The day mark, St Martin's

The history books will tell you that it was built in 1683. It is curious, then, that photographs exist from the 1960s which show no such structure: even more curious that otherwise identical photographs will not show it until, when later revisited, it will be found to always have been present in the image after all

Not curious at all, of course, to those few who know what fell here, and into the sea, on that dreadful day in 1965, and what the day mark's real purpose is: to warn of what lies buried beneath it, or at least those parts of it which were not shovelled into the sea. Still today, occasional fragments, strangely coloured and bearing the traces of great heat, are sometimes washed up. The islanders know not to approach them, and that the tide will soon submerge them again. And certainly no-one much cares if a few foolish tourists are lost, having ill-advisedly approached the objects. Sometimes their remains are identifiably human, sometimes ... not.