ALGUADA REEF LIGHTHOUSE.
Lastly, we propose to wander away from the shores of the United Kingdom, though not to trespass beyond the confines of British territory. Had our limits permitted, we might have entered upon a description of the Australian and North American pharoses, of the lighthouse at Perim, of the lighthouses on the coast of Hindustan; but such a multiplicity of details would assuredly have wearied the reader. Yet, as a proof that our engineering operations in this department are not less skilfully and boldly executed abroad than at home, we shall adduce, in terminating this chapter, the noble structure situated on the Alguada Reef.
This reef lies a few miles to the southward of Cape Negrais, the south-west promontory of Pegu, near one of the mouths of the great Irrawady river. Being thrown, as it were, directly in the track of vessels sailing from Calcutta to the thriving ports of Moulmein and Rangoon, it was a constant danger to the mariner; for the sea, except in the calmest weather, always dashes against it with restless fury, and no vessel cast upon it can hope to escape. The late Marquis of Dalhousie, appreciating its perilous character, designed to erect a lighthouse upon it; but no action was taken in the matter until 1856, when the loss of a coolie ship and 286 lives induced Lord Canning to resume his predecessor’s project.
The stone had to be brought from Pulo Obin, near Singapore, a distance of 1200 miles; and it was not until January 1860 that the work of excavating the foundation was commenced. On February 14, 1861, the first stone was laid, and thenceforth the work proceeded bravely, though entirely carried on by Coolie labour. The light, a first-class holophotal light, designed by Messrs. D. and T. Stevenson of Edinburgh, was first kindled on April 23, 1865, at an elevation of 144 feet above high-water mark. It commands a range of twenty nautical miles.
In general appearance the Alguada Reef Lighthouse resembles the Skerryvore, after which, indeed, it was designed, by Captain Fraser; but it surpasses its model in its dimensions.
[Here we conclude our sketches of celebrated lighthouses; structures, we think, scarcely less deserving of the public interest and admiration, than the triumphal arches and stately columns erected to the memory of successful generals, or the superb palaces which enshrine the magnificence of kings and princes. For every lighthouse, be it remembered, is a proof of formidable engineering difficulties successfully overcome, and, therefore, rises before us as an impressive monument of human ingenuity, skill, and perseverance, exerted, for the noblest of purposes—for the preservation of human life, for the prevention of that misery and grief and deep-abiding sorrow which are the invariable consequences of the “wreck ashore.”]
