The Bishop Rock () is a skerry off the British coast in the northern Atlantic Ocean known for its lighthouse. It is in the westernmost part of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The Guinness Book of Records lists it as the world's smallest island with a building on it. The original iron lighthouse was begun in 1847 but was washed away before it could be completed. The present building was completed in 1858 and was first lit on 1September that year. Before the installation of the helipad, visitors to the lighthouse would rappel from the top (with winches installed at the lamp level and at the base below) to boats waiting away from the lighthouse. Bishop Rock is also at the eastern end of the North Atlantic shipping route used by ocean liners in the first half of the 20th century; the western end being the entrance to Lower New York Bay. This was the route that ocean liners took when competing for the Transatlantic speed record, known as the Blue Riband. History In the late 13th century, when the Isles of Scilly were under the jurisdiction of John de Allet and his wife Isabella, anyone convicted of felony "ought to be taken to a certain rock in the sea, with two barley loaves and a pitcher of water and left until the sea swallowed him up". The rock was originally recorded as Maen Escop in 1284 and Maenenescop in 1302. In Cornish, Men Eskop means "Bishop's Stone", whilst Men an Eskop means "the Stone of the Bishop". The outer rocks to the west of St Agnes also used to be known as the Bishop and Clerk, but exactly how they acquired these similar names is not known for certain. A possible explanation is that the shape of the rock is similar to a bishop's mitre. East of Bishop Rock are the Western Rocks and the Gilstone Reef, where Admiral Shovell's flagship HMS Association was wrecked in the great naval disaster of 1707. Shovell's remains were repatriated to England by order of Queen Anne shortly after their initial burial in the Isles of Scilly. The earliest recorded wreck on the rock itself was in 1839, when the brig Theodorick struck in rough misty weather on 4September. She was out of Mogodore for London carrying a general cargo. In