Fastnet Rock (51°23.′3″N, 9°36.′1″W) is a small clay-slate island with quartz veins and the most southerly point of the Republic of Ireland, 6.5 km southwest of Clear Island in County Cork, which is itself 8 miles (13 km) from the mainland. Originally called Fastnes, it rises to about 30 m above low water mark. It has the name Carraig Aonair (Lonely Rock) in Irish. The Gay Head cliffs in Marthas Vineyard are made almost entirely of natural clays. ... Slate Slate is a fine-grained, homogeneous, metamorphic rock which was derived from an original sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low grade regional metamorphism. ... Quartz is amongst one of the most common minerals in the Earths continental crust. ... Clear Island (Irish Gaelic: Oileán Chléire), also known as Cape Clear, lies south west of County Cork in the Republic of Ireland. ... Statistics Province: Munster County Town: Cork Code: C (CK proposed) Area: 7,457 km² Population (2002) 447,829 Website: www. ...

Divided into Fastnet Rock proper and the much smaller Little Fastnet to the south by a 30 foot wide channel, it also had the nickname 'Ireland's Teardrop' as it was the last part of the country seen by Irish emigrants to the United States in the 19th Century as they sailed past it. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The Fastnet Rock is used as the midpoint of one of the world's classic offshore yachting races, the Fastnet Race, a 608 mile round trip from Cowes, round the rock and back to Plymouth. A modern yacht A yacht (From Dutch Jacht meaning hunt(er)) was originally defined as a light, fast sailing vessel used to convey important persons. ... The Fastnet race is a yachting race in the United Kingdom. ... Cowes High Street Location within the British Isles Cowes Esplanade and Cowes Castle (home of the Royal Yacht Squadron) Cowes from sea Cowes is a seaport town on the Isle of Wight, an island due south of the major southern English port of Southampton. ... Plymouth is a city in the South West of England, or alternatively the Westcountry, and is situated within the traditional county of Devon. ...

Fastnet Rock Lighthouse

The current lighthouse is the second to be built on the rock and the highest in Ireland. The Peggys Point lighthouse in Nova Scotia, Canada An aid for navigation and pilotage at sea, a lighthouse is a tower building or framework sending out light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire. ...

Construction of the first one started in 1853, and it first produced a light on 1 January 1854. The lighthouse replaced an early one built on 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 63 feet 9 inches (19.4 m) high with a 27 feet 8 inch (8.4 m) high lantern structure on top, giving a total height of around 91 feet (27.7 m). It had an oil burning lamp of 38 kilocandelas; in contrast modern lighthouses typically produce 1,300 kilocandelas. In 1883 an explosive fog signal was installed, which electrically detonated a small charge of guncotton every five minutes in fog. 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1854 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Clear Island (Irish Gaelic: Oileán Chléire), also known as Cape Clear, lies south west of County Cork in the Republic of Ireland. ... 1818 (MDCCCXVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar. ... Packet trade generally refers to any regularly scheduled passenger and cargo trade conducted by ship. ... Sunlight filters through a thin layer of fog on a crisp winter morning in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ... 1847 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Cast iron usually refers to grey cast iron, but can mean any of a group of iron-based alloys containing more than 2% carbon (alloys with less carbon are carbon steel by definition). ... A weathered brick wall. ... The candela (symbol: cd, Latin for candle) is one of the seven SI base units. ... 1883 (MDCCCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ... A Fog signal is a device used in fog to produces an audible warning, and sometimes a visual one too, indicating to a vehicle the presence of a hazard. ... Nitrocellulose (Cellulose nitrate, guncotton) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose (e. ...

The tower proved to be too weak, since gales shook it to the point that crockery was sometimes thrown off tables, and a 60 imperial gallon (273 L) cask of water lashed to the gallery 133 feet (40.5 m) above high water was washed away. Various steps were taken to strengthen the tower including fitting a casing around the bottom section up to the second floor and filling it with stone, and the surrounding rock smoothed over. In 1865 the lower floors were filled in with solid material. 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ...

In 1891 the Commissioners of Irish Lights had resolved that the light was not sufficiently powerful, particularly for the first landfall for many ships crossing the Atlantic. The replacement was constructed of stone, cast iron now being considered unsatisfactory — the whole of the nearby Calf tower above its strengthening casing had been carried away during a gale on 27 November 1881, although without loss of life. On the same day, the sea had broken the glass of the Fastnet Rock lantern. 1891 (MDCCCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The Commissioners of Irish Lights (CIL) is the body that serves as the lighthouse authority for all of the island of Ireland plus its adjacent seas and islands. ... The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one_fifth of its surface. ... November 27 is the 331st day (332nd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

The new lighthouse was designed by William Douglass and built under the supervision of James Kavanagh. Construction started in 1897 with the levelling of the site, and the first of 2,047 Cornish granite dovetailed blocks was laid in June 1899. As well as these blocks, weighing 4300 tons in total and with a volume of 58,093 cubic feet (1645 m³), a further 4100 cubic feet (116 m³) of granite was used to fill the inside of the tower up to the level of the entrance floor 58 feet (17.7 m) above high water mark. The small steamship Irene was specially constructed for carrying the blocks out to the island, and Kavenagh personally set every stone, which weighed between 1.75 and 3 tons. The new lighthouse entered service on 27 June 1904 having cost nearly £90,000. 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Cornwall (Cornish: Kernow) is a county at the extreme South-West of England on the peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar. ... Quarrying granite for the Mormon Temple, Utah Territory. ... 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 187 days remaining. ... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The masonry tower is 146 feet (44.5 m) high, with the focal point of the light 159 feet (48.5 m) above high water mark. The base of the lighthouse is 52 feet (15.8 m) in diameter with the first course of stone 6 inches (150 mm) below high-water mark, and the first ten of the 89 courses built into the rock. The first floor of the original tower remains, on the highest part of the rock, having been left when it was demolished and converted into an oil store.

The fog signal was changed to one report every three minutes in 1934 and from 1965 accompanied by a brilliant flash when operated during darkness. The original vaporised paraffin light was replaced with an electric one on 10 May 1969. At the end of March 1989 the lighthouse was converted to automatic operation. It is monitored and controlled using a UHF telemetry link to Mizen Head Lighthouse and onwards by landline to the control centre at Dún Laoghaire. 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... Paraffin is a common name for a group of high molecular weight alkane hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2, where n is greater than about 20, discovered by Carl Reichenbach. ... May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the radio frequency. ... Categories: Ireland geography stubs | Headlands of Ireland ... Dún Laoghaire (Irish pronunciation ; anglicized pronunciation ) is a seaside town and a ferry port situated some 12 km south of Dublin city centre, and is the administrative centre of the county of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown. ...

It produces a 0.14 second long white flash every five seconds, with a nominal range of 27 nautical miles (50 km) and power of 2,500 kilocandelas. Since April 1978 in addition to being operated during darkness, the light is also used during poor visibility when the fog signal is sounding. The explosive fog signal was replaced with an electric fog horn in 1974 which produces 4 blasts every minute at 300 hertz with a nominal range of 3.9 nautical miles (7 km). The Racon—radar transponder beacon—has been a morse G on the radar display since its installation in 1994. 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1974 calendar). ... The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the SI unit of frequency. ... Racon signal as seen on a radar screen. ... This long range radar antenna, known as ALTAIR, is used to detect and track space objects in conjunction with ABM testing at the Ronald Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein atoll[1]. Radar is a system that uses radio waves to detect, determine the distance of, and map, objects such... In telecommunication, the term transponder (sometimes abbreviated to XPDR or TPDR) has the following meanings: An automatic device that receives, amplifies, and retransmits a signal on a different frequency (see also broadcast translator). ... 1922 Chart of the Morse Code Letters and Numerals Morse code is a method for transmitting information, using standardized sequences of short and long marks or pulses — commonly known as dots and dashes — for the letters, numerals and special characters of a message. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated like the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal. // Events January Bill Clinton January 1 : North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect. ...

See also

• Fastnet race - a biannual ocean yacht race from the Isle of Wight to Fastnet and then back to Plymouth.

The Fastnet race is a yachting race in the United Kingdom. ...

References

• C.W. Scott, History of Fastnet Lighthouses, Schull Books 2001
• Fastnet Rock Lighthouse, Beam Magazine No. 32
• Fastnet Lighthouse Vital Statistics
• Pictures of the lighthouse
• Mizen Head Signal Station