Light On A Lonely Rock

摘要

It was a hazy night in July 1904 and the steamer Alexandra ploughed slowly through the waters of West Cork, as an extraordinary experiment took place on deck. She was a rickety vessel, "as leaky as a sprat net" in the words of Sir Robert Ball, Ireland's most feted astronomer of the time. But he loved being aboard her. Almost every night her bespectacled old chef served him copious helpings of boiled lobster. After supper, he could climb on deck and relish two of his night-time passions: study of the gentle stars and, as scientific adviser to the Commissioners of Irish Lights, study of the illumination from lighthouses built around Ireland's treacherous coastline.