Ortac
Encyclopedia
Islet
An islet is a very small island.- Types :As suggested by its origin as islette, an Old French diminutive of "isle", use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability....
about 5 km West of the coast of Alderney
Alderney
Alderney is the most northerly of the Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The area is , making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick...
near to the islet of Burhou
Burhou
Burhou is a small island approximately 1.4 miles northwest of Alderney that is part of the Channel Islands. It has no permanent residents, and is a bird sanctuary, so landing there is banned from March 15 to July 27...
. It measures approx. 50 by 70 meters.
A.H. Ewen surmised that the rock's name meant "large rock at the edge" from the Norman language
Norman language
Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. Norman can be classified as one of the northern Oïl languages along with Picard and Walloon...
Or (edge) + Etac (Stack
Stack (geology)
A stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, isolated by erosion. Stacks are formed through processes of coastal geomorphology, which are entirely natural. Time, wind and water are the only factors involved in the...
). Alexander Deschamps said that the French formerly knew it as "the Eagle's Nest".
Geology
Ortac and AlderneyAlderney
Alderney is the most northerly of the Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The area is , making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick...
, along with the Casquets
Casquets
Les Casquets or Casquets is a group of rocks 13 km northwest of Alderney and are part of an underwater sandstone ridge. Other parts which emerge above the water are the islets of Burhou and Ortac. Little vegetation grows on them...
, are part of the same sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
ridge.
Paul Naftel, a Guernsey
Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
artist, sketched it, and the drawing appeared in Ansted & Latham's book, The Channel Islands (1862). The writers themselves commented -
If the sea bottom, which is in very few parts as much as 20 fathoms deep, were elevated 120 feet (36.6 m), the island of Alderney, the BurhouBurhouBurhou is a small island approximately 1.4 miles northwest of Alderney that is part of the Channel Islands. It has no permanent residents, and is a bird sanctuary, so landing there is banned from March 15 to July 27...
and Ortac group, and the Casquets would be connected by low land, and form a narrow island around 12 miles (19.3 km) long.
The 1906 book, The Channel Pilot states -
Between Ortac, Verte Tête and Burhou Island, are scattered many dangerous rocks, and ledges among which the streams run with great velocity.
It also supposedly contains a cave known as "the Oven".
Victor Hugo
Victor HugoVictor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
, who lived on Guernsey
Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
, and who wrote much about the Channel Islands says in his novel, The Laughing Man
The Man Who Laughs
The Man Who Laughs is a novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in April 1869 under the French title L'Homme qui rit. Also published under the title By Order of the King...
(L'Homme qui Rit):
...on the port bow arose, standing stark, cut out on the background of mist, a tall opaque mass, vertical, right-angled, a tower of the abyss. It was the Ortac rock. The Ortac, all of a piece, rises up in a straight line to eighty feet above the angry beating of the waves... An immovable cliff, it plunges its rectilinear planes apeak into the numberless serpentine coils of the sea. At night it stands an enormous block, resting on the folds of a huge black sheet. In time of storm it awaits the stroke of the axe which is 'the thunderclap'...
To be wrecked on the CasquetsCasquetsLes Casquets or Casquets is a group of rocks 13 km northwest of Alderney and are part of an underwater sandstone ridge. Other parts which emerge above the water are the islets of Burhou and Ortac. Little vegetation grows on them...
is to be cut into ribbons; to strike on the Ortac is to be crushed into powder... On a straight frontage, such of that of the Ortac, neither the wave nor the cannon ball can ricochet... if the wave carries the vessel on the rock she breaks on it, and is lost...
Meanwhile, in another work, The Toilers of the Sea (Les Travailleurs de la mer), he mentions the curious anecdote that Ortac was inhabited by Saint Malo:
The Norman fishermen who frequent the Channel have many precautions to take at sea, by reason of the illusions with which Satan environs them. It has long been an article of popular faith that Saint Maclou inhabited the great square rock called Ortac, in the sea between Alderney and the Casquets; and many old sailors used to declare that they had often seen him there, seated and reading a book. Accordingly the sailors, as they passed, were in the habit of kneeling many times before the Ortac rock, until the day when the fable was destroyed, and the truth took its place. For it has been discovered, and is now well established, that the lonely inhabitant Of the rock is not a saint, but a devil. This evil spirit, whose name is Jochmus, had the impudence to pass himself of; for many centuries as Saint Maclou. Even the Church herself is not proof against snares of this kind. The demons Ragubel, Oribel, and Tobiel were regarded as saints until the year 745, when Pope ZacharyPope ZacharyPope Saint Zachary was Pope of the Catholic Church from 741 to 752. A Greek from Calabria, he was the last pope of the Byzantine Papacy...
, having at length exposed them, turned them out of saintly company. This sort of weeding of the saintly calendar is certainly very useful; but it can only be practiced by very accomplished judges of devils and their ways.
Wildlife
The islet is noted for its large gannetGannet
Gannets are seabirds comprising the genus Morus, in the family Sulidae, closely related to the boobies.The gannets are large black and white birds with yellow heads. They have long pointed wings and long bills. Northern gannets are the largest seabirds in the North Atlantic, with a wingspan of up...
colony. This is of fairly recent origin. On June 19, 1940, Major J.A.A. Wallace, preparing for the evacuation of Alderney
Alderney
Alderney is the most northerly of the Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The area is , making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick...
, went there to inspect the kittiwake
Black-legged Kittiwake
The Black-legged Kittiwake is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae.This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 as Larus tridactylus....
colony. He found only one gannet. He found none on Les Etacs off Alderney. Now both swarm with the birds.
In 1979, a mission with two naval helicopters was launched to remove nets and rubbish used in nests and which were trapped.
Airway R41
Romeo 41 is an AirwayAirway (aviation)
In aviation, an airway is a designated route in the air. Airways are laid out between navigational aids such as VORs, NDBs and Intersections ....
over the English Channel from the Channel Islands Control Area to the Solent Control Area. There is a reporting point
Intersection (aviation)
In aviation, an intersection is a virtual navigational fix that helps aircraft to maintain their flight plan. It is usually defined as the intersection of two VOR radials. They are usually identified as major airway intersections where aircraft, operating under instrument flight rules, often...
named ORTAC at southern boundary between Romeo 41 and the Channel Islands Control Zone. Its position is 49° 59' 57N, 2° 0' 18W, which is about 30 miles north-north-east of Alderney. This is not coincident with the islet named Ortac, but its name is undoubtedly derived from the islet.
Many Standard Instrument Approach
Standard Terminal Arrival Route
In aviation, a standard terminal arrival route or standard terminal arrival is a published procedure followed by aircraft on an IFR flight plan just before reaching a destination airport.-Description:...
and Departure
Standard Instrument Departure
Standard instrument departure routes, also known as departure procedures are published flight procedures followed by aircraft on an IFR flight plan immediately after take-off from an airport.- Introduction :...
Procedures into Channel Islands airports use ORTAC as part of the procedure. A typical clearance for an Aurigny flight from Alderney to Southampton will read as follows:
"Ayline [see footnote] 123: your clearance is to the Northern Zone boundary via ORTAC, on track Romeo 41."
1) Ayline is Aurigny's callsign