The shipping belonging to the Light-house service, besides attending boats, for visiting Light-houses on insulated situations, consists of a vessel of about 50 tons register, which is chiefly employed in attending the Bell Rock, to supply the house with necessaries, and relieve the light-keepers in their turn. For general service, another vessel of 140 tons is kept, which carries oil and other stores for the lights, together with fuel and necessaries, for the use of the light-keepers, and artificers, with their implements and apparatus, for making repairs at the different stations. The Engineer makes his annual voyage of inspection in this vessel, which is provided with cabins suitable for the reception of such of the Commissioners as may occasionally visit the Light-houses.

Voyages of Inspection.

This duty has been undertaken by various members of the Board. In the Summer of 1814 a Committee, consisting of Mr Hamilton, Sheriff of Lanarkshire, Mr Erskine, Sheriff of Orkney, and Mr Duff, Sheriff of Forfarshire, with the Engineer, made a voyage to inspect the different Light-houses already erected, as also the most prominent of the stations on the coast, suggested for the erection of Additional Lights. They sailed from Leith in the Yacht, having for their companion Mr Walter Scott, and having visited the Light-houses on the Isle of May and Bell Rock, with the establishment at Arbroath, and that upon Kinnaird-Head in Aberdeenshire, they next landed at Sumburgh-head in Shetland, on which a Light-house has since been erected. Returning southward, they visited the Light-houses on the Start Point of Sanday, and the Pentland Skerries in Orkney. Then steering westward, they landed at Cape Wrath, one of the projected Stations for a Light-house. They next touched at the Light-house on Island-Glass, one of the Harris Isles. From thence they proceeded and landed upon the Rock called Skerryvore, lying off the Island of Tiree, and were satisfied of the practicability of erecting a Light-house there. Having visited the Light-house on Ennistrahul, on the coast of Donegal, one of the Irish Lights, and inspected their own establishments on the Mull of Kantire and Isle of Pladda, the Commissioners landed at Greenock, after a voyage of nearly seven weeks.

In July 1815, Mr Hamilton and Mr Duff, accompanied by the writer, sailed in the Yacht from the Troon for Liverpool, where they were joined by Sir William Rae; and after having had a meeting with Mr Gladstone on the subject of the Lights on Man, they sailed thither, and fixed on the Stations for the Lights on that Island, and on the Calf. They then proceeded to Dublin, and communicated with the Irish Board for the affairs of Light-houses, regarding certain arrangements for the advancement of the public service committed respectively to their charge. Mr Crossthwaite, and other Members of the Irish Board, accompanied them to the Light-house upon Houth: and having visited the Tuskar Light-house, situate on an insulated rock off the coast of Wexford, they bent their course to Holyhead, landed at the Light-house on the South Stack; and on their return surveyed the operations at the Light-house at Corsewall in Galloway then building, and having visited Pladda, landed at Greenock.

In the Summer of 1818, Messrs Hamilton and Duff, with the writer, sailed from Clyde, and inspected the Light-houses of Corsewall and on the Isle and Calf of Man. The Yacht being then bound through the British Channel, they availed themselves of the opportunity to visit some of the English Light-houses, particularly the Smalls, off St David’s Head, the Longships, off the Land’s End, the Edystone, the Caskets off Alderney, Hurst Castle, Dungeness, and the North Foreland. By these voyages, the Commissioners greatly enlarged their knowledge of the important concerns entrusted to their charge. Some of them had thus seen and examined all the Light-houses already established on the coast of Scotland, and most of the Sites in contemplation for new erections on the northern parts of the Island.

ACCOUNT
OF THE
BELL ROCK LIGHT HOUSE

Drawn by Miss Stevenson.