Haulbowline light c 1905 (NLI) in the days when the tower was painted white
Last month, I did a post on time balls, entities of which I had been totally ignorant hitherto. Basically, in order for ship's captains to know the correct time in a port, a giant ball on a long pole would be lowered at 1pm precisely. As exact timing was essential to determining longitude in the open ocean, these 'time balls' were quite widespread for about 100 years from 1829. Researching lighthouses can be seen as a bit nichey, but sometimes it leads you down interesting rabbit holes like these! The only downside, on this occasion, is that anytime I think of time-balls, I think of a group of 'rich weirdos' gathering underneath them at 12.55, singing
Lets do the time ball again. Rest in peace, Tim Curry.
The legitimacy for doing a post about time balls on a lighthouse blog was a rather skimpy one – there was one on the roof of the old Ballast Board offices on the corner of Westmoreland St and Eden Quay in Dublin city centre. However, the ever-vigilant Lee Maginnis got in touch to remind me that the 1824 Haulbowline lighthouse in Carlingford Lough was built with a tide ball, according to Irish Lights own website. As the time ball allegedly originated in Portsmouth in 1829, then, if the Haulbowline thing is true, it solves the age-old question of which came first - the time or the tide? (Actually, there is no such age-old question. I made it up)
Details of tide balls are even harder to uncover than details of time balls. In regards to Haulbowline, Irish Lights says -
A fixed white light was exhibited on 1 September 1824, and a half tide light was also exhibited from a small lantern approximately half way up the tower on the seaward side. During daytime a large ball was hoisted on a mast above the lantern to indicate the tide.
NLI photograph c. 1905. I've yet to find a photo when the ball has been raised
According to the 1861 Report of the Commissioners, the tide ball fulfilled the same function as the half-tide light. Just as the light was shown from half-flood to high water to half-ebb, indicating when it was safe to proceed over the bar, so the ball on the lantern was raised at the same time. If the ball was up, ships were okay to proceed up to Warrenpoint and Newry.
But was it mechanical, or did the keepers have to push it up and down with a sweeping brush? Any help would be gratefully received!
The half tide light can be seen projecting from the left hand side of the tower (NLI)
Aside from Haulbowline, the only other such tide ball in Ireland appears to have been at Poolbeg lighthouse. They would seem to have been worked in conjunction with harbour lighthouses, where the depth of the water meant that sometimes it was unsafe for some boats to progress.
Poolbeg lighthouse. The top picture is from the Dublin Penny Journal in 1820 and clearly shows the tide pole and lowered black ball.The bottom picture is from c1890. The pole is there (or is it a flag pole?) but I don't see the ball.
In fact details from around the world are hard to find. There was a tide ball in Maryport harbour on the Cumbrian coast in northwest England (see photograph below) and there was another one in nearby Workington harbour. (Kids, Workington once had a team in the Football League and were managed by Bill Shankly) Lyttleton in New Zealand had one too.
The Maryport tide ball (apparently it was crimson - Wikipedia says the Haulbowline ball was black) was raised according to the height of the tide in the harbour, so ships seeking entrance would know whether it was safe to enter. So, if it was raised 4 feet, there was 4 feet of a draft in the harbour. Presumably, this meant the harbourmaster would be out with his sweeping brush every hour.
Other tide balls seems to have existed at Scarborough and Bideford and Padstow, and they were probably more numerous than Mr Internet indicates. The Haulbowline tide light was rendered obsolete in 1922. I wonder where they all are now. In museums, or back-gardens or at the bottom of the deep blue sea, sea, sea?
Maryport harbour and the crimson tide ball
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