Lighthouses are often built in remote locations. In some ways this comes with the territory, given their purpose of warning ships that they are approaching a dangerous coast or reef. The Bell Rock Lighthouse, for example, was built between 1807 and 1810 on a reef in the Firth of Forth that only appears at low tide, a feat that was widely pronounced to be impossible at the time. Since then lighthouses have been built out at sea, or on top of rocky headlands often far from civilisation. But the title of most inaccessible must surely belong to Iceland’s Thridrangaviti lighthouse. Iceland itself is remote, a land of ice and volcanic fire, set on the very edge of the arctic. Five miles off its so
The press gang is deeply imbedded in our perception of the 18th century Royal Navy. The popular view is of warships, ever hungry for manpower, sending club-wielding thugs to raid sleepy coastal villages at dawn, or to round up the inebriated from taverns to be taken away to a life at sea. Yet many songs of the time, like Rule Britannia composed in 1740 and Hearts of Oak in 1759 make much of the navy as a defender of British freedom. How ironic that freedom should come at the expense of the liberty of her citizens? The legal basis for Impressment (the formal name for the practice) dates back to the medieval period, when during times of war, the crown had the right to call on the services of m
