Les Hanois reef, a group of rocks to the south-west of Guernsey also known as Hanoveaux, [1] are the westernmost point of the Channel Islands. [2]
The reef has claimed many shipwrecks over the centuries, such as HMS Boreas ( Royal Navy) in 1807. See List of shipwrecks in the Channel Islands.
It is the location of the Les Hanois Lighthouse operated by Trinity House which was built in 1862 from Cornish granite, to a design by James Walker, using a novel dovetail system to lock each stone with the vertically and horizontally adjacent stones. [3] It was built in the hope of reducing the number of ships being lost on the reef on the west coast of Guernsey; it undoubtedly saved a number of ships. However, the wrecks continued, the last disaster being the MV Prosperity in 1974, a freighter lost with all hands on La Conchée reef. [4]
The history of Guernsey stretches back with evidence of Neolithic occupation, followed by Roman occupation. Christianity was brought to Guernsey by St Sampson.
SS Torrey Canyon was an LR2 Suezmax class oil tanker with a cargo capacity of 118,285 long tons (120,183 t) of crude oil. She ran aground off the western coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom, on 18 March 1967, causing an environmental disaster. At that time she was the largest vessel ever to be wrecked.
Fort Grey, colloquially known as the "cup and saucer", is a Martello tower located on a tidal rock in Rocquaine Bay in Saint Peter, Guernsey on the west coast of the island.
Saint Peter Port Harbour is located in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey. It was a natural anchorage used by the Romans which has been changed into an artificial harbour that is now the island's main port for passengers. Loose cargo, liquids and gas are shipped to and from St Sampson's harbour.
Toilers of the Sea is a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1866. The book is dedicated to the island of Guernsey, where Hugo spent 15 years in exile. Hugo uses the setting of a small island community to transmute seemingly mundane events into drama of the highest calibre. Les Travailleurs de la Mer is set just after the Napoleonic Wars and deals with the impact of the Industrial Revolution upon the island.
Vale is one of the ten parishes of Guernsey in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, Channel Islands.
Castle Cornet is a large island castle in Guernsey, and former tidal island, also known as Cornet Rock or Castle Rock. Its importance was as a defence not only of the island, but of the roadstead. In 1859 it became part of one of the breakwaters of Guernsey's main harbour, St Peter Port harbour.
La Corbière is the extreme south-western point of Jersey in St. Brélade. The name means "a place where crows gather", deriving from the word corbîn meaning crow. However, seagulls have long since displaced the crows from their coastal nesting sites.
Godrevy Lighthouse was built in 1858–1859 on Godrevy Island in St Ives Bay, Cornwall. Standing approximately 300 metres (980 ft) off Godrevy Head, it marks the Stones reef, which has been a hazard to shipping for centuries.
The Seven Stones reef is a rocky reef nearly 15 miles (24 km) west of Land's End, Cornwall and 7 miles (11 km) east-northeast of the Isles of Scilly. The reef consists of two groups of rocks and is nearly 2 miles (3.2 km) long and 1 mile (1.6 km) in breadth. They rise out of deep water and are a navigational hazard for shipping with 71 named wrecks and an estimated 200 shipwrecks overall. The most infamous is the Torrey Canyon in 1967, which was at that time the world's costliest shipping disaster and, to date, still the worst oil spill on the coast of the United Kingdom.
Stella was a passenger ferry in service with the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). She was built in Glasgow in 1890, and wrecked in 1899 off the Casquets during a crossing from Southampton to Guernsey.
Bombay Reef is an atoll of the Paracel Islands. In Chinese, the reef is alternatively known as "Pengbojiao", or "Qilianyu(七连屿)" along with six other islands close by.
Since the first Europeans visited the west coast of Australia in the 17th century, Rottnest Island has seen numerous shipwrecks. The 11-kilometre-long (6.8 mi) and 4.5-kilometre-wide (2.8 mi) island is surrounded by hidden and partly exposed reefs whilst being buffeted by north-westerly winter gales as well as very strong south-west summer sea "breezes". It is situated 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) west of the port of Fremantle meaning that much of the maritime traffic to Western Australia's major port passes close by.
Jerbourg Point or the Jerbourg Peninsula is the southeastern point of the Bailiwick of Guernsey in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy, lying within St Martin Parish. It marks the end of the east coast cliffs and beginning of the south coast cliffs. It provides scenic views of the Little Russel and the various islands.
HMS Boreas was a Laurel-class 22-gun post ship launched in 1806. She was wrecked off Guernsey in the Channel Islands on 28 November 1807 with the loss of most of her crew of 154 men.
Les Hanois Lighthouse was constructed between 1860 and 1862 to a design by James Walker, and was first lit on 8 December 1862. It is sited on the rock known as Le Biseau, or Le Bisé, part of the reef Les Hanois one mile north west of Pleinmont where the Trinity House cottages were built. It was erected in response to an increasing number of shipwrecks on the treacherous rocks off the western coast of Guernsey.
The SS Nile was an iron-hulled cargo steamship. She is best remembered for her sinking in bad weather on 30 November 1854 with the loss of all hands, most likely after colliding with The Stones, a notoriously dangerous reef off Godrevy Head in Cornwall.
The Braye du Valle is the area between the main Island of Guernsey and Le Clos du Valle, which was a tidal island to the north.
The Channel Islands are a group of islands off the coast of France. The largest island is Jersey, followed by Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and a number of smaller islands, islets and rocky outcrops. The islands were separated from mainland Europe with rising sea levels in the Neolithic period; thereafter maritime activity commenced.
William Douglass was for twenty-six years an engineer for Trinity House and engineer-in-chief to the Commissioners of Irish Lights from 1878 to 1900. He built a number of offshore lighthouses and was responsible for the design of the second Fastnet Rock lighthouse.
49°26′13″N2°42′00″W / 49.4370°N 2.7000°W