The second application was made in 1806, in a Bill introduced by Lord Advocate Erskine, and proceeded on the same design and estimate of £42,685, 8s., prepared by Mr. Stevenson, in 1800; and the following is an extract from the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons to whom was referred the petition of the Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses:—
“Proceeded to examine Mr. Robert Stevenson, Civil Engineer, who, in his capacity of Engineer for the Northern Lighthouses, has erected six lighthouses in the northern parts of the kingdom, and has made the erection of a lighthouse on the Cape or Bell Rock more particularly his study,—especially since the loss of about seventy sail of vessels in a storm which happened upon the coast in the month of December 1799, by which numerous ships were driven from their course along the shore, and from their moorings in Yarmouth Roads, and other places of anchorage, southward of the Firth of Forth, and wrecked upon the eastern coast of Scotland, as referred to in the report made to this House in the month of July 1803; the particulars of which he also confirms: That the Bell Rock is most dangerously situated, lying in a track which is annually navigated by no less than about 700,000 tons of shipping, besides his Majesty’s ships of war and revenue cutters: That its place is not easily ascertained, even by persons well acquainted with the coast, being covered by the sea about half-flood, and the landmarks, by which its position is ascertained, being from twelve to twenty miles distant from the site of danger.
“That from the inquiries he made at the time the ‘York’ man-of-war was lost, and pieces of her wreck having drifted ashore upon the opposite and neighbouring coast, and from an attentive consideration of the circumstances which attend the wreck of ships of such dimensions, he thinks it probable that the ‘York’ must have struck upon the Bell Rock, drifted off, and afterwards sunk in deep water: That he is well acquainted with the situation of the Bell Rock, the yacht belonging to the Lighthouse service having, on one occasion, been anchored near it for five days, when he had an opportunity of landing upon it every tide: That he has visited most of the lighthouses on the coast of England, Wales, and Ireland, particularly those of the Eddystone, the Smalls, and the Kilwarlin, or South Rock, which are built in situations somewhat similar to the Bell Rock: That at high water there is a greater depth on the Bell Rock than on any of these, by several feet; and he is therefore fully of opinion, that a building of stone, upon the principles of the Eddystone Lighthouse, is alone suitable to the peculiar circumstances which attend this rock, and has reported his opinion accordingly to the Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses as far back as the year 1800; and having given the subject all the attention in his power, he has estimated the expense of erecting a building of stone upon it at the sum of £42,685, 8s.
“Your Committee likewise examined Mr. John Rennie, Civil Engineer, who, since the report made to this House in 1803, has visited the Bell Rock, who confirms the particulars in said report, and entertains no doubt of the practicability of erecting a lighthouse on that rock, is decidedly of opinion that a stone lighthouse will be the most durable and effectual, and indeed the only kind of building that is suited to this situation: That he has computed the expense of such a building, and after making every allowance for contingencies, from his own experience of works in the sea, it appears to him that the estimate or expense will amount to £41,843, 15s.”
This application was fortunately successful, the Act having obtained the royal assent in July 1806, when the Commissioners at once determined to commence the work.
Mr. Stevenson now began to feel the full stress of his responsibility. He accordingly says in his notes:—
“The erection of a lighthouse on a rock about twelve miles from land, and so low in the water that the foundation-course must be at least on a level with the lowest tide, was an enterprise so full of uncertainty and hazard that it could not fail to press on my mind. I felt regret that I had not had the opportunity of a greater range of practice to fit me for such an undertaking. But I was fortified by an expression of my friend Mr. Clerk, in one of our conversations upon its difficulties. ‘This work,’ said he, ‘is unique, and can be little forwarded by experience of ordinary masonic operations. In this case Smeaton’s Narrative must be the text-book, and energy and perseverance the pratique.’”
Mr. Rennie also, who had supported the Bill of 1806 in Parliament, and afterwards was appointed by the Commissioners as an advising Engineer to whom Mr. Stevenson could refer in case of emergency, and who had suggested some alterations on Mr. Stevenson’s design of the lighthouse in which he did not see his way to acquiesce, nevertheless continued to take a kind interest in the work, and they continued to correspond frequently during its progress. “Poor old fellow,” Rennie says in one letter, alluding to the name of Smeaton, “I hope he will now and then take a peep of us, and inspire you with fortitude and courage to brave all difficulties and all dangers, to accomplish a work which will, if successful, immortalise you in the annals of fame.”[3]
How well Mr. Stevenson met the demands which, in the course of his great enterprise, were made on his perseverance, fortitude, and self-denial, the history of the operations, and their successful completion, abundantly show. The work was indeed, in all respects, peculiarly suited to his tastes and habits; and Mr. Clerk truly—although perhaps unconsciously—characterised the man, in his terse statement of what would be required of him: “The work is unique—ordinary experience can do little for it—all must depend on energy and perseverance.” No one can read Mr. Stevenson’s “Account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse” without perceiving the justness of this estimate of the difficulties that lay before him, and his ability to overcome them.
Though ever maintaining the highest respect for Smeaton and his noble work, Mr. Stevenson was led, in his original design of 1800, as we have already seen, and further in his actual execution of the Bell Rock tower, to deviate to a considerable extent from the design of the Eddystone. Mr. Stevenson adopted a height of one hundred feet instead of sixty-eight for the height of the masonry, and he carried the level of the solid part of the tower to the height of twenty-one feet above high water, instead of eleven feet as at the Eddystone. In addition to these deviations in the general dimensions of the tower, he increased the thickness of the walls, and he also introduced some changes of importance in its interior structure, whereby he secured a greater continuity, and therefore greater strength of the masonry of the walls and floors, which he describes in his book as follows:—