Web Page No 2604

3^rd August 2019

Rockall

1st Picture. Location of Rockall

 2nd Picture. Rockall Island

 3^rd Picture. The living pod attached to the island

 4^th Picture. Nick Hancock and his living pod.

  

I thought that the tiny island of Rockall had always been part of the British Isles but it seems that almost 70 years ago in 1955 Britain claimed the tiny uninhabited island of Rockall. It is situated 300 miles (483km) west of Scotland and was claimed as part of the British Isles to stop the Soviets spying on missile tests. The UK formally claimed this uninhabited outcrop, which is just 70ft (21m) high, on 18^th  September at 1016 GMT.

Two Royal Marines and a civilian naturalist, led by Royal Navy officer Lieutenant Commander Desmond Scott RN, raised a Union flag on the island and cemented a plaque into the rock to claim it for Britain.

The islet was within reach of the guided missile range in the Hebrides and the British government feared foreign spies could use it as an observation post.

It is understood that the Queen personally authorised the annexation of Rockall just four days earlier. Her orders stated as follows: "On arrival at Rockall you will effect a landing and hoist the Union flag on whatever spot appears most suitable or practicable and you will then take possession of the island on our behalf."

The survey ship HMS Vidal reached the rock on 15^th September and she was equipped with a helicopter for ferrying the men to the island, but high winds prevented them from landing for three days so she had to lay off for a while.

Lieutenant Commander Scott told the BBC that the whole operation had gone without a hitch, but said the large helicopter had made the pilot's job difficult. "The landing space on the flight deck is only 33 ft [10m] square and the rotor blades of the helicopter sweep an arc of 49 ft [15m] so he has to be very, very careful," he said. "Despite all this there were no snags. The one landing he made he bounced and stuck - much to our relief."

The first person to set foot on Rockall since the British Navy landed in 1862 was Royal Marine Sergeant Brian Peel, an experienced rock climber. Sergeant Peel climbed down to the waterline to collect seaweed and other specimens for naturalist James Fischer. The marine said the descent had been quite straightforward, but admitted he had misjudged the heavy Atlantic swell. "I did not get up the rock in time and a wave went right over the top of me," he said. "I had to grab a handful of seaweed, ram it in my mouth and get up the rock as fast as possible."

Technically Ireland does not recognise this claim, although it has never sought to claim sovereignty for itself.

The earliest recorded landing on Rockall was in 1810, by an officer called Basil Hall from the ship HMS Endymion and its exact position was first charted by Royal Navy surveyor Captain ATE Vidal in 1831.

In 1972 the Isle of Rockall Act was passed, which made the rock officially part of Inverness-shire, Scotland. But the rights to any resources discovered on the ocean floor surrounding the island is disputed between Britain, Ireland, Denmark and Iceland.

The origin and meaning of the islet's name "Rockall" is uncertain; the Old Norse name for the islet, Ròcal, may contain the element fjall, meaning "mountain". It has also been suggested that the name is from the Norse rok, meaning "foaming sea", and kollr, meaning "bald head"—a word which appears in other place names in Scandinavian-speaking areas. Another idea is that it derives from the Gaelic Sgeir Rocail, meaning "skerry of roaring" or "sea rock of roaring".

Dutch mapmakers showed an island called "Rookol" northwest of Ireland on their Map of 1594 and the first literary reference to the island, where it is called "Rokol", is in  A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland published in 1703.

In June 2014 a Scots adventurer broke the record for occupying this remote Atlantic rock .Nick Hancock survived on the rock for 43 days, beating the previous record held by three Greenpeace campaigners who lived there for 42 days. .He celebrated achieving the solo record by popping a small bottle of champagne . The previous year, he was forced to abandon an attempt to break after his survival pod leaked after three days

Finally, Rockall is probably most famous for being an area in the BBC Radio Four's shipping forecast.

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

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