CASTLEPOINT LIGHT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 25, 12 January 1912, Page 5

CASTLEPOINT LIGHT.

LOCATION OBJECTED TO. (Per Press Association.) Wellington, January 11. The objections put forward by the Shipmasters’ Guild as to the location of the new East Coast light on Castle Point, instead of Flat Point, were commented upon by tho Minister of Marine (Hon. J. A. Millar) to-day, the official reasons lining given for departing from the shipmasters’ recommendations. “You cannot get elevation enough "or a light at Flat Point,” said Mr .Millar, “and, vessels would lie courting danger if they went in towards ;he coast to look for it, because of nitlviug sunken rocks. Most of the local shipmasters were in favour of Plat Point, but when an examination vas made by Captain Blackburn and Japtain Boltons, as well as Messrs Allport (secretary of Marine) and Holmes (engineer), it was found imopssible to place a light high enough :o give it sufficient range, but a most serious thing is that off Flat Point, "or a distance of three or Jive miles, there are sunken rocks. It is a well-recognised principle among lightinuso authorities all over the world that you must never put a light at the back of danger, because shipmasters, when the weather is thick, knowing a light is there, will lie tempted to ro (loser to danger until it is trapped. On the other hand, at Castle Point there is a splendid site for a tower 'OO foot above high water,_ enablingjv igbt to be shown at a height of 170 feet, giving it a range of about twenty miles in thick weather. _ There is only i distance of about sixty miles between Palliscr light and the proposed light on Castle Point. Each has a twenty-mile radius, so that there would* only bo a gap of twenty miles "lelweon Ibo lights in Hoar weather, ind it is a poor master who cannot mvigato that distance safely. A do--isio'n to adopt Castle Point was announced last March. It is two months since tenders wore advertised for the construction of the tower, and tho whole apparatus for light has boon arranged for in England by this time, vet objections to Castle Point have only just been made.”