Lightships and Lighthouses

by Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

THE JUMENT LIGHT RECENTLY ERECTED OFF USHANT.

This beacon was built with a legacy left by M. Potron, a distinguished French traveller, in the interests of humanity.

The security of the structure occupied the sole attention of the engineer. When work had to cease, and the boat put off with the workmen after a spell of toil, the engineer would watch the rising tide and the waves sweeping over his structure, until at last it disappeared from sight. As the tide fell he followed the receding waters just as eagerly, and gave a sigh of relief when he saw that the tower was still withstanding the blind forces of Nature. In the early stages an effort to protect the work, when the men had to retreat before the rising tide, was made by covering it with a heavy piece of sailcloth, lashed down and weighted in position with huge masses of pig-iron. This served its purpose for a time, but finally the sea got the upper hand, tore the canvas from its lashings, and carried it away, together with the whole of its weights. Then a wooden protective device was employed, and this likewise held out until a particularly unfriendly September gale smashed it to matchwood, as well as damaging the concrete slightly here and there.

The men took their tools and materials with them on every visit, and, as the tower rose, the working spells between the tides became longer and longer, until, when a point above high-water was reached, work was continued throughout the day whenever the rock was approachable. A small wooden platform was erected on one side, on which the concrete was mixed, while on the other there was a little shelf with a small cistern, which was filled with water from the boats below, through the agency of a pump. A jury derrick was rigged up to lift the material and men to the working level. As the tower rose in height, the wooden mould had to be dismembered and re-erected upon the new level, this operation being repeated no less than forty times until the desired height was gained. Work was exasperatingly slow and intermittent, while it had to be suspended entirely for about six or seven months, as no one dared to venture near the rock in winter. Taken on the whole, it was one of the most anxious and difficult pieces of the work of this character which the French Government has ever undertaken, while the working area was so confined that less than a dozen men could toil simultaneously without getting in one another’s way.

Recently the Brittany coast has been further protected by another magnificent beacon, the Jument lighthouse, off Ushant. This awful spot has long been marked by a very powerful electric light at Creach, which may be seen over twenty miles away, and, together with its fellow on the opposite end of the island, may be said to guide the crowded shipping around this promontory very effectively. But foggy weather reduces the mariner to helplessness, as the sea for two miles round the island is studded with reefs, ridges and rocky humps of a very formidable character, so that vessels have to keep well beyond this zone. When the light is obscured, safe travelling is possible only by going very slowly and making liberal use of the lead, while the captain must keep a sharp eye upon the rapid currents which set inshore if he would not be thrown upon the rocks he is seeking sedulously to avoid.

The French Government, with its characteristic thoroughness, determined to secure the complete indication of the Ushant and all its dangers by a carefully-conceived and comprehensive chain of lights distributed over the dangerous area. The urgency of such a scheme is obvious when it is remembered that it is computed that 24,000 vessels of all classes pass Ushant in the course of the year. At the same time the sea’s harvest of vessels and lives off this rocky shore every year is appallingly heavy. The only handicap to the immediate completion of the Government’s humane project is the extreme difficulty of the work and its prodigious cost.

Fortunately, through the extreme generosity of a French traveller—M. Potron—it was rendered possible to commence the scheme. Upon his death, and according to the terms of his will, dated January 9, 1904, this gentleman left 400,000 francs—£16,000, or $80,000—for the erection of a lighthouse of the latest type and with the most powerful lighting apparatus off the coast washed by the open Atlantic, and even suggested that a site off Ushant would be found the most beneficial to humanity. After consultation between his executor, residuary legatee, and the Government, a rock known as La Jument, off the south of the Ile d’Ouessant (Ushant) was selected for the site of his monument. The lighthouse engineers advocated a tower 118 feet in height, with a light of the latest type and a modern fog-signalling apparatus. This proposal was accepted, and was sanctioned on November 18, 1904, by the parties concerned.

Headquarters were established in the Bay of Lampaul, on Ushant Island, which immediately faces the site, and by the end of 1904 the preparations were well advanced. A steamboat, a launch and a lifeboat were secured, the first-named for the purpose of maintaining communication with the mainland and to bring in supplies, together with suitable craft for transporting material and provisions to the rock. The situation of the ledge and its exposure to the worst weather rendered approach very difficult. The danger spot itself is completely covered at high-tide, and only projects 4 feet at low-water. So far as the foundations were concerned, work was only possible for a few hours at a time. During the closing months of 1904 seventeen landings were made and fifty-two hours in all spent upon the rock, while in the succeeding year the men landed fifty-nine times, to put in an aggregate of 206½ hours.

The current rushes round the reef with a velocity of some ten miles per hour, varying its direction according to the movements of the tides. Investigation proved the existence of a small space of water on one side where the boats could approach and moor safely in an eddy. The men were brought out in the steamer, which also towed the launch and the lifeboat. The latter was kept in readiness alongside the rock while the men were at work, in case of emergency. A sharp eye had to be kept upon the weather while the handful of men laboured hastily preparing the face of the rock, and at the first signs of a threatening sky or increased movement in the swell the steamer blew its siren, the men scrambled aboard, and were hurried back to the island.

The year 1906 was one of bad weather, rendering frequent approach impossible. During this season the men landed only thirty-nine times and toiled for 152 hours, while the sum of their achievement was the least throughout the whole seven years which the tower occupied in its erection. The building is solid for about 30 feet above the rock, and in 1908 the construction of the tower proper was commenced. The base is circular, with a diameter of 33¾ feet; but the tower itself is of octagonal form, with a diameter at the base of 28 feet, tapering slightly to the top.