m - Isle of Man Today

12
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anxmillennium
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anxmillennium
13
There are a limited
number of cable car
pictures and here we
have a good one taken at the
base of Victoria Street. In the
background the magnificent
Villiers Hotel as designed by
Rennison the architect who
came to the Island from
Stockport. The cable cars
worked on exactly the same
principle as those in San
Francisco and it was an urban
form of transport. The route
from the Jubilee Clock was up
Victoria Street, Prospect Hill,
Bucks Road, Woodbourne Road,
York Road and them down
Ballaquayle Road and Broadway
to meet the promenade at the
Villa Marina. The final decent
was considered too dangerous
and after a very short time the
cars only went as far as Stanley
View on Ballaquayle Road.
MNH/pic/873
I
selected this lantern slide of a
uniformed gentleman with a pier and
lighthouse in the background
because it presented a challenge. On the
belt and knitted into the jumper are the
initials R.V.L.C. and on his armband a
crown. What did the initials stand for,
what were the dates painted onto the
slide and where was the pier. My initial
thoughts were that the photograph was
taken from the jetty at the end of East
Quay in Peel and that the lighthouse was
on the end of the Castle Jetty. Quite by
accident when going through Constance
Radcliffe’s excellent book ‘Shining by the
Sea’ there was a photograph of a man
standing by a wooden tripod used for
‘breechers-buoy’ rescues, behind was a
cart and all around was equipment for
lifesaving. This view, which was possibly
enlarged to show the lighthouse was in fact
the top right hand corner of that on page 90
of the book. From that I can tell you
however that the man is Thomas Arthur
Corlett an advocate and an officer of the
Rocket Brigade in Ramsey. Formed in 1864
it was entitled ‘Ramsey Volunteer Life
Corps’. That explaind the initials. T. A.
Corlett lived from 1851 to 1878 and I wonder
if the dates on the slide related to the life of
the lighthouse. The south pier was raised in
height in 1845 and a stone lighthouse added
to replace a wooden one the same year. In
the background is the ‘Abernathy’ part
timber constructed extension to the North
Pier of 1863-64. MNH/pic/470
I
had three views of this
shipwreck from which to
select one of the lantern
slides for publication. I
though this was the more
dramatic even though one of
the others showed the ship
before she began to break up.
This slide was given to the
Manx Museum in 1952 by
Major F. C. Harris. The ship
is the ‘Argo’ which was on
passage from Bordeaux to
Glasgow with a general
cargo in December 1905. She
struck the rocks at Meary
Voar near Santon Head. The
crew spent the night trapped
on the vessel but the next
day all fourteen were taken
ashore. The heavy seas soon
broke the ship into three
MNH/pic/3729
What a way to launch a
lifeboat! Look closely
and you will see there
are two men on the boat as it
is tipped into Ramsey
harbour in this Midwood
lantern slide. The first
lifeboat house is believed to
have been a wooden hut on
land owned by the Harbour
Commissioners, the arrival of
the ‘Two Sisters’ in 1868 saw
the building of a stone lifeboat
house a little north of the
present building on the South
Promenade. This was an ideal
location for launching straight
out on to the beach and in to
the sea. In February 1895
there was a blizzard as well as
a heavy sea and a schooner
had grounded on Ramsey
beach close to the boathouse,
It proved difficult to launch
the lifeboat in the usual way
and so she was hauled around
onto the quayside where a
lamp standard had to be taken
down to facilitate the launch
into the harbour. The lifeboat
suffered damage to her bow
which was quickly covered
with a piece of tin but
afterwards it was discovered
that 13 planks were in fact
damaged. This photograph is
not however of that launch for
there is no snow, no blizzard, no
overcoats and something of a
heat haze. So if this is after
February 1895 why did they try
it again after the damage the
first time! The view was given
to the Manx Museum in June
1953 by Sam Bennett of Ramsey
MNH/pic/3736