Text 1: Keeping the light alive, by Carys Holden

An original contemporary magazine profile.

Mara Ellis is responsible for six automated lighthouses along a remote stretch of coast. She can check their signals from an office computer, but each tower still needs a maintenance visit every six weeks.

Today, a small workboat leaves the harbour shortly after seven. The sea is calm enough to land at Greycap Point, although Mara says that winter journeys are often cancelled at the last minute. Once ashore, she carries two cases of equipment up the cliff and climbs 126 iron steps inside the tower.

At the top, she cleans salt from the glass, tests the main lamp and examines the batteries charged by the solar panels. Every task is recorded on a tablet. ‘You follow the list in order, even when everything looks fine,’ she says. ‘A loose seal around a window can let in enough water to damage the electrics.’

Much of the work is quiet and repetitive, but faults create pressure. Last November, a warning signal reached Mara’s phone during a storm. She could identify the likely problem remotely, yet the waves prevented a boat from landing for two days. During that time, a reserve lamp kept flashing.

Mara sometimes spends an entire visit without speaking to anyone except the boat crew by radio. She does not mind the isolation. ‘When the tests are finished and the light flashes exactly when it should, you know ships far out at sea are depending on something you have done properly.’

Text 2: A night at Rhoswen Light, by a Staff Reporter

An original feature composed in the style of an 1880s newspaper; it is a modern simulation rather than a historical source.

Mr Iwan Price has served for fourteen years as keeper of Rhoswen Light, a stone tower standing upon a small island two miles from the mainland.

His duties begin before sunset. The great glass lenses must be polished until no smear remains, the oil carried upstairs and the wicks trimmed with care. When darkness falls, Mr Price lights the lamp and winds the heavy clockwork which turns the lenses. He repeats this winding during the night and records the weather and the condition of the flame in a leather book.

In fog, sleep is impossible. The bell must be sounded at fixed intervals, and Mr Price listens for vessels beyond the rocks. ‘A careless man might endanger a whole ship,’ he told me. ‘There can be no forgetting because one is tired.’

A supply boat generally comes once a week with oil, food and letters. During a gale last winter, no boat could land for eighteen days. Mr Price and his assistant ate the last of their potatoes and watched the mainland lights from the tower windows.

The nights are long and the same small rooms become wearisome, yet Mr Price takes pride in his post. At dawn, when the lamp is put out, he sometimes finds a passing captain has sounded the ship’s whistle in greeting. ‘Then I know they have seen us,’ he said.

Using information from both texts, explain briefly what maintaining lighthouse lights was like for the workers.

You should make it clear which text you are referring to.