Posted by David McNeill on July 13, 2000 at 17:01:52 from host41.rgs.org:
In Reply to: Those Searchlights posted by Dave W on July 03, 2000 at 21:35:12:
The lights seen by John are not actually searchlights. What he can see is the loom of the main lighthouse at Ostend, 'the big light' as his father later describes it. However this does pose an interesting question as to the source material being used by AR.
In the early 1920s the Ostend lighthouse is described on charts as Gp.Fl.(2) ev.14 sec. 99ft.15M. (i.e. group flashing twice every 14 seconds, 99ft above sea level, visible for 15 nautical miles). This ties in perfectly with the description in the book. A 15 nautical mile visible range would put it just below the horizon as seen from a vessel heading for Flushing but the loom (reflection) of a double flash would look like two searchlight beams following one another across the clouds, since most lighthouses are, as we all know, revolving, not actually flashing.
However, the chart of Ostend and approaches published in 1928 shows a new light in place of the earlier one. This one is described as Gp.Fl.(3) ev.10 sec. 213ft.21M. The increased height and range has the potential to make the light itself visible in the approaches to Flushing and anyway the triple flash would produce three "searchlight" beams on the clouds instead of two.
So the question is: was AR "navigating" with out of date charts during the writing of WDMTGTS? Only a duffer would do so, therefore there must be another explanation.