“The Committee, therefore, consider him well qualified to give the Commissioners information on the subject; and the various models of light-houses applicable to this rock, which, with much labour and ingenuity, he has invented, will be found highly valuable, whenever the execution of the business shall come to be taken into final consideration.—(Signed) James Searth, Master; Wm. Mowbray, Assist.; Wm. Dougal, Assist.; Arch. Geddes, James Pillans junior.”
Report of the Merchants of Berwick.
The dangerous situation of the Bell Rock, and the losses which have either occurred upon, or in consequence of it, were also strongly expressed in all the other documents communicated to the Light-house Board; and we may further form a judgment of the extent of the serious consequences of this rock to the shipping on the coast, by what was stated in the communication from Berwick-upon-Tweed. It was therein mentioned, that two vessels had struck upon this rock in one night; and that other two, which had been built at Berwick, and sold to a Shipping Company at Banff, were afterwards lost upon the same reef. It also deserves notice, that Captain Allardice, who commanded one of those vessels, had the misfortune, in the course of his profession, to have been twice wrecked upon the Bell Rock.
Resolution of the Light-house Board to apply again to Parliament.
These statements, furnished upon unquestionable authority, of the losses occasioned by the Bell Rock, satisfied the Commissioners of the propriety of persisting in their original plan of obtaining an act of Parliament and a loan for this special purpose. After various meetings of the Board, for adjusting the heads of a bill, the measure was finally resolved upon at a meeting, held on the 19th February 1806, at which the following members were present: Mr James Clerk, Sheriff-Depute of Edinburghshire, Mr Robert Hamilton, Sheriff-Depute of Lanarkshire, Mr William Rae, Sheriff-Depute of Orkney and Shetland, Mr James Trail, Sheriff-depute of Caithness, Mr John Connell, Sheriff-Depute of Renfrewshire, Mr Edward M’Cormick, Sheriff-Depute of Ayrshire, and Mr David Monypenny, Sheriff-Depute of Fife.
This meeting having also taken into consideration a memorial, prepared by Mr Hamilton, pointing out the importance and urgency of the measure, ordered it to be printed; and requested him to proceed to London, to submit the memorial, and the documents on which it was founded, to the consideration of His Majesty’s Ministers, and other Members of Parliament.
Mr Hamilton and the Author go to London.
Mr Hamilton went to London in the month of April 1806, when the author also attended, with his plans and estimates, to prove the preamble of the bill. Mr Hamilton having transmitted the memorial to the heads of the departments of the Treasury, the Admiralty, and the Board of Trade, requested an audience from them on the subject. He had a meeting with the Board of Trade, and urged the proposition for a loan, or advance from Government, of L. 25,000, on the security of the duties which the proposed light-house would produce. It was, however, recommended that application should also be made to the other two Boards. Some time thereafter, a conference on the matter was held with Lord Howick, then at the head of the Admiralty, and Admiral Markham,—when the plans of the projected building were shewn to them,—it was stated that all that was wanting to enable the work to be proceeded with, was the advance from Government,—and the importance of the proposed light-house was at this interview pointed out, not only as to trade, but as a guide and protection for the Navy while cruising in the German Ocean. But their Lordships still considered the undertaking chiefly as of a local nature, and comparatively of little benefit to the Navy. Not discouraged, however, by this unsuccessful application, Mr Hamilton soon after obtained an audience of Lord Grenville, First Commissioner of the Treasury, who examined the charts, plans, elevations and sections of the projected building with much attention,—declared himself fully convinced of the importance and expediency of the measure,—and promised that the loan by Government, and every other expedient for the advancement of the design, should have his support. The patronage of the First Minister of State having been thus obtained, Mr Hamilton returned to his public duties in Scotland, leaving the farther proceedings in the application to the charge of the writer, with the assistance of Mr Longlands, solicitor for the Light-house Board in London.