LIGHTSHIP CORMORANT / LADY DIXON - Chapter 53

We have just returned from a long weekend with Simon on …… we had better settle on the name of this vessel. Originally Cormorant; then Lady Dixon; later Lady December; and now registered with National Historic Ships UK (and the Post Office) as The Lightship. The family name of The Beast becomes less appropriate as Simon’s work starts to bear fruit.

   He certainly looks the part these days, with a ‘full set’ and nautical cap.

  Behind him is the almost finished kitchen, which is looking really good. (Photo)

    He now has a kitchen table, right foreground and between it and the spiral staircase are two log-burners and the 70s kitchen stove, (Photos) all to be installed in the next few weeks – the stove roughly where it is near the table, a modern log-burner in the sitting room to replace the decrepit one he inherited and the ‘barrel’ below deck to start drying out that area ready for the huge amount of work which is going to be necessary. 

    Also in that ‘temporary’ storage area is a desk for the study and a sideboard for the dining room. I say temporary because both locations are below deck and the huge amount of work needed down there will take months! Buying such items next year would have been sensible, but he cannot resist a bargain! All this is of course a natural dumping ground for tools and  miscellaneous items which have no home at the moment!

The spiral staircase is now trimmed and looking very smart. It just needs one piece of balustrade on the right behind the cactus when the desk etc departs below. (Photo)

    Meanwhile nature is trying its best to introduce a little colour on the stern. (Photo)

David

LIGHTSHIP CORMORANT / LADY DIXON - Chapter 52

This snippet is not about Simon’s ship, but I thought you readers would be interested (and saddened?) to learn of the fate of such vessels when they are neglected.  Down in S Wales on the River Neath (or should I say in the River Neath?)  LV32 is a sad sight, with high tides washing over her decks, below decks full of silt and rust eating away at her..

Nearer to home, a lovely old vessel – the good ship Ena – on the same causeway as Simon’s ship, has for a long time been struggling to stay afloat, with bilge pumps going almost full time.  Now the battle is lost as the pumps are no longer coping/working and there seems to be nobody interested enough to do anything.

 Presumably the owner is paying the mooring fees, a cheaper alternative perhaps than doing something about it, but not a good advertisement for a Marina!

David

LIGHTSHIP CORMORANT / LADY DIXON - Chapter 51

As my historical research is in the doldrums, I keep busy with yet another restoration process (look out, thread wander coming!). My little Austin 7 won a prize at a local car show over the weekend – for the best personal restoration! (Photo). Why does it come up sideways?

 I prefer to drive my cars rather than park and exhibit, but a friend was organising it and I wanted to support him. It was an Morris Minor affair, but I was happy to add a little tone! Sorry, I have to include before and after pics (Photos).

    Meanwhile, back to the thread. Simon is putting the finishing touches to the spiral staircase, trimming the hole in the deck and installing the first of the safety railings (Photo).  He has also finished the floor tiling and has been able to install the kick panels under the units. Looking smarter each time!

David

LIGHTSHIP CORMORANT / LADY DIXON - Chapter 50

On the historical research front, there is a distinct lack of activity. I have three irons in the fire but have not even received an acknowledgement, let alone any information.  However one kind person, slightly 'off station', sent me explanations of those weird departments I mentioned last time:-

Palatinate – we had a few in Ireland, Tipperary was under the rule of the Butlers, Earls of Ormond, so that one was hereditary. The nobleman holder swore allegiance to the monarch and then could rule largely independently of the monarch. The Ormonds lost their Palatinate when they got mixed up in the Jacobite Rising in 1715.
Irregular Marriages – around the 1830’s there was a new Marriage Act introduced that allowed priests/ministers of non-Established Church to perform the ceremony. All marriages conducted by non-Anglican clergy were ‘Irregular’.
The Clerk of the Hanaper was a public office holder who was paid fees for the sealing of charters, patents, writs, etc., (The hanaper was the container in which the seals were kept.)
The Cursitor’s Office contained clerks who drew up writs, etc.
Recognizance Office was where recognizances were filed / recorded / stamped (for a fee, scaled according to length & type.)
Lunacy Office – back then it was part of the Lord Chancellor’s area, dealt with the property/estates of lunatics, a bit like the Wards of Court office.
The Liberty of St. Sepulchre is a Dublin Inner City district – it was a townland united to the city, but still preserved its own jurisdiction and had privileges as a reward its loyalty to the Crown and to counteract hardships caused by the native Irish. St. Sepulchres belonged to the Archbishop of Dublin.

 On board things progress but slowly.  Simon has finally found some spare time to finish the floor tiling in the new kitchen ....

So that is looking pretty damn good.

If I can go 'off station' just for a moment - I have been asked to include a photo or two of my personal  restoration project. I today finished fitting new brake linings and new wheel bearings. What a job! Royce never did anything by halves.

LIGHTSHIP CORMORANT / LADY DIXON - Chapter 49

Fate deals some cruel blows to amateur researchers. As I reported earlier, the offices of the ship surveyors who examined the Cormorant in 1942 were bombed a short time later and bang went a lot of useful records (literally!).  Now I find that the Public Records Office in Dublin was destroyed during the Battle of Dublin in 1922.  I was hoping to find some information about her time with the Commissioners for Irish Lights (from 1878 to 1942).  I did find a book by Herbert Wood B.A. (Oxon) M.R.L.A. who catalogued what was in the building in 1919.  From the headings and department names I surmise that there was little if anything about lightships, but there were some weird and wonderful titles:-
Cursitors Office
Recognizance Office
Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper
Lunacy Office
Register of Appeals or Provocations Spiritual
Palatinate of Tipperary (honestly!)
Registers of Irregular Marriages
The Liberty of Saint Sepulchre

The Oxford Dictionary was of little help in deciphering most of these!
Nothing to do with lightships I know, but fascinating.
David  

LIGHTSHIP CORMORANT / LADY DIXON - Chapter 48a

The archivist at the Commissioners for Irish Lights reports that he can find no information about Cormorant, even though she was in their service from 1878 to 1942. That is very disappointing.  The only trace I have is a report that Cormorant replaced Petrel temporarily on the South Rock station in 1910, when Petrel was damaged in a collision. However, other records show that Petrel was not built until several years later!  Moreover I can find no records on Google, or the National Archives (UK or Irish) of a South Rock lightship collision in 1910 - although several hundred references to the Nantucket disaster.
So where to next ....... ?
David

LIGHTSHIP CORMORANT / LADY DIXON - Chapter 48

Scenic overload in Spain (Photo). What a great holiday!

Meanwhile Harry Gibbon has found me a contact and I will resume the research and report.

Simon, who has a shorter holiday than us, has found time to plaster the ceiling of the living room (salon?). Now that it is uncluttered with joins and ridges, it makes the room look even more extensive. (Photo) 

The new stove arrives next week and Simon wants to decorate before that is installed.

David