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The Bishop Rock ((コーンウォール語:Men Epskop)) is a small rock in the Atlantic Ocean known for its lighthouse. It is in the westernmost part of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The ''Guinness Book of Records'' lists it as the world's smallest island with a building on it. The original iron lighthouse was begun in 1847 but was washed away before it could be completed. The present building was completed in 1858 and was first lit on 1 September, in the same year. Prior to the installation of the helipad, visitors to the lighthouse would rappel from the top (with winches installed at the lamp level and at the base below) to boats waiting away from the lighthouse. Bishop Rock is also at the eastern end of the North Atlantic shipping route used by ocean liners in the first half of the 20th century; the western end being the entrance to Lower New York Bay. This was the route that ocean liners took when competing for the Transatlantic speed record, known as the Blue Riband. ==History== In the late 13th century, when the Isles of Scilly was under the jurisdiction of John de Allet and his wife Isabella, anyone convicted of felony ″''ought to be taken to a certain rock in the sea, with two barley loaves and a pitcher of water and left until the sea swallowed him up''″. The rock was recorded as ''Maen Escop'' in 1284 and ''Maenenescop'' in 1302. In Welsh (similar to Cornish) Maen Escob means Bishop Rock. The outer rocks to the west of St Agnes, used to be known as the Bishop and Clerk, and exactly how they acquired their names is not known for certain. One explanation is that when a fleet of merchantmen out of Spain were wrecked 200 years ago, only Miles Bishop and John and Henry Clerk survived.〔 Another possible explanation is the shape of the rock is similar to a bishop's mitre. East of Bishop Rock are the Western Rocks and the Gilstone Reef,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Photograph of Gilstone Reef )〕 where Admiral Shovell's flagship HMS ''Association'' was wrecked in the great naval disaster of 1707. Shovell's remains were repatriated to England by order of Queen Anne shortly after their initial burial in the Isles of Scilly. The earliest recorded wreck on the rock itself was in 1839 when the brig ''Theodorick'' struck in rough misty weather on 4 September. She was out of Mogodore for London carrying a general cargo. In the early hours of 12 October, 1842, the 600-tonne paddle steamer ''Brigand'', a packet boat, which was en route from Liverpool to St Petersburg, struck the rock with such force that it stove in two large bow plates. The rocks then acted as a pivot, and she swung round and heeled into the rock portside, crushing the paddle-wheel and box to such an extent that it penetrated the engine room. She drifted over seven miles in two hours, before sinking in 90m. All the crew were saved.〔 In 1901 a barque named ''Falkland'' struck the rock, her main yard hitting the lighthouse itself. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bishop Rock, Isles of Scilly」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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