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14-455: Ortac is a small uninhabited islet about 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) west of the coast of Alderney near to the islet of Burhou . It measures roughly 50 by 70 metres (164.0 by 229.7 feet), and rises 24 metres (78.7 feet) above the sea level . A.H. Ewen surmised that the rock's name meant "large rock at the edge" from the Norman language or (edge) + etac ( stack ). Alexander Deschamps said that

28-431: 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 and Departure 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 [ Aurigny 's callsign ] 123: your clearance

42-733: Is generally considered to be a rock or small island that has little vegetation and cannot sustain human habitation", and further that size may vary from a few square feet to several square miles, with no specific rule pertaining to size. Whether an islet is considered a rock or not, it can have significant economic consequences under Article 121 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea , which stipulates that "Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf ." One long-term dispute over

56-497: Is to the Northern Zone boundary via ORTAC, on track Quebec 41." 49°43′23″N 2°17′26″W  /  49.72306°N 2.29056°W  / 49.72306; -2.29056 Islet As suggested by its origin 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. The World Landforms website says, "An islet landform

70-529: The Channel Islands says in his novel, The Laughing Man ( 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

84-619: The French formerly knew it as "the Eagle's Nest". Ortac and Alderney, along with the Casquets , are part of the same sandstone ridge. Paul Naftel , a Guernsey 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 (37 m),

98-681: The birds. In 1979, a mission with two naval helicopters was launched to remove nets and rubbish used in nests and which were trapped. Quebec 41 is an Airway over the English Channel from the Channel Islands Control Area to the Solent Control Area. There is a reporting point named ORTAC at southern boundary between Quebec 41 and the Channel Islands Control Zone. Its position is 49° 59' 57N, 2° 0' 18W, which

112-473: 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

126-569: The island of Alderney, the Burhou and Ortac group, and the Casquets would be connected by low land, and form a narrow island around 12 miles (19 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 , who lived on Guernsey , and who wrote much about

140-493: 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 Zachary , having at length exposed them, turned them out of saintly company. This sort of weeding of

154-431: 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 Casquets 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

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168-433: The saintly calendar is certainly very useful; but it can only be practiced by very accomplished judges of devils and their ways. The islet is noted for its large gannet colony. This is of fairly recent origin. On June 19, 1940, Major J. A. A. Wallace, preparing for the evacuation of Alderney, went there to inspect the kittiwake colony. He found only one gannet. He found none on Les Etacs off Alderney. Now both swarm with

182-522: The status of such an islet was that of Snake Island (Black Sea) . The International Court of Justice jurisprudence however sometimes ignores islets, regardless of inhabitation status, in deciding territorial disputes; it did so in 2009 in adjudicating the Romania-Ukraine dispute , and previously in the dispute between Libya and Malta involving the islet of Filfla . There are thousands of islets on Earth: approximately 24,000 islands and islets in

196-503: 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

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