Smeaton and Lighthouses / A Popular Biography, with an Historical Introduction and Sequel

by Anonymous

On the 6th October, 1807, the works were relinquished for the season. The time which had been spent in the rock amounted only to one hundred and eighty hours, of which one hundred and thirty-three, or about thirteen and a half days of ten hours each, could be said to have been actively employed, and yet during this period, besides the erection of the principal beams of the beacon-house, some considerable progress had been made in preparing the site of the lighthouse. ‘This reason’s work,’ says the engineer, ‘affords a good example of what may be executed under similar circumstances, when every heart and hand is anxiously and zealously engaged, for the artificers wrought at the erection of the beacon as for life; or somewhat like men stopping a breach in a wall to keep out an overwhelming flood.’

During winter the men were busy in the work-yard preparing the stones and laying them course by course upon a stone basement, equal to the foundation course of the lighthouse. Here the stones were fitted into their places, and carefully numbered and marked as they were to lie in the building; a necessary operation, the several courses being dove-tailed and connected together, so as to form one mass from the centre to the circumference of the building. The stones were also bored or fixed with trenails of oak and joggles of stone, after the manner of the Eddystone lighthouse, and in this state they were laid aside, and in readiness for being shipped in lighters for the rock.

Considering the importance of a light on the Bell Rock, it was at first determined that the whole outward casing of the lighthouse should be of granite, and that sand-stone should be used only for the interior work; but from the difficulty of procuring a sufficient supply of granite, it was afterwards found necessary to restrict the use of it to the lower courses of the building. The granite was from the Rubislaw quarry, and was so compact, that it contained only about thirteen and a half cubic feet to the ton. The sand-stone was from the Mylnefield quarry, and contained fifteen feet to the ton.

As soon as the weather would permit, the operations of the second season commenced at the rock. The arrangements for carrying on the works were made on an improved scale. A new vessel (named the Sir Joseph Banks) was provided as a tender for lodging the workmen off the rock, instead of the floating-light. The new tender was well supplied with cooking apparatus, provisions, water, fuel, &c.; the space not used as birthage, &c. was occupied with casks of lime, cement, and other articles required for the work. The advantage of this new arrangement was, the ease with which the tender could be brought to the lee side of the rock, to take the people on board at any emergency; whereas, the floating-light, being moored as a guide to shipping, could not be moved about so easily, to serve the purposes of the workmen. Every precaution was also taken to render the praam-boats or stone-lighters buoyant, for such was the presentiment of danger attached to the landing department, that, in addition to a water-tight lining, each praam was provided with twelve strong empty casks, which were stored in the hold, and were sufficient to float and render her buoyant in case of accident. The praams therefore became so many life-boats, moored in the neighbourhood of the rock. The Sir Joseph Banks was also furnished with large landing boats and a life-boat.

The beacon had resisted the wintry storms tolerably well. Indeed, the force of the waves upon the rock was not so great as might have been expected, from an interesting and unlooked-for cause, namely, the extensive beds of marine plants which grow upon it. ‘It often happened,’ says Mr. Stevenson, ‘when heavy seas were rolling along the Bell Rock, which at a distance threatened to overrun the whole, that, upon reaching these beds of fuci, with which the flat and level parts of the rock were thickly coated, the velocity and force of the waves were immediately checked, and in a great measure destroyed.’

On the 25th of May 1808, the operations of the second season were commenced with very different feelings, to those experienced during the previous year, when every step was attended with a great degree of doubt, uncertainty, and danger; but the preparations and precautions, which had been so wisely adopted, gave a security and promptness to the work, which relieved all concerned in it of much anxiety. Landing upon the rock was at all times difficult, but, so long as the boats were kept from striking upon it, the spray which came on board was but little heeded.

During the early part of this season the work proceeded as follows: The workmen landed on the rock at low water, and immediately began to bale out the water from the foundation pit, while the pumps were also kept in action. The work was proceeded with on the higher parts of the foundation as the water left them. The pumps being placed diagonally, about twenty men were employed to work each pump; and thus this great body of water, extending over a circular area of forty-two feet diameter, and of the average depth of two feet, could be drawn off in half an hour. The men then proceeded, for about two hours and a half, to level the foundation with their picks, some of the sailors being employed in clearing away the chips, and conveying the iron tools to and from the smiths on the beacon, where they were sharpened. When the sea broke in and overflowed the pit, the party returned in boats to the tender.

The appearance of the rock about this time is thus described: ‘Its surface was crowded with men, the two forges flaming, the one above the other, upon the beacon, while the anvils thundered with the rebounding noise of their wooden supports, and formed a curious contrast with the clamour of the surges.’ Sometimes, when the sea was smooth, the beacon had the appearance of being afloat upon the water, with a number of men supporting themselves in every variety of attitude and position; while from the upper part of this wooden house, such volumes of smoke ascended from the forges, that strangers at a distance often mistook it for a ship on fire. When working by such light at night, the rock presented a remarkable aspect to the distant shipping, the numerous lights flitting about, apparently below the surface of the water, having a curious and fanciful appearance. To the workmen themselves, the effect of extinguishing the torches was sometimes startling, and made the darkness of the night quite horrible, while the sea would assume that phosphoric appearance so familiar to the sailor, and dash upon the rock like so much liquid fire.

As the work proceeded, the smiths were sometimes left on the beacon throughout the day, and the noise of their anvils was an excellent guide to the boats in foggy weather. This circumstance confirmed the engineer, as to the propriety of erecting in the lighthouse large bells, to be tolled by machinery day and night, during the continuance of foggy weather, by which the mariner may be forewarned of too near an approach to the rock.

The foundation pit having assumed the appearance of a large even platform, and the tides being favourable, it was determined to lay down the first course, which consisted of a few irregular and detached stones for making up certain inequalities in the interior parts of the site of the building. Having taken the dimensions of the first or foundation stone, a model of its figure was made, and this was taken by the engineer in a fast-rowing boat to the work-yard at Arbroath: two men were immediately set to work upon one of the blocks from the Mylnefield quarry, and as the stone-cutters relieved each other, and worked without intermission, the stone was soon prepared, and sent off next day in one of the stone-lighters. On the 9th July the stone was placed in a praam-boat, decorated with colours for the occasion. Flags were also displayed upon the beacon and from the shipping in the offing. The stone was gently lowered into the water, which occupied the site of the building, amidst the cheering of all present. The stone was necessarily landed at high water, for want of a sufficient length of railway for conveying it along the rock at low water to the site of the building.