MUASDALE and THE OTTER ROCK LIGHT SHIP

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The Otter Rock lightship, an unmanned light ship, sometimes known as a 'UFS',
occasionally lifting her moorings and drifting off-station in heavy weather (see chart
below), did so for the final time on the night of Thursday, January 9, 1958.

A description of the 60-foot long unmanned lightship and the stories of the 'North Carr' light
ship and of two former Irish light ships with 'Scottish connections', the "Penguin", now the
"Arctic Penguin", open to the public at Inveraray, at the head of Loch Fyne and the
"Comet", transmitting base for the 1960's pirate Radio Scotland, were set out in an earlier
paper at http://www.scribd.com/doc/17477566/Muasdale-and-The-Story-of-The-Otter-Rock-
Light-Ship-and-Others

Further research confirms that the Stevenson brothers, David and Charles, built four
identical light ships, each with a light range of some twelve miles, to cover two 'fairly
distant' stations, The Otter Rock and Sgeir Inoe, the assumed theory and practice being
that, with two ships always on station, a third ship would be 'spare' or 'in transit' to relieve
one or other for overhaul and the fourth light ship would generally always be 'in overhaul'
and 'out-of-service' - No one ship would actually be in service (nominally) for any more
than nine months in any year, the relief ship being on station for about three months and
then moving on to the next station, over a period of weeks, for another three month
period of duty before herself going 'for overhaul' and thus one light ship always 'spare'.

In prosecuting the exact operating positions of the two, continuously operating, light ship
stations, two references were used, a copy of The Clyde Cruising Club Sailing
Directions (5th Edition) published in 1947, it noting some corrections to lights and
marks that had been in place before WWII and, to compare this with information in more
recent time, a copy of the US-published Sailing Directions Enroute - Pub. 141,
Scotland, 2007 which can be downloaded from
http://pollux.nss.nima.mil/sdr/sdr_j_show_sections.html?tid=22&rid=15138

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 Lightship - Otter Rock - 55°34'N., 6°07'W
http://www.google.com/maps?q=55.566667,+-06.116667+(SIO%20+%20Number+322579)

Page 30 of the 1947 Clyde Cruising Club Sailing Directions (5th Edition) tells us that, in
1947, the "Otter Rock, (55°34'N., 6°07'W.) [55.566667 N, 6.116667 W], lying 2.5 miles S
of Texa, has a least depth of 3.7m. A lighted buoy is moored 0.4 mile SSW of the rock.
Seas break heavily on the Otter Rock when strong winds are in opposition to the tidal
currents, which set E in this area" and a note following reports that "The Otter Rock light
ship was removed during the war and replaced by a buoy, moored about 4¼ cables S of
Otter Rock and an RYHS pillar buoy lies about 4¾ miles SSE of the rock - Whether to retain
the buoys or replace the light ship was under consideration in 1946".

Following the grounding of the Otter Rock light ship at Muasdale on January 9, 1958, a
buoy was placed on the station in 1960, the 2007 US-published Sailing Directions too
advising that the "Otter Rock (55°34'N., 6°07'W.), lying 2.5 miles S of Texa, has a least
depth of 3.7m. A lighted buoy is moored 0.4 mile SSW of the rock. Seas break heavily on
Otter Rock when strong winds are in opposition to the tidal currents, which set E in this
area".

Lightship - Sgeir Inoe - 57°50' N, 6°33' W

http://www.google.com/maps?q=57.833300,+-6.550000+(SIO%20+%20Number+322579)

Page 320 of the 1947 Clyde Cruising Club Sailing Directions (5th Edition) tells us that, in
1947, on the eastern side of Lewis and Harris, "The Shiant Islands lie 3½ miles off-shore
and other 6 miles down, Scalpay Island lies close inshore and on Glas Island, its outer
end, is a light and fog syren - 3 miles SE of it, a light vessel and bell sounded by
the motion of boat, is moored 3 cables NE of Sgeir-inoe, a rock which dries 3 feet.

"Sgeir Graitich lies 7 miles SE x S of Glas Island Light and is marked by a beacon.
Eugenie Rock, with 3 feet over it at L.W., lies 4 cables S x E of Sgeir Gratich (note
spelling difference) and between these and Trotternish Point on Skye there are other bad
patches.

"The Little Minch is now entered and from here to Ru Renish there are no further lights
or marks, but the coast is clean outside of a ½ mile off-shore".

The 2007 US-published Sailing Directions too advising that "Sgeir Inoe (57°50' N, 6°33'W)
[57.833300 N, 06.550000 W], drying 2.4m, lies 3 miles ESE of Eilean Glas. A rock, awash,
lies on a narrow bank, with a least depth of 0.3m, extending 0.3 mile SW of the drying rock.
The alignment, 034°, of Rubh’ Uisenis with Srianach, 4.5 miles NE, clears NW of Sgeir Inoe.

"Between Eilean Glas, Sgeir Inoe, and the Shiant Islands (57°54'N, 6°23'W), the tidal
currents usually set ENE and SW. At neaps the current begins to set NNE, gradually turning
to an E set over a period of 8 hours 30 minutes".

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The 1952-dated photograph here, which, thanks to the contribution of Captain W. L. Hume
MNI (Retd.), appeared on page 10 of "The Oban Times" of Thursday July 16, 2009 and was
included in the earlier referred to document, shows then new Barra Head lighthouse's relief
boat, the "Berneray", a smart traditional all neat and varnished fishing boat design,
berthed at Castlebay, in Barra, lying on the outside of an un-manned relief light ship the
scale of the Barra Head boat and the men on her deck reflecting the 'diminutive' 60-foot
long size of the un-manned light ship.

Whether the relief light ship here was en route to, or from, the Otter Rock station, off
Islay, or en route to or from the Sgeir Inoe station is, as yet unknown, it might even be the
case that the relief light ship was regularly moored at Barra in these days so as to quickly
replace the light ship one or other station in case of emergency, the fourth light ship most
likely in The Clyde, on rota, for standby or for overhaul.

It too can be noted here that there was a lot of interest in the Barra Head lighthouse's relief
boat, the "Berneray", when she was sold out of service but, there were reports from
some of the local Barra fisherman that the "Berneray" was so well 'plugged', to keep the
weather out, that she was riddled extensively with rot within due to absence of air
circulation, so her buyer perhaps did not get a good buy after all.

While The Northern Lighthouse Board's website at http://www.nlb.org.uk/ is generally

sparse of information, but has now links to live webcams at The Mull of Galloway
http://www.nlb.org.uk/mullofgallwebcam.htm and North Ronaldsay
http://www.nlb.org.uk/nthronaldsaywebcam.htm lighthouses, there is more information,
but nothing either about light ships, on The Museum of Scotland's Lighthouses at
http://www.lighthousemuseum.org.uk/ - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers, an
organisation open to anyone with an interest in lights generally, has an interesting website
too at http://www.alk.org.uk/

Captain W. L. Hume, who submitted the 1952-taken photograph of the light ship at
Castlebay, has a list of The Northern Lighthouse Board's service fleet, from 1799 onwards,
on The Granton History Group's website pages at
http://www.grantonhistory.org/harbour/lighthouse_vessels.htm and retired ship's master
Captain W. L. Hume's recollections of his sea-going days can be found at http://www.m-
navydays.com/NewPages2/CaptainsCabin.htm these on the pages of Gordon Tumber's
interesting website at http://www.m-navydays.com/newpages/homepage.htm

Also of interest to some may be the Granton Trawlers website at

http://www.grantontrawlers.com/Home%20Page.htm

and too Aberdeen City Council's list of some 3,000 Aberdeen built ships, from 1811
onwards, at
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http://www.aberdeenships.com/browse.asp