Here is not my "favourite" (apologies to donna52522) but two close to each other of importance - as if any lighthouse is not, but still. Agulhas lighthouse is approx an hours drive from my abode, and Danger Point is right across the bay I overlook. It was built in response to the Birkenhead tragedy.
It was this sinking that gave rise to the protocal when abandoning ship "woman and children first" as the soldiers on board stood back to allow the woman and children to use the very few life boats the ship had. Out of 643 passengers only 193 survived.
The Cape Agulhas lighthouse is on the Southernmost tip of Africa and was built in 1848 on the classic Egyptian Pharo's style. It is here that the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet.
Again in response to many ships meeting their demise. To quote a farmer who agitated for the building of the lighthouse in 1840: " ‘I have been painfully called upon to witness ship after ship cast away, valuable cargoes strewed along the beach, and hundreds of human beings at a time washed dead upon the shore.’
To which a sea Captain remarked in 1949: ‘No words are adequate enough to express that feeling of relief at seeing the welcome flash of such an important focal point as Agulhas. Remember, it is not the sea which the sailor fears – it is the land.’
AGULHAS
DANGER POINT
HMS BIRKENHEAD
