My Final Project: "Signs at Wick Harbour"

Here are the seven pictures that I have chosen for my final project.

Picture#1

This photo (above) has the emblem and the contact telephone number for Wick Harbour. It's reminding people (tourists or otherwise) that the walkways in the harbour can be dangerous in poor weather. It's true: in high winds the sea can storm right over the harbour wall, which is almost impossible to imagine in good weather! Unfortunately, I don't really have any photos to show this as salt spray and camera lenses don't really get on too well with each other!

Picture#2

Here's another sign with the Wick Harbour emblem on, although no contact number this time. The purpose of this sign is not to warn people of the dangers associated with the harbour, but to boast that the harbour building is using renewable energy - thereby "proving" that the harbour is moving into the 21st century as it is clearly considering and acting on contemporary issues. One particularly interesting thing about the sign (shown clearly on this photo) is that the font choice for the Sponsors is far easier to read than the main body of text, suggesting that it is more important to see who sponsored the Photovoltaic Roof than it is to read what the roof actually does.

Picture#3

This picture is fairly self-explanatory. It shows the sign on the lifebelt equipment that is prominently placed on the harbour front. I particularly like the warning at the bottom: "do not interfere with this equipment - the life it saves could be yours!". It's clearly suitably foreboding, as no one has tampered with the lifebelt for as long as I've been in Wick, symptomatic of the fact that many people who live in coastal towns have a considerable respect for the sea.

Picture#4

The sign on this photo is an advertisement for the Wick Heritage Museum (which takes as its main focus Wick's role in the herring industry). This photograph shows the sign on an old building, which is actually the old lifeboat station. I think the sign looks quite old, and I'm not sure whether that's because it is (!) or whether it is a conscious decision on the part of the Heritage Museum to make it look old, and therefore tie in with the harbour's history. The boat on the centre of the sign is called the Isabella Fortuna, and is dated 1890. Here is a bit more about it.

Picture#5

This is the final sign that I photographed. It is another advertisement, but quite different from Picture#4, in that it is full of coloured photographs. It is advertising marine tours that sail out of Wick (and Lybster) and what you can expect to see if you travel on one. This is a large board next to the marina and the orange boat seen behind the sign is similar to the one that is used for the tours. Obviously they only run in good weather!

Picture #6

This sign on this photo is advertising an event at the harbour in June 2012.  The sign is covered in red, white and blue flags (the colours of the Union Jack - the flag of the UK) and has two emblems on: one for the Queen's Jubilee and one for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, this is symbolic of the fact that the event that is advertising a joint event from the two organisations.  

Picture #7

This road sign is just in front of Wick Marina and is warning drivers to slow down or risk driving straight into the water.  Actually, there is a pavement and a fence between the road and the water and this, combined with the fact that this sign is very faded, makes me think that perhaps the sign was put there before the marina was redesigned - at a time when there was more danger of actually driving into the sea.  From a personal point of view, this picture makes me chuckle as I think it makes it look a little bit like the road suddenly goes straight into the sea...