THE GUERNSEY BREED 11 



four large freight steamers, each carrying over 5,000 tons of 

 coal, piled up on the rocks of Alderney. All had gone ashore 

 during two weeks. 



The islands are well equipped with lighthouses, beacons 

 and signals, and after the wrecks just mentioned a very large 

 and powerful new lighthouse was erected on the island of 

 Alderney. 



About 20 miles east by north of Guernsey is a dangerous 

 reef of rocks called the Casquets. On one of these rocks is 

 located a very powerful lighthouse, but in spite of this light 

 many notable wrecks have occurred there. Perhaps the most 

 notable was that of the man-of-war Victory, of 110 guns, with 

 Admiral Sir John Balchen and 1,100 sailors and marines on 

 board, which foundered October 5, 1744, and all perished. 



A recent notable wreck was that of the steam packet 

 Lydia, of the London & South Western Railroad Company, 

 which, running as a special Good Friday excursion boat, was 

 wrecked here and hundreds of persons perished. 



But an account of all the shipping disasters that have oc- 

 curred in these treacherous waters would fill a volume. 



The passage separating the Island of Alderney from a 

 small island just off the west coast is called the Swinge, and 

 here the tides sometimes reach a velocity of 12 miles per 

 hour. It is a strange sight, indeed, to one unaccustomed to 

 such mysteries of the deep, to pass through the Swinge when 

 the tides are strongest and see the wonderful rush of water 

 over the rocks out in the sea. It is almost equal at its worst 

 to the whirlpool rapids at Niagara. 



The passage between Alderney and France is called the 

 Race of Alderney, and here also the tides ebb and flow in a 

 manner inconceivable to a landsman. The tides on the coasts 

 of the islands themselves are very high, having reached, at 

 extreme spring tides, 50 feet on the Island of Jersey and more 

 than 40 feet on the Island of Guernsey. On the coast of 

 Normandy opposite, tides of 60 feet have been recorded. 



Great damage is often done to the piers, breakwaters and 

 beaches by storms that sometimes occur during these high 

 tides. I saw on the Island of Alderney, in March, 1911, one 

 such storm. The accompanying illustration gives one some 

 idea of the height of the waves, when it is known that the 

 breakwater here is 20 to 30 feet above the sea level of this 

 extremely high tide. This breakwater is a part of the admiralty 

 works and forts, constructed between 1848 and 1852, in the 



