Danger Point Lighthouse

Danger Point Lighthouse
Birkenhead

Danger Point Lighthouse
South Africa Western Cape
Location Van Dyksbaai
Western cape
South Africa
Coordinates 34°37′49.0″S 19°18′08.9″E / 34.630278°S 19.302472°E / -34.630278; 19.302472Coordinates: 34°37′49.0″S 19°18′08.9″E / 34.630278°S 19.302472°E / -34.630278; 19.302472
Year first constructed 1895
Construction masonrytower
Tower shape octagonal prism tower with balcony and lantern
Markings / pattern white tower, red lantern
Height 17 metres (56 ft)
Focal height 45 metres (148 ft)
Light source mains power
Intensity 1,700,000 cd[1]
Range 27 nautical miles (50 km; 31 mi)[2]
Admiralty number D6320
NGA number 112-32216
ARLHS number SAF-012[3]

Danger Point Lighthouse is a lighthouse on the southern point of Walker Bay, near Gansbaai. It is a white octagonal masonry tower that has been in use since 1895.

History

Bartolomeu Dias originally named Danger Point Ponte de Sao Brandao when he landed there on May 16, 1488. The name Danger Point is derived from the treacherous reefs and rocks below the water that make it very dangerous for ships to sail close to the coast.

Plaque commemorating the sinking of the Birkenhead, affixed to the Danger Point lighthouse.

The troopship HMS Birkenhead was wrecked off Danger Point in 1852. A barely visible rock (now aptly named Birkenhead Rock) 1.679 kilometres (1.043 mi) from Danger Point, was fatal for the troopship carrying young Welsh and Scottish soldiers and their officers and family on their way to Eastern Cape to fight the Xhosa. The Birkenhead became famous because it was the first shipwreck where the "women and children first" protocol was applied. All women and children were saved but most of the men perished.

More than 140 ships have been wrecked and thousands of lives lost between Danger Point and Cape Infanta, to the east of Gansbaai. In 1895, the Danger Point Lighthouse was built, providing more security for the ships in these dangerous waters.

A lighthouse commission of 1890 stressed the need for a light at Danger Point and in May 1892 engineer W T Douglass submitted a report on a lighthouse at Danger Point.[4] The light was first exhibited on 1 January 1895.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lighthouses of South Africa. Portnet. 1991. p. 25.
  2. ↑ Danger Point Lighthouse leuchtturm
  3. ↑ Danger Point The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved March 21, 2016
  4. ↑ Williams, Harold A (1993). Southern Lights. William Waterman Publications. pp. 81–82. ISBN 0-9583751-1-9.
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