7th August.—We this morning took on board various tools and implements for the Rock, together with workmen to the number of four carpenters, sixteen masons and quarriers, and a smith, along with Mr George Middlemiss, as foreman. Having sailed with a northerly wind, we made a landing about noon, First good day’s work on the Rock. and had what may be called our first entire day of work on the Rock. Our work was by no means easy, as we had to erect shear-poles and fix crabs for landing the materials, and to lash every article that was landed, with great care down to ring-bolts on the Rock, which a few of the masons were fixing, while the rest of the people were discharging the vessel. All this was attended with a good deal of trouble, and it required my constant attention to keep everything going on in a fair train, so as to prevent one party of workmen requiring to wait for another; but, after eight hours of very hard work, I had the satisfaction of seeing all the materials which had been landed left in a secure state. The extreme smoothness of the surface of the Rock greatly impeded the landing of materials; for as yet we had no tramways on which wheeled trucks could be moved, and the transport by hand of heavy materials over so irregular and slippery a surface was attended with considerable danger. A short trial was this day made of boring one of the holes for the stancheons or bats, by which the timbers of the Barrack were to be secured to the Rock; and I found, that with a jumper of 3¹⁄₂ inches diameter, a depth of about 3 inches was bored in one hour. The commencement of the operations involved much labour and considerable discomfort; but it invariably happened throughout the work, that in spite of all the fatigue and privation attending a day’s work on this unsheltered Rock, the landsmen were for the most part sorry to exchange it for the ship, which rolled so heavily as to leave few free from sea-sickness, and to deprive most of the workmen of sleep at night, even after their unusually great exertions during the day.
On leaving the Rock at night we had the greatest difficulty in boarding the Pharos with two boats containing upwards of thirty-two persons, as the vessel rolled so heavily, that there was great danger of the boats being thrown right upon her deck. Next morning (8th August) we landed, with some sea running, about nine o’clock, before which hour it was impracticable, owing to the surf in the landing creek. Our first work was to prepare the tackling for landing the heavy materials from the New Leven, which came up about eleven o’clock, and was made fast by a warp to the Pharos. We next took means for fixing the smith’s forge on the Rock and preparing the fixtures for the crab, which stood on the point of rock to the westward (see [Plate III.]), and served chiefly for raising the beams of the log-house into their places. The greater part of the day, till half-past eight in the evening (when it became dark), was spent in lining off with accuracy the site of the supports of the wooden barrack, and in landing and fixing by strong lashings to the Rock, all the principal timbers and iron fixtures. The spot in which the framework of the first barrack was placed, will be seen by reference to [Plate III.] The Rock was at this place a good deal lower than the site afterwards adopted for the barrack. The high water of spring-tides rose 2¹⁄₂ feet upon the legs or main beams; but this site had many advantages, as it left more room for operations at or near the Tower itself than could have been obtained in any other position.
We also made some progress in erecting a wooden shed round the smith’s forge, to protect him and his fire from the wind and the spray of the sea. As we left the Rock in the boats, speculating on the prospect of getting the whole of the materials discharged in the course of next day, it was remarked that the northern sky was very clear, and that the wind had entirely fallen. The great and sudden stillness of the air, which permitted every ripple on the ocean to be heard, was regarded by Mr Macurich and the seamen generally, as the forerunner of a change; and the moon, which rose red and fiery, confirmed their fears of a gale. Nor were they wrong in their forebodings. Sudden gale, and great peril to the vessels.About midnight there was a stiff breeze from the S.E., which induced the master of the New Leven to hoist sail, cast loose from us, and run; and had not the seaman on watch on the deck of the Pharos fallen asleep in consequence of excessive fatigue, there can be little doubt we should have been at once called to follow her example, if, indeed, we had not led the way. No sooner, however, did Mr Macurich become aware of the state of the wind, which was blowing very strong at S.S.E. right into the landing place, than he roused me about two o’clock. At this time there was a very heavy sea; the little vessel was pitching her forecastle under, and we had to contend with a strong tide combined with the wind against us in working clear of the Rock, from which our moorings were not more than a quarter of a mile to windward; while from the place where we lay, half of the horizon was foul ground, all lying to our leeward. We soon set sail, but in vain tried to weather the sunk rock Bo-Rhua, whose large black mass (after having imagined ourselves past it) we discovered encircled by a wreath of white foam within less than a cable’s length of us. The heavy seas we encountered had greatly deceived us as to our progress, and thick blinding showers of rain made it difficult to see far beyond the vessel’s head. Such was the precarious and dangerous position of the vessel, that had an attempt been made to tack her amidst the surf which came rolling off the Rock, she would most probably have missed stays, the consequence of which would have been the inevitable loss of the vessel and of every soul on board. In this dilemma we were obliged to resort to a less dangerous expedient, by wearing the ship and running her through the narrow passage between Bo-Rhua and the sunk rocks, about 300 yards to the W.N.W. of it, although this was a most hazardous attempt, as we had then little or no knowledge of that dangerous and intricate passage. A more anxious night I never spent; there being upwards of thirty people on board, with the prospect, during several hours, of the vessel striking every minute. And here I must award due praise to Mr Macurich for the coolness and intrepidity which he on this occasion displayed, and the calmness with which he gave his orders to the crew; and as I stood in the companion, telling him the time at intervals of five minutes, so as to enable him the better to judge of the vessel’s way through the water, I could not but remark the necessity for silence on the part of the master of a vessel in cases of difficulty. The workmen were told to be getting ready for landing, but we did not make them aware of the full extent of the danger; and to avoid confusion, they were not permitted to come on deck. We had no sooner cleared the sunk rocks already alluded to, than we were in fear of the great reef of Boinshly, and the heavy seas which were breaking over the foul ground all round it. In this way we spent a night of almost uninterrupted anxiety until daylight, and at eight in the morning Reach Hynish in safety. we came to the moorings in Hynish Bay, after a hard struggle against wind and tide and a very heavy sea, which made us hang dead a long time off Hynish Point. At one time I feared we should have been forced, as I had been, when returning from my first unsuccessful and discouraging attempt to land on the Skerryvore in 1836, to go round the west side of Tyree and Coll, which is a very foul coast; and when we did round Hynish Point, it was almost at the expense of our boat, which the heavy sea had nearly swept away from us. After all this anxiety about our safety and discomfort from rain, wind, and spray, during five or six hours, we were not sorry to set foot even on the wild shores of Tyree; and I trust there were none who did not gratefully acknowledge the protecting care of Almighty God, in preserving us through such peril.
Detained by bad weather four days at Hynish. It was not until Monday the 13th that a landing was again effected on the rock, as the wind continued to blow strongly from the south; and the intervening four days were spent in Hynish Bay, landing in the morning, and again returning to the vessel in the evening. During this time I was engaged in making drawings of some of the lower courses of the Lighthouse Tower, with a view to fix finally upon dimensions, from which working drawings and wooden moulds for cutting the stones could be made. The only alleviation of my impatience at being detained at Hynish was the satisfaction of seeing some 20 feet of the pier founded at low water. Late in the evening of the 13th August we again landed on the Rock, when we found time, before dark, to complete the fixture of the smith’s forge, which I had been forced to leave unfinished. Even the short period of work this evening was curtailed by a very heavy shower, which drenched us to the skin—a great evil, where there are many people to be accommodated in a small vessel, without room for much spare clothing, or the means of getting any thing quickly dried. Return to the Rock, and have six days of good weather. After this we had an uninterrupted tract of good weather for six days; and as we landed every morning at four o’clock, and remained on the Rock until eight, taking only half an hour for breakfast, and the same time for dinner, we had thus the work of twenty-eight persons for about ninety hours.
Erection of the Pyramid of the wooden Barrack. After carefully setting out the radial directions in which the six legs, or main beams were to stand, our next step was to lay off their approximate distances from the centre of the Barrack, and to clear a space in the solid Rock of sufficient extent to admit of adjusting the exact positions of the bats before boring the holes. This operation involved the necessity of blasting parts of the Rock by very small shots, the bores being about 1¹⁄₂ inch diameter, and 15 inches in depth, and so directed as to have the effect of throwing off a thin superficial crust without shaking the solid part below. The materials thus quarried in forming the seats for each post were thrown, by means of tackle, into the deepest pools, to prevent their being driven by the sea against the timbers of the barrack, and so injuring them.
No. 4.
No. 5.
Mode of determining the length of the Beams, and the sites for their fixtures. For ascertaining the exact length of each of the six beams, which formed by their union a pyramid of about 21° 30′ of inclination, and, at the same time, for determining its exact place, in reference to the centre of the hexagon, both of which elements necessarily varied with the level of the irregular surface of the Rock, I used the following simple arrangement:—Each beam being of the greatest length that could be required, the level and distance from the centre were ascertained for the longest beam, which, of course, had the lowest seat or rest, by means of a wooden frame, shewn in the diagram ([No. 4]), in which a a is a vertical rod of iron firmly batted into the rock, so as to coincide with the centre of the pyramid to be formed by the main beams, and of sufficient length to exceed the greatest variation of level between the different points where the beams are likely to stand; c c is a horizontal board which can be freely turned about a a horizontally, and resting upon a small shoulder d, and which is equal in length to the radius of the hexagon, on the horizontal plane at the level of the lowest beam. On this board is a spirit-level s, which regulates its horizontality; e e is the approximate position of the lower end of the beam; f f is a pitched board, representing the section of the permanent beam, on a vertical plane passing through the axis of the pyramid, and also shewing its inclination towards the centre of the pyramid. As this pitched board is capable of being moved up or down by sliding through a groove at g, it may be successively applied to the rough surface at e e in the course of cutting it down, and thus be made truly to represent the position of the beam, and, at the same time, give the inclination of the surface e e, which must be at right angles to the axis of the beam f f. In this way, by repeated trials, the surface was truly dressed to its proper inclination, and the length ascertained which required to be cut from the beam, so as to make it rest on that surface when in its true position. Hence, also, in the case of all the other beams, the length which the pitch-board f f was moved upwards through the groove g, beyond the level c c, indicated the quantity to be cut from the end of any given beam.[17] The surface of the Rock, dressed for the seat of the beam, being thus brought to its proper inclination, the sliding-board correctly set and the centre line a a of the beam carefully marked on the Rock, a square board (see [fig. No. 5]) representing the cross section of one of the beams, was then put down at the proper distance, so as to cover the space indicated by the pitch-board as the site of the beam, and with its centre coinciding with the radius already traced on the dressed seat or bed. When so placed, the small round knobs, or ears, d d ([No. 5]) on this board, shewed the position of the holes to be bored for the bats or side fixtures, which, as afterwards shewn in figure ([No. 8], p. 88), spread outwards from the axis of the beam, and thus formed a kind of dovetail. In order to make the holes capable of receiving the bats and, at the same time, embracing the timbers of the barrack, a quoin of wood ([Nos. 6] and [7]) e, was put down, with bevelled faces or grooves g, cut in it for directing the motion of the jumper or boring iron i, thus:—