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Updated: May 23, 2025
Of course we kept a sharp lookout, not only for the light, but for any vessels which might be running up Channel or beating down it. At last I heard Truck say: "There's the light, sir;" and I made out, a little on our starboard bow, the Owers Light. "Hurrah!" I exclaimed; "we have been right round England!" "I can't make it out," said Dick, in a drowsy voice.
"You may, as long as you like to keep awake; but you must take care not to topple overboard." Dick and I for some time walked the deck, believing that we were keeping watch, and, of course, looking out on every side. "The wind's drawing more round to the south'ard," I heard Truck remark. "If we go about, we shall soon catch sight of the Owers, and one more tack will take us into Saint Helen's."
For the sake of warmth I now wanted to put on a pair, but my feet had so increased in size that I could not find any large enough in the slop-locker. At last the wind shifted to the south-west, and we ran before it up Channel. The first object we made was the Owers light-vessel, about ninety miles from the Downs. Having made a signal for a pilot, one boarded us out of a cutter off Dungeness.
The Looe Stream is a little dell that used to run through the park, and which to-day, right out at sea, furnishes the only gate by which ships can pass through the great maze of banks and rocks which go right out to sea from Selsey Bill, miles and miles, and are called the Owers.
On the chart that district is still called "The Park," and at very low tides stumps of the old trees can be seen; and for myself I believe, though I don't think it can be proved, that in among the masses of sand and shingle which go together to make the confused dangers of the Owers, you would find the walls of Roman palaces, and heads of bronze and marble, and fragments of mosaic and coins of gold.
This vessel carries two bright fixed lights, one hoisted on each of her masts, which can be seen at night ten miles off, and of course it can be distinguished from the revolving Warner light. Farther off to the west, at the end of a shoal extending off Selsea Bill, is another lightship, called the Owers.
The contrast between the weather of the two following days was very great, and afforded a forcible illustration of the uncertainties, perhaps the fascinations, of yachting. We steamed quietly on, past the 'Owers' lightship, and the crowds of yachts at Ryde, and dropped anchor off Cowes at six o'clock.
In such lonely mornings I have watched the Owers light turning, and I have counted up my gulf of time, and wondered that moments could be so stretched out in the clueless mind. I have prayed for the morning or for a little draught of wind, and this I have thought, I say, the extreme of absorption into emptiness and longing.
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