Edmond Lighthouse

When Lieutenant Jan van Speijk blew up his own gunboat in Antwerp’s harbor in 1831, killing 28 of his 31 crew members rather than surrender to Belgian rebels, the Netherlands needed a hero. His famous last words, ‘I’d rather be blown up,’ weren’t actually shouted in the moment (only two people survived), but lifted from a letter he’d written two months prior. Two years later, King William I declared a royal decree: as long as the Dutch Navy exists, there will always be a ship named van Speijk. That same year, this coastal lighthouse was built, its foundation shaped like a tomb to serve as his official memorial.

The letter had been written to his niece, in which van Speijk compared himself to a 17th-century Dutch captain who’d done something similar rather than surrender his ship. When the moment actually came, there was no one left to record what he said, since the explosion killed almost everyone in earshot. The Netherlands built the legend anyway: a decree guaranteeing his name would outlive every ship it was attached to, and a lighthouse that spends its nights warning sailors away from the exact kind of coastline that made his sacrifice necessary in the first place.