RadCom April 2024, Vol. 100, No. 4

70 April 2024 Feature Marconi and Rathlin Island I t is sometimes amazing how the most unlikely places can link up with the great names of the world. Four miles off the north coast of Northern Ireland, Rathlin Island rises sharply out of the sea with steep cliffs all around it, except for one bay hooked in the inside corner of this L-shaped island (see Figure 1 ). Some five miles long and a quarter of a mile wide, it is mentioned both by the Roman philosopher, Pliny, in the first century AD, and by Ptolemy, the celebrated Egyptian mathematician, astronomer and geographer, in the second century AD, in his illustrated description of Europe. Just as remarkable as the island’s link with Pliny and Ptolemy, however, is its link with the early development of wireless telegraphy through the work of Guglielmo Marconi, and it is perhaps pertinent, as we have now closed the year of the centenary of the first transatlantic wireless transmission, that I write this article. I think the background to Rathlin, whilst important to the whole story, has some interesting facets. Coupled with this, Marconi’s background, and the story of his arrival in England, whilst relevant to the story, are also both interesting. Rathlin Island Rathlin, from the Irish ‘Reachlainn’, meaning ‘place of many shipwrecks’, has a certain feeling of remoteness attached to it.  It is separated from the mainland by only six miles of water, but the waters of Rathlin Sound are treacherous because of the tides of the Irish and North Seas meeting and creating dangerous currents. Situated at 55° 17’ 30.00” N and -6° 10’ 5.40” W, it lies off the north coast of Northern Ireland, and is eleven miles from the Mull of Kintyre. It is famed as the location of the cave to which Robert the Bruce fled in 1306 after his defeat by the English in Perth. It was in this cave that Robert the Bruce drew inspiration from a spider which tried seven times to bridge a gap between two rocks in order to complete its web, until he himself drew fresh courage to make a further attempt to take the crown, eventually succeeding at the battle of Bannockburn. This tale is credited as the source of the old adage: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.” The island’s population peaked in the early 1800s at almost 1200, and today stands at just under 200. In 1987, Richard Branson’s ‘Virgin Flyer’ cross-Atlantic balloon attempt ended three miles off the northwest of the island, and he was rescued by the Islanders. Branson later returned to Rathlin and presented the Rathlin Island Trust with £25,000 towards the renovation of the tithe barn at the Manor House. Fate may have played a part in Branson’s landing, having set out on his journey from Maine, and he came close to landing on Rathlin. At the time of the potato famine in the mid-1800s, the bulk of the population of the island left for America, and most of them settled in and around Maine. Perhaps Branson’s balloon was carrying the spirits of those people back home! For such a small island, Rathlin has large number of shipwrecks around it, and these attract scuba divers from all over the world. Shipwrecks The first recorded shipwreck was an entire fleet of fifty Curraghs lost in Rathlin Sound in 440AD. It is unknown exactly how many souls were lost in this tragedy, but it is thought to be in excess of three hundred. There are fifty-nine known wrecks, including the Santa Maria in 1918, the Shackleton in 1930, HMS Duchess in 1939, and the Hinde in 1940. In 1918 alone, there were seven recorded wrecks, and this was not even the worst year of the WW1. The Second World War saw another eleven ships meet their fate in the seas around the island; German U-boats were responsible for five of these. It is this aspect of the Island’s history that brought Guglielmo Marconi into the picture. Although Marconi’s brilliance as an engineer is well documented, his backing and presence in the United Kingdom are generally less well known, but these are equally important in his work and the influence of his work in these islands. Marconi’s links with Rathlin, and indeed with Ireland, are not so well documented. His mother was Annie Jameson, granddaughter of John Jameson, the founder of the famous whisky distillery. Annie met Giuseppe Marconi, a widower 17 years her senior, while she was studying music in Bologna, Italy, but her family disapproved of her choice. Annie and Giuseppe corresponded in secret and, when Annie came of age in 1864, she fled to Boulogne where the pair were married. Giuseppe already had a son, and the couple’s first child, Alfonso, was born a year later. Nine years after that, Guglielmo was born. By the time the young Guglielmo was at the stage of setting up his company, relations between the Jameson and Marconi families were resolved. Indeed, it was through Annie’s influential family connections that Marconi’s new company was initially financed. Marconi arrives in Britain It was in May 1896 that a 22-year-old Marconi, first came to England. When he arrived at Dover, the duty customs officer opened his luggage and found various ‘suspicious’ pieces of apparatus and scientific instruments. Despite Marconi’s explanations and protestations, he was sent to the Admiralty in London for further inspection, where he met Sir William Preece, chief electrical engineer FIGURE 1: Rathlin Island.