An Account of the Bell Rock Light-House / Including the Details of the Erection and Peculiar Structure of That Edifice; to Which Is Prefixed a Historical View of the Institution and Progress of the Northern Light-Houses

by Robert Stevenson

The artificers landed this morning at half-past 7, and remained at work five hours and a half, when 9 stones were laid; but the wind having shifted to the N.E., which increased to a hard gale, in the course of this afternoon, both the Smeaton and Patriot were obliged to slip their moorings, when they proceeded in company to Leith Roads for shelter. The Tender, however, being in a more light trim, and better adapted for riding, continued at her station.

One of the Artificers is accidentally killed in the work-yard.

While some of the masons were employed to-day in raising a large stone in the work-yard at Arbroath, the purchase unfortunately slipped, and the stone fell upon William Walker, one of the labourers, who was putting a prop under it, to preserve its position till a better purchase could be taken. By this accident, Walker’s thigh-bone was unfortunately broken, and, though medical assistance was procured without delay, the poor man died in the course of a few hours, leaving a wife and two young children. The Commissioners of the Light-houses, in consideration of the circumstances of this case, settled an annuity of L. 5 upon his widow.

Tuesday 18th.

One of the workmen remains in the Beacon alone.

The wind still continued to blow fresh from the N.E., but the artificers were enabled to land on the Rock at a quarter from 11, where they remained two hours and three quarters, employed in shifting the crane on the building, and making other preparations for laying the Thirteenth course. Although the building-artificers generally remained on the Rock throughout the day, and the mill-wrights, joiners, and smiths, while their number was considerable, remained also during the night, yet the Tender had hitherto been considered as their night-quarters. But the wind having, in the course of the day, shifted to the N.W., and as the passage to the Tender, in the boats, was likely to be attended with difficulty, the whole of the artificers, with Mr Logan, the foreman, preferred remaining all night on the Beacon, which had, of late, become the solitary abode of George Forsyth, a jobbing-upholsterer, who had been employed in lining the Beacon-house with cloth, and in fitting up the bedding. Forsyth was a tall, thin, and rather loose-made man, who had an utter aversion at climbing upon the trap-ladders of the Beacon, but especially at the process of boating, and the motion of the ship, which he said, “was death itself.” He, therefore, pertinaciously insisted with the landing-master in being left upon the Beacon, with a small black dog as his only companion. The writer, however, felt some delicacy in leaving a single individual upon the Rock, who must have been so very helpless, in case of accident. This fabric had, from the beginning, been rather intended by the writer to guard against accident from the loss or damage of a boat, and as a place for making mortar, a smith’s shop, and a store for tools, during the working months, than as permanent quarters: nor was it at all meant to be possessed until the joiner-work were completely finished, and his own cabin, and that for the foremen, in readiness, when it was still to be left to the choice of the artificers to occupy the Tender or the Beacon. He, however, considered Forsyth’s partiality and confidence in the latter, as rather a fortunate occurrence.

Wednesday, 19th.

Artificers remove with Peter Fortune to the Beacon.

The whole of the artificers, 23 in number, now removed, of their own accord, from the Tender, to lodge in the Beacon, together with Peter Fortune, a person singularly adapted for a residence of this kind, both from the urbanity of his manners, and the versatility of his talents. Fortune, in his person, was of small stature, and rather corpulent. Besides being a good Scotch cook, he had acted both as groom and house-servant; he had been a soldier, a suttler, a writer’s clerk, and an apothecary, from which he possessed the art of writing and suggesting recipes, and had hence, also, perhaps acquired a turn for making collections in natural history; but in his practice in surgery, on the Bell Rock, for which he received an annual fee of three guineas, he is supposed to have been rather partial to the use of the lancet. In short, Peter was the fac-totum of the Beacon-house, where he ostensibly acted in the several capacities of cook, steward, surgeon, and barber, and kept a statement of the rations or expenditure of the provisions, with the strictest integrity.

Thursday, 20th.