A nice thought; but the matter concerned, was to do with movement by sea, rather than land.
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General Knowledge Quiz
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A nice thought; but the matter concerned, was to do with movement by sea, rather than land.
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RailUK Forums
Was he an Englishman who swam to France, but he didn't have his passport with him when he arrived so was accused of treason?
Caboose Class
Member
I finally found the answer (and a most interesting story) in the Transactions of the Devonian Association 1890, Vol. XXII, pp. 250-254.
DaleCooper
Established Member
The only song I can think of is 1983 by Jimi Hendrix but I don't know what that has to do with lighthouses and anyway I think it was released after Louis XIV's reign..
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Caboose Class
Member
My father was the keeper of the Eddystone Light
He courted a mermaid one fine night
From this union there came three
A porpoise and a porgy and the other was me.
He courted a mermaid one fine night
From this union there came three
A porpoise and a porgy and the other was me.
That's the song -- the true-historical tale (as you say, @Caboose Class; having looked it up -- a most interesting one) is about the general business of lighthouses on the Eddystone Rocks, and setting-up thereof. Does anyone see going further, re the question?
Caboose Class
Member
I'll grab the answer with Henry Winstanley as per the following:-
Louis the Fourteenth and the Eddystone Lighthouse
Trans. Devon. Assoc. 1890, Vol XXII, pp. 250-254 by H.B.S. Woodhouse
The paper was delivered at the Association’s July 1890 Barnstaple meeting. Eddystone Lighthouse, much celebrated in folk ballads and seamen’s lore, stands on the Eddystone Rocks, 14 miles off Plymouth. The first lighthouse (1696–99), built of timber, was swept away with its designer, Henry Winstanley, by the great storm of 1703. Prior to this, a notable incident during occurred in June 1697 during the construction of Winstanley’s lighthouse. At this time Britain and France were at war, and a naval vessel had been assigned to protect the workers whenever they were on the reef. One day, the commissioner at Plymouth, George St Lo, ordered the ship to join the fleet and did not provide a replacement. Instead, a French privateer destroyed the work done so far on the foundations and carried Winstanley off to France. Louis XIV, however, ordered his immediate release, with the words: "France is at war with England, not with humanity". Winstanley returned to the Eddystone reef, construction resumed, and the first Eddystone Lighthouse was completed in November 1698.@Caboose Class -- that's the story, all right. Good old Louis XIV: I don't find him a likeable character on the whole; but this was commendable.
As to who goes next -- bit of a quandary, found. No rules set in stone in this game, about "cribbing" or the like -- general "feel", seems to me: that knowing, or fumbling one's way to, the answer, is preferable to looking it up; but it's basically down to one's own reckoning concerning the "ethics" of this matter. Am inclined to be a bit cowardly, and say -- three responders to the question: two, essentially "comic relief" ones; and @Caboose Class. Could you three gentlemen maybe come to an accord among yourselves, re what happens next?
As to who goes next -- bit of a quandary, found. No rules set in stone in this game, about "cribbing" or the like -- general "feel", seems to me: that knowing, or fumbling one's way to, the answer, is preferable to looking it up; but it's basically down to one's own reckoning concerning the "ethics" of this matter. Am inclined to be a bit cowardly, and say -- three responders to the question: two, essentially "comic relief" ones; and @Caboose Class. Could you three gentlemen maybe come to an accord among yourselves, re what happens next?
DaleCooper
Established Member
Don't drag things out, let @Caboose Class have it.
Caboose Class
Member
All I will say is that certain questions set in this Forum surpass "General Knowledge" in the sense that the questions are so obscure that nobody could conceivably arrive at the correct answer without some "assistance".
Caboose Class
Member
OK, new question, and it's back to geography again! I am gazing out onto the Atlantic Ocean. However, if I look over my left shoulder I can also see the Pacific Ocean. Where exactly (in Central America, obviously) am I?
Self duly sentenced to three months' exile from "General Knowledge Quiz"; with possible extension to "in perpetuity".
DaleCooper
Established Member
There's nothing wrong with that sort of question, it's educational.
DaleCooper
Established Member
On one of the southern islands of Chile.
xotGD
Established Member
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You've just taken off from Panama City airport?
Caboose Class
Member
No, it's a specific (and unique) location in Central America.
Caboose Class
Member
But how would you distinguish which ocean was which?
DaleCooper
Established Member
Atlantic to the east, Pacific to the west and if you look on any map you can see they have their names written on the surface.
GRALISTAIR
Established Member
Damn -you beat me to it - it surely is the very center of the canal at a certain lock on the Panama canal which has Pacific water west and Atlantic east.
GRALISTAIR
Established Member
DaleCooper
Established Member
Surely the water in the canal, which is actually two canals and Gatun Lake, is neither the Pacific nor the Atlantic particularly as the lake is higher than either ocean.
GRALISTAIR
Established Member
I guess I guessed badly then.
And me
Caboose Class
Member
Volcan Baru is the correct answer! At 3,474 meters high, the towering Baru Volcano is the 12th highest peak in Central America and is the only place in the world where, on the clearest of days, you can see the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the same time.