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
I have been unable to discover what exactly the hoisting of the ball indicated. Did a hoisted ball indicate a high tide, when it was safe to cross the bar? Or, as the equivalent of a half tide light, did it indicate a half tide? Or were there degrees of hoisting, where halfway up the pole indicated half tide? Wikipedia indicates that, as it fulfilled the same function as the night-time half tide light, which only shone when it was safe to cross the bar, the ball was only raised when it was similarly safe to do so in daytime.
And 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, I have been unable to find another such daymark in Ireland. 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 photographs) 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)
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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