Oil In A Lamp

"'A cold, blustery day, 'twas. I watched that ship dwindle away under the racing clouds till she vanished in the brume, and something made me stop by the temple of Tanith and my way back and put oil in a lamp - not from them, understand, but for all poor mariners, on whom rests the well-being of Tyre.'"

-Poul Anderson, "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 229-331, AT p. 302.

Lancaster City District, where we live, includes Morecambe Bay. Yesterday, walking on the promenade in the town of Morecambe, we saw police cars, an ambulance and a Coast Guard vehicle converging on a single point. A stretcher was carried down to the water's edge. Then a policeman walked back inland, telling us all to clear the area. 

Not only mariners are at risk at sea. Morecambe Bay is tidal. In 2004, when I was working in Morecambe, a group of illegal cockle pickers drowned. I have just googled and found a report of the incident yesterday.

Oil to Tanith - or a candle in St. Peter's Cathedral, Lancaster.