No. IV.
Relative Reports.
Containing REPORTS relative to the Bell Rock Light-House, addressed to the Commissioners of the Northern Light-houses, by John Rennie and Robert Stevenson, Civil Engineers.
REPORT by Mr Stevenson.
Edinburgh, 23d December 1800.
During the reign of his present Majesty (George III.), a spirit for discovery and improvement, in maritime affairs, has been pursued with the greatest energy, and crowned with a success, which can only be equalled by the happy effects that have followed to commerce. In proportion, therefore, as the pursuits of the navigator are considered essential to the wealth of the community, every effort to Assist him, in his course through the pathless ocean, must be regarded both as the call of interest and humanity. The most prominent causes of the perfection to which coasting-navigation has been brought, may be ascribed to the accuracy of our charts, and an increase of land-marks, by which the mariner, after braving the dangers of the seas, is enabled to guide his ship with safety into her intended port. It is well known, that before the Maritime Survey of the Orkneys and Hebrides, by Mackenzie; and until an act of Parliament was passed, appointing Commissioners for erecting Light-houses upon the coast of Scotland, mariners were left to grope their way from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde, without the assistance either of proper charts or land-marks. Under these circumstances, they passed the Pentland Firth , and generally held a course to the northward of the Orkney islands; then steering westward, they sailed on the outward side of the Lewis Isles into the Atlantic Ocean, exposed to many dangers, and unable to avail themselves of the advantages of the sheltered sounds and harbours of the Friths of Lewis and Uist. Hence the difficulty of navigating this district, was long a great bar to the improvement of the Highlands, and to the extension of the British fisheries. It was, likewise, a material drawback to the present flourishing trade, carried on through these sounds to the Baltic and other parts of the northern Continent of Europe.
From the earliest accounts which tradition gives of the navigation of the Firth of Forth, a Light-house upon the Bell Rock appears to have been looked forward to as an essential pre-requisite to the advancement of its commerce: And in proportion to the extent of the one, the call for the other has become more and more urgent, and is now regarded as a matter of the greatest importance.
Since the publication of Adair’s Charts, there has been no want of a survey of the Firth of Forth; but this important estuary still remains extremely deficient with regard to land-marks, and the reporter will venture to say, that there is not any where a more dangerous reef in the kingdom, or one that calls more loudly for something to be done, than the Cape or Bell Rock. When, therefore, the extensive benefits derived from those powers, which have enabled the Commissioners of the Northern Light-houses to erect and maintain six Light-houses upon the coast, are considered, it is much to be wished that some measure were adopted for enabling that Board to add to the number of these land-marks, by the erection of one upon this most destructive rock. From the numerous losses by shipwreck, which have happened upon the Bell Rock, it is presumed, that some account of its position and extent, from actual survey,—a few remarks upon the description of building best suited to the situation of the rock,—together with an attempt to point out the extensive use of such a light,—and the ports which appear to be within the limits of any duty to be levied for its support, will not be deemed unnecessary at a time when the public look forward, with anxious expectation, to this Board, in a matter of so much importance, not only to the navigation of the Firth of Forth, but in general, to the eastern coast of Great Britain.
Having finished a design and model of a pillar-formed light-house for the Bell Rock, immediately after the very fatal storm which occurred in the month of December 1799, the next object of the Reporter, was to survey the rock itself, that he might judge more fully of its fitness for the situation. Accordingly, in the month of April following, he set off for the rock, and had reached Fifeness, when, from the state of the weather, he was obliged to return, after an absence of ten days, without accomplishing his purpose. Soon after his return from his annual voyage to the Northern Light-houses, Mr Gray, secretary for the Commissioners, requested of the Board of Customs to grant the use of one of its yachts, to make another attempt. An order having been accordingly obtained for the Osnaburgh cutter, Captain Campbell, then lying at the Elie, the reporter, accompanied by his friend Mr James Haldane, architect, set off for that place. But the Osnaburgh being then under repair, and the period of spring-tides being at hand, it was found advisable to proceed along the coast to West-haven, on the northern side of the Firth of Tay; and upon Sunday the 5th of October 1800, a landing was effected upon the Rock, and an ample opportunity afforded of gaining all necessary information.