Cork on the Irish mainland. The current lighthouse is the second to be built on the rock and is the tallest in Ireland. First lighthouse Construction of the first lighthouse began in 1853, and it first produced a light on 1 January 1854. The lighthouse replaced an early one built on Cape Clear Island in 1818, partly motivated by the loss of an American sailing packet, ''Stephen Whitney'', in thick fog during November 1847 on nearby West Calf Island causing the death of 92 of her 110 passengers and crew. The new lighthouse was constructed of cast iron with an inner lining of brick and was designed by George Halpin. Costing £17,390, the tower was tall with a high lantern structure on top, giving a total height of around . It had an oil-burning lamp of 38 kilocandelas; in contr ...
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Blackhead Lighthouse
Blackhead Lighthouse is a listed lighthouse built at the turn of the 20th century, near Whitehead in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It marks the very northern end of Belfast Lough where it opens out into the North Channel that separates Northern Ireland and Scotland. The active lighthouse is managed by the Commissioners of Irish Lights, where it is named as the Blackhead Antrim Lighthouse to distinguish it from the more modern Blackhead lighthouse in County Clare. History The first application for a lighthouse at Black Head was made by the Belfast Harbour Board in 1893. It was refused by the Commissioners of Irish Lights on the basis that the light would only benefit shipping entering Belfast and should not be financed by the general Mercantile Marine Fund. A second request was made in early 1898, this time supported by Lloyd's and the Belfast Chamber of Commerce as well as the Harbour Board, it was also refused. Further representations were made that year, including discussi ...
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Copeland Islands
The Copeland Islands is a group of three islands in the north Irish Sea, north of Donaghadee, County Down, Northern Ireland, consisting of Lighthouse Island (also known as Old Island), Copeland Island (also known as Big Island), and Mew Island. They lie within the civil parish of Bangor. Along with Lambay Island and Ireland's Eye off County Dublin, the islands are the only other one of the 258 sometime inhabited islands of Ireland which lie on the east coast. Etymology The Copeland Islands most likely derive their name from the de Coupland family, who settled in the Newtownards area, at the northern end of the Ards Peninsula, along with other Normans in the 12th century. This family also lent their name to other landmarks in the vicinity such as Copeland Water near Carrickfergus and the townland of Ballycopeland in the civil parish of Donaghadee. The earliest possible recorded name for the islands, however, may be the Old Norse ' (' meaning 'merchant' and ' meaning 'island ...
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Mew Island Lighthouse
Mew Island Lighthouse is an active lighthouse within the Copeland Islands of County Down in Northern Ireland. The current 19th-century tower is the most recent in a series of lighthouses that have been built in the islands, which have helped to guide shipping around the archipelago and into Belfast Lough. A number of different fuels, including coal gas, paraffin, and diesel, have been used to power the lighthouse. In 2015, the Commissioners of Irish Lights, who operate the lighthouse, replaced the hyperradiant Fresnel lens optic with a flashing LED system that uses only solar power. This large optic was then preserved and is now on display in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast as a visitor attraction known as ''The Great Light''. Copeland Island The earliest lighthouse in the Copeland Islands was built on Lighthouse Island in 1711 and used coal burnt in a brazier mounted on a three-storey tower above a keeper's cottage. Other cottage lighthouses were established at Howth Head, Loop ...
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British Admiralty
The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of its history, from the early 18th century until its abolition, the role of the Lord High Admiral was almost invariably put "in commission" and exercised by the Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty, who sat on the governing Board of Admiralty, rather than by a single person. The Admiralty was replaced by the Admiralty Board in 1964, as part of the reforms that created the Ministry of Defence and its Navy Department (later Navy Command). Before the Acts of Union 1707, the Office of the Admiralty and Marine Affairs administered the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of England, which merged with the Royal Scots Navy and the absorbed the responsibilities of the Lord High Admiral of the Kingdom of Scotland with the unification of the Kingdom of Great ...
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U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role (commerce raiding) and enforcing a naval blockade against enemy shipping. The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from Canada and other parts of the British Empire, and from the United States, to the United Kingdom and (during the Second World War) to the Soviet Union and the Allied territories in the Mediterranean. German submarines also destroyed Brazilian merchant ships during World War II, causing Brazil to declare war on both Germany and Italy on 22 August 1942. The term is an anglicised version of the German word ''U-Boot'' , a shortening of ''Unterseeboot'' ('under-sea-boat'), though the German term refers to any submarine. Austro-Hungarian Navy submarines were also kno ...
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Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is headed by the Chief Royal Engineer. The Regimental Headquarters and the Royal School of Military Engineering are in Chatham in Kent, England. The corps is divided into several regiments, barracked at various places in the United Kingdom and around the world. History The Royal Engineers trace their origins back to the military engineers brought to England by William the Conqueror, specifically Bishop Gundulf of Rochester Cathedral, and claim over 900 years of unbroken service to the crown. Engineers have always served in the armies of the Crown; however, the origins of the modern corps, along with those of the Royal Artillery, lie in the Board of Ordnance established in the 15th century. In Woolwich in 1716, the Board formed the Royal Regime ...
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Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps and Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps form the Army Medical Services. History Origins Medical services in the British armed services date from the formation of the Standing Regular Army after the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. Prior to this, from as early as the 13th century there are records of surgeons and physicians being appointed by the English army to attend in times of war; but this was the first time a career was provided for a Medical Officer (MO), both in peacetime and in war. For much of the next two hundred years, army medical provision was mostly arranged on a regimental basis, with each battalion arranging its own hospital facilities and medical supplies. An element of oversight was provided by the appointment ...
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St Levan
St Levan ( kw, Selevan) is a civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish is rural with a number of hamlets of varying size with Porthcurno probably being the best known. Hewn out of the cliff at Minack Point and overlooking the sea to the Logan Rock is the open-air Minack Theatre, the inspiration of Rowena Cade in the early 1930s. St Levan lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the South West Coast Path, which follows the coast of south-west England from Somerset to Dorset passes by on the cliffs. There are two Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), designated for the vegetation and geology, and Gwennap Head in particular, is favoured by birdwatchers, many who travel the length and breadth of Britain to watch rare seabirds. Geography The parish church is about south west of Penzance.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End'' The parish measures and the population at the 2011 census was 459. The river in th ...
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Penzance
Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated in the shelter of Mount's Bay, the town faces south-east onto the English Channel, is bordered to the west by the fishing port of Newlyn, to the north by the civil parish of Madron and to the east by the civil parish of Ludgvan. The civil parish includes the town of Newlyn and the villages of Mousehole, Paul, Gulval, and Heamoor. Granted various royal charters from 1512 onwards and incorporated on 9 May 1614, it has a population of 21,200 (2011 census). Penzance's former main street Chapel Street has a number of interesting features, including the Egyptian House, The Admiral Benbow public house (home to a real life 1800s smuggling gang and allegedly the inspiration for ''Treasure Island''s "Admiral Benbow Inn"), the Union Hotel (includi ...
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Fastnet Lighthouse
Fastnet Lighthouse is a 54m high lighthouse situated on the remote Fastnet Rock in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the most southerly point of Ireland and lies southwest of Cape Clear Island and from County Cork on the Irish mainland. The current lighthouse is the second to be built on the rock and is the tallest in Ireland. First lighthouse Construction of the first lighthouse began in 1853, and it first produced a light on 1 January 1854. The lighthouse replaced an early one built on Cape Clear Island in 1818, partly motivated by the loss of an American sailing packet, '' Stephen Whitney'', in thick fog during November 1847 on nearby West Calf Island causing the death of 92 of her 110 passengers and crew. The new lighthouse was constructed of cast iron with an inner lining of brick and was designed by George Halpin. Costing £17,390, the tower was tall with a high lantern structure on top, giving a total height of around . It had an oil-burning lamp of 38 kilocandelas; in cont ...
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