Note 68 — APPENDIX. A LIST OF LIGHTS ON THE BRITISH AND IRISH COASTS.[63]

It was this lighthouse, we presume, which underwent so extraordinary an accident on Saturday, February 19th, 1870. About half-past ten A.M., the schooner Elizabeth and Jane, of Preston, approached the mouth of the channel opposite Fleetwood. Adjoining the channel mouth, and about three miles from the latter town, is situated a lighthouse upon screw piles. When about half a mile off the lighthouse, the captain of the schooner found he was drifting towards it, and, spite of all his exertions, he was unable to change her course, as the tide flowed rapidly inwards, and a dead calm prevailed. Before the anchor could get a “hold,” the ship ran bow foremost into the piles, which were all shattered by the collision, and taking up the body of the lighthouse—a huge sexangular timber frame, filled in with windows, and surmounted with “a large revolving (?) light”—carried it away on her forecastle. Two keepers were in the lighthouse, but neither was hurt. The vessel, however, was greatly injured, and some alarm was felt lest she should sink. However the accident was seen from the shore; a tug steamer came to her assistance, and, with the lighthouse on board, she was towed into port. Until a new structure can be raised, a lightship will be stationed in a suitable locality.