North Carr Lightship
Encyclopedia
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
lightship
Lightvessel
A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship which acts as a lighthouse. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction...
. She is 101 feet (30.8 m) in length, 25 feet (7.6 m) in beam and 250 tons.
The purpose of the vessel was to warn mariners by sight, light or sound of the dangers of the North Carr
North Carr
The North Carr Reef is a sandstone reef northeast of Edinburgh, on the headland between the Firth of Forth and St Andrews Bay. There have been many ships wrecked on the reef, which lies on the busy shipping lanes into the Forth ports and the River Tay.A buoy was first placed on the reef in 1809...
rocks which are situated 1.7 miles off Fife Ness at the turning point for vessels entering the Forth
Forth
Forth is a structured, imperative, reflective, concatenative, extensible, stack-based computer programming language and programming environment...
from the North and bound for the Tay
Tay
-People:* Warren Tay, British ophthalmologist** Tay-Sachs disease, named after Warren Tay* Tay, nickname of the basketball player Tayshaun Prince* Tay Zonday, singer* Tay people, an ethnic group in Vietnam* Arturo Tay Mexican Filmmaker-Places:...
. The North Carr is currently berthed in the Victoria Dock, Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
, awaiting restoration as an exhibition space.
History
She was built by A. & J. Inglis Ltd, Pointhouse Shipyard, Glasgow in 1932, and launched in April 1933. In service she was anchored off Fife NessFife Ness
Fife Ness is a headland , forming the most eastern point in Fife. It is situated in the area of Fife known as the East Neuk, and forms the muzzle of the dog-like outline of the latter when viewed on a map....
until 1975. From then she served as a tourist attraction in Anstruther
Anstruther
Anstruther is a small town in Fife, Scotland. The two halves of Anstruther are divided by a small stream called Dreel Burn. Anstruther lies 9 miles south-southeast of St Andrews. It is the largest community on the stretch of north-shore coastline of the Firth of Forth known as the East Neuk,...
Harbour. She is the third and last vessel to carry the name - the first was borrowed from Trinity House London the English counterpart of Northern Lighthouse Board. The second was purpose built in Dundee, reported to have sat so low in the water that her decks were always awash and the only way up to the light was up a rope ladder in the rigging - no mean feat at the best of times.
She created quite a stir in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
on account of her fog horn being tested while lying at ¾ mile outside Granton
Granton
-Places:Australia* Granton, TasmaniaCanada* Granton, Nova ScotiaScotland* Granton, EdinburghUnited States* Granton, Wisconsin...
in the Firth of Forth
Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...
. As the fog horn had a range of approximately 10 miles, north Edinburgh could hear it loud and clear and the complaints to the Office, Newspapers and Police were numerous - particularly as it was being sounded in clear weather. "Hundreds of city dwellers have had no sleep over three consecutive nights"; "The most flagrant individual breach of the peace is as nothing compared with the ceaseless boom and consequent suffering of the past three nights"; "Firth of Forth torment"; "An Edinburgh grievance which has left rankling memories in the selection of Granton for the fog horn test" were typical of statements made and written at the time.
On 8 December 1959, the lightship was the subject of a tragic rescue mission. After the lightship broke her moorings and began to drift in heavy seas, the Broughty Ferry lifeboat (The Mona)
Lifeboat Mona
The Mona was a lifeboat based at Broughty Ferry in Scotland, that capsized during a rescue attempt, with the loss of her entire crew of eight men. The Mona was built in 1935, and, in her time, saved 118 lives.- The loss of the Mona :...
was launched. Her crew of eight was lost when the Lifeboat capsized. The Lightship and its crew survived and after repair was towed back to its station.