Old School Security of Trade

While our focus is the world of modern maritime security, we know that occasionally it is useful to look at other aspects of our world and see the investment in time, passion, money and genius which past generations have employed to keep shipping trade flowing.

As such we would recommend watching a new programme, The Lighthouse Stevensons which is shown on Tuesday 1st February 2100UTC on BBC Two Scotland (Sky Channel 990)

200 years ago the Bell Rock lighthouse, 12 miles off Arbroath, was lit for the first time.  Its construction was a major advance in the struggle to make Scotland’s storm battered coast safer.

Built before the age of steam, on a deadly rock that was submerged for much of the day, the Bell Rock light was an engineering masterpiece, and the wonder of the age.

Its builder, Robert Stevenson, went on to build scores of important lighthouses and founded a dynasty of lighthouse engineers, introducing three of his four sons into the business.  This remarkable family went on to create the necklace of lighthouses that now surround Scotland.

See www.caledonia.tv to view a clip of the programme.  You can access BBC 2 Scotland via the following means:

Astra 2D (28.2° East)
Transponder 47 (aka 2.047)
Frequency: 10.80275 GHz
Horizontal polarisation
Symbol rate: 22.0 Mbaud
FEC 5/6
Transport Stream ID: 2047

BBC One Scotland DSAT2 SID 6421