The authority to commence operations was given on March 11, 1867, and this year was devoted to completing preparations, so that in the following season work might be started in earnest and carried on throughout the summer at high pressure. The first task was the erection of the barrack on the rock. The workmen got ashore for the first time on June 25, 1867, and, although landing at all times was trying and perilous, attempts often having to be abandoned owing to the swell, the engineer succeeded in landing twenty-seven times up to September 3, when work had to be suspended until the following year. Despite the shortness of the season, the men made appreciable headway. The iron framework of the barrack was completed to the first tier, while a good beginning was made upon the rock-face in connection with the foundations for the lighthouse. When the autumnal gales approached, everything in connection with the barrack was left secure, the builders being anxious to ascertain how it would weather the winter gales and the force and weight of the waves which bore down upon it.
The engineers finally decided upon a tower 107½ feet in height. After trying various curves for the outline, they came to the decision that a parabolic frustum would afford the most serviceable design, as well as providing the maximum of strength. A diameter of 36 feet was chosen for the base, tapering gradually and gracefully to one of 16 feet at the top, with the entrance 32 feet above the base, to which point the cone was to be solid.
The arrangements were that work should be resumed in the early spring of 1868, so as to secure full advantage of the favourable easterly winds. Accordingly, when the special steam-tender arrived on April 14, she was loaded up with necessaries and men, ready to proceed to the site directly the wind should veer round to the desired point of the compass. But with aggravating persistency it clung to the west and south-west until the end of June, so that many valuable weeks were unfortunately lost. Time after time, when there was a lull in the weather, the steamer put out from Earraid, the engineers determined to make a dash for the rock, and as many times they were foiled, as the men could not be got through the surf. One day, however, an hour and a half was snatched on the rock, and, although no work could be done in that time, yet the interval was sufficient to enable the engineers to take a look round and to see how their handiwork had withstood the heavy gales of the previous winter. There was only one marked evidence of the Atlantic’s wrath. One section of the iron ring connecting the heads of the legs of the barrack at a height of 30 feet had been carried away.
By permission of the Lighthouse Literature Mission.
THE NORTH UNST LIGHT.
The first light was built in twenty-six days during the Crimean War at the British Government’s urgent request.
By permission of the Lighthouse Literature Mission.
LANDING WATER AT THE NORTH UNST.