Mr. Winstanley himself happened to be there on the 26th of November, 1703, when the storm took place, which is believed not to have been equalled since that time. On the following day every thing had disappeared, with the exception of two iron rods which were fastened in the rock, and not a trace of the building was ever discovered.
Three years afterward, in the year 1706, Mr. John Rudyard undertook to erect another light-house, undismayed by the terrible catastrophe of the former; and this gentleman adopted the correct principle of opposing the impact of waves by the force of gravity, a power equally constant, certain and stable, as that by which it is opposed. He therefore constructed a plain framework of wood, nearly cylindrical, with cross beams, and filled the whole with large blocks of granite, leaving no more room than was requisite for the lights, for the attendants, and for their stores; and he made so rapid a progress as to display the light on the 28th of July 1708, and completely to finish the whole in
the year following: notwithstanding that a French privateer took off some workmen and their tools in the progress of the work. But Louis the XIV. displayed on this occasion the real spirit of generosity and honour, of which he had endeavoured to support a weak resemblance throughout his long reign. He ordered the workmen and their effects to be restored, and committed to prison the persons concerned in this unprincipled act publicly; declaring that, although he was at war with England, he was at peace with the human race, for whose common benefit such works was constructed.
In Mr. Rudyard’s lighthouse the wooden frame was evidently an imperfection. It must be liable to decay, and might become the prey of flames. To obviate in some degree the former defect, contrivances were adopted for shifting the beams; but on the 2d of December 1755, after the work had stood forty-seven years, the wood-work actually caught fire and was entirely consumed. Boats were dispatched from ships as well as from the shore, when the flames became visible, which brought away the three men, who had used their utmost endeavours, but in vain, to extinguish the fire. Fortunately at that hour the tide was at its ebb, which allowed the men to retreat sufficiently at a distance from the heat to preserve their lives; two had received very little injury, nor was the other apparently much hurt, but standing near the foot of the building in front, and looking intently at the flames as they issued through the top, he gave way to an innate propensity, which anatomists have endeavoured to explain by two tubes leading from near the palate to the ear, by keeping his mouth wide open; when some melting lead descended and passed down his throat, which would otherwise have glanced from his skin without occasioning the least injury. This man, although he had advanced so far in life as to his ninety-fourth year, lived several days, and without suffering much pain. After his decease, a mass of lead weighing seven ounces, five drams, and eighteen grains, little less than half a pound, was taken
from his stomach. See a communication by Mr. Edward Spry, Surgeon of Plymouth, in the Philosophical Transaction, vol. XLIX. p. 459, and vol. X. p. 673, of the Abridgment.
Notwithstanding this second disaster, the lessees under the Trinity House were still resolved if possible to discharge their duty. They applied in consequence to Lord Macclesfield, then President of the Royal Society, who recommended the most eminent of our civil engineers, with whom no one can be thought to compare, excepting perhaps the late Mr. John Rennie.
Mr. Smeaton was in consequence of Lord Macclesfield’s recommendation applied to by the proprietors, and most fortunately for mankind he undertook the work.
Mr. Smeaton adopted the essential principle of his predecessor Mr. Rudyard, by opposing weight to the force of the waves: but he made improvements in many respects, by contriving a better figure, by more completely uniting the work into one mass, and by discarding wood altogether.
The construction and the dimensions of every part are given by Mr. Smeaton in an elaborate work with plates; and it may be a sufficient recommendation to say, that the greatest work of this kind executed since his time, and by a most able engineer, that on the Bell Rock near the Forth, is almost an exact copy of the Eddystone.
Mr. Bond, who visited the Eddystone on the 4th of August, 1788, has given the following description of it in his History of Looe, published in 1823.