When the high light-house is in the same direction with the light-house which stands below the cliff, it directs the vessels which are either coming in or going out of Lowestoft roads, to the Stanford channel, which lies between the Holme and Barnard sands. This channel is about a quarter of a mile broad, and three quarters of a mile distant from that part of the shore that is opposite to it; and though it has existed from time immemorial to parts contiguous to its present situation, yet, from the effects of storms and currents, and other causes, beyond perhaps, the reach of human investigation, it is of such a fluctuating nature, that it never continues long in the same situation. Of late years its motion has been northerly, as is evident from the several changes which have been made in the situation of the lower lighthouse—which is a movable one—to bring it in a line with the upper light-house and the channel; which removals have always been towards the north. About a century ago this channel was situated more distant to the south-west from where it is at present: for on the spot of ground whereon the upper light-house stands, there stood, about a hundred years ago, a beacon; and there was also at the same time, another beacon standing on the north side of the passage going down the Swan score, as guides to the Stanford; and therefore to bring these two beacons on a line with the Stanford channel, that channel must necessarily, at that time, lie more to the south-west than where it does now.
In the year 1676 the beacon at the north end of the town was taken down, and on the place where it stood was erected, the upper light-house. This building is a round-built tower, consisting of brick and stone materials, is about 40 feet in height, and twenty in diameter. About two-thirds of the upper part of it next the sea—and about thirty feet from the ground—was originally sashed, that the fire might be visible to the spectators on the sea. In this part was placed a hearth, whereon a coal fire was continually kept burning every night; and was always conducted in this manner until the alteration in this light-house, in the year 1778, was made.
In the year 1735, when the Stanford channel had proceeded so far to the north that the beacon near the Swan score became useless, from its being brought on a line with the upper light-house, [36a]—a moveable light-house, framed of timber, was erected on the beach below the cliff, whose construction was such as to admit of its being removed according as the channel should happen to change its situation. [36b]
On the western side of the upper lighthouse, underneath the arms of Trinity House are the arms of Samuel Pepys, Esq., beneath which is this inscription.—
Erected by the Brotherhood of the
Trinity House of Deptford Strond, in
The Mastership of Samuel Pepys, Esq.,
Secretary to the Admiralty of England,
Anno Dom. 1676.
In the year 1777, when the upper part of this lighthouse became so much decayed that it was necessary to have it repaired in a short time, it was resolved by the brethren of the Trinity House, to take the top wholly off, and to erect in its place one of the new-invented reflecting cylinders. Accordingly in the month of June, 1778, the Trinity yacht, with several of the elder brethren, arrived at Lowestoft, and brought one of these curious inventions with them, in order to observe what effect it would produce. In consequence of this design, a temporary scaffold was erected on an eminence a little to the north of the lighthouse, and the cylinder was hoisted upon it; and in the evening the Trinity yacht sailed off to sea, to a considerable distance, in order to discover what appearance it would have: when it was found to answer beyond expectation. When the yacht returned, the cylinder was ordered to be immediately taken down, and to be shipped on board the yacht, with a view of sending it to the Isle of Scilly, which was then in immediate want of it, and a new one was ordered to be sent to Lowestoft presently after, which was accordingly sent, and erected upon the remaining part of the old lighthouse. The following account of this reflecting cylinder, with an engraving of the same, was published by the author of this work, in the Town and Country Magazine, for April, 1788:
This curious machine consists of a glass lanthorn about seven feet high, and six in diameter, glazed with the best plate glass; the frame of which is copper, and covered with a roof of the same metal. In the centre of the lanthorn is set upon a frame a large hexagonal reflecting cylinder, four feet in height, and three feet in diameter. This cylinder is made of copper, the outside of which is covered with cement, upon which are placed nearly 4,000 small mirrors, each mirror about an inch square. In the centre of this cylinder is fixed a reservoir of oil, which, by fixed pipes passing through hexagonal divisions of the cylinder, support and convey the oil to a large circular tube, which is placed about eighteen inches from the surface of the cylinder, and upon this tube are fixed 126 lamps. One of these lighthouses was made by an order of the elder brethren of the Trinity House, sent on board their yacht, with several of the brethren, and sailed for Lowestoft, in Suffolk, to make a trial of its utility. Accordingly in the night of the 23rd of June, a temporary scaffold being erected for that purpose, the machine was hoisted and the lamps lighted; when it was found to answer beyond conception, exhibiting a globe of fire of a steady and most vivid brightness. This experiment was made at a small distance from the lighthouse commonly made use of, the light of which is supported by a coal fire, and was exerted to the utmost on this occasion, to maintain, its superiority; and was appointed to be the criterion by which the difference was to be determined. The yacht accompanied by some boats, sailed off to sea the preceding day, so as to be out of sight of land before sunset—the time appointed for lighting it. They sailed in for the land, and discovered the new light-house as soon as the convexity of the sea would permit, it being at least twenty miles from the shore, and sailed five or six miles nearer before they could perceive the fire of the old light-house.
The brethren of the Trinity House being thus convinced of the great utility of this invention, gave orders the next day to have it taken down and sent to the Island of Scilly.
SECTION III.
OF THE FISHERIES AND MANUFACTORY AT LOWESTOFT.
The principal commerce subsisting at Lowestoft is derived from its herring-fishery. The town most probably, received its very existence from the convenient situation of its coast for fishermen to exercise the several occupations of a life dependent on those employments; which in the more early ages, extended, very likely, to every kind of fish that the coast afforded; though now, in these more recent times, it is chiefly confined to the herring fishery. The herrings appear on the coast of Shetland in the month of June, and from thence they proceed to the coast of Scotland; but being interrupted in their passage by the Island of Great Britain, they separate into two divisions, one of which divisions, after steering west, or south west, and leaving the Isles of Orkney and Shetland on the north, pass by the western isles, and proceed to Ireland; and there receiving a second retardation, they subdivide, and one part keeps the coast and shore of Britain and passing down St. George’s Channel as far as the mouth of the Severn, where they unite again with their former friends, and the second part of the same division, who had edged off to the west and south-west, and sheering along the western shore of the coast of Ireland, and then proceeding south and south-east, were also entered into St. George’s Channel. The second part of the first division, which was separated off the north part of Scotland having directed their course to the south and south-east, entered the German ocean; and continuing their progress along the coast of Scotland, they proceed to the south, and rounding the high shore of Berwick and St. Abb’s, are not seen any more till they arrive upon the Yorkshire coast, and not in any great quantities till they appear off Yarmouth and Lowestoft; where, after continuing a few weeks, and leaving an immense quantity of spawn, they pass through the German ocean, and entering the straights of Dover continue to proceed along the coasts of Sussex, Hampshire, etc., to the Land’s End, where the two divisions forming a junction, they enter the vast Atlantic ocean.
Herrings have been seen on the shores of North America, though not in such large quantities as have appeared on the coasts of Britain; neither are they seen in America any farther south than South Carolina. But whether these herrings be part of that enormous shoal which first approach the north of Scotland, and instead of confining their progress to the British Isles, extend it to the coast of America; or whether they be part of that vast collection, who, after forming a junction on the coast of Cornwall, launch into the Atlantic ocean, is difficult to determine with certainty. It may, perhaps, be no improbable conjecture to suppose, that the herrings which appear on the American coast are only such as have deserted from the main body of the fish during their continuance in the western ocean. And as it is evident that these fish are never seen in any considerable quantity upon the coast of the more southern parts of Europe, such as Spain, or Portugal, or the southern parts of France, neither in the Mediterranean, or coast of Africa; but, after they have entered the Atlantic ocean, are seen no more till the succeeding summer, on the coast of Shetland. We may conclude, that after the herrings have appeared early in the summer on the northern coasts, and proceeded on the eastern and western sides of the British Isles, discharging their roes, and having formed a conjunction at their general rendezvous near the Land’s End, and launched into the Atlantic ocean, and continued there the remainder of the winter, that they afterwards proceed to the north; and assembling together near the coasts of Greenland, in the Spring they continued their progress from those parts to the south, and in the summer appear again on the north of Shetland and Scotland, thereby performing, in the course of a year, one entire revolution round the islands of Great Britain and Ireland; so that the herring may, without impropriety, be termed a fish of passage.