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diff --git a/old/rfeng10h.htm b/old/rfeng10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f31131 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/rfeng10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6602 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> +<title>Records of a Family of Engineers</title> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Records of a Family of Engineers, by Robert Louis Stevenson</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Records of a Family of Engineers +by Robert Louis Stevenson +(#4 in our series by Robert Louis Stevenson) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Records of a Family of Engineers + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + +Release Date: June, 1995 [EBook #280] +[This file was first posted on July 9, 1995] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII +</pre> +<p> +<a name="startoftext"></a> +Transcribed from the 1912 Chatto & Windus edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk Additional proofing by Peter Barnes.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +RECORDS OF A FAMILY OF ENGINEERS<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +INTRODUCTION: THE SURNAME OF STEVENSON<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +From the thirteenth century onwards, the name, under the various disguises +of Stevinstoun, Stevensoun, Stevensonne, Stenesone, and Stewinsoune, +spread across Scotland from the mouth of the Firth of Forth to the mouth +of the Firth of Clyde. Four times at least it occurs as a place-name. +There is a parish of Stevenston in Cunningham; a second place of the +name in the Barony of Bothwell in Lanark; a third on Lyne, above Drochil +Castle; the fourth on the Tyne, near Traprain Law. Stevenson of +Stevenson (co. Lanark) swore fealty to Edward I in 1296, and the last +of that family died after the Restoration. Stevensons of Hirdmanshiels, +in Midlothian, rode in the Bishops’ Raid of Aberlady, served as +jurors, stood bail for neighbours - Hunter of Polwood, for instance +- and became extinct about the same period, or possibly earlier. +A Stevenson of Luthrie and another of Pitroddie make their bows, give +their names, and vanish. And by the year 1700 it does not appear +that any acre of Scots land was vested in any Stevenson. <a name="citation2a"></a><a href="#footnote2a">{2a}</a><br> +<br> +Here is, so far, a melancholy picture of backward progress, and a family +posting towards extinction. But the law (however administered, +and I am bound to aver that, in Scotland, ‘it couldna weel be +waur’) acts as a kind of dredge, and with dispassionate impartiality +brings up into the light of day, and shows us for a moment, in the jury-box +or on the gallows, the creeping things of the past. By these broken +glimpses we are able to trace the existence of many other and more inglorious +Stevensons, picking a private way through the brawl that makes Scots +history. They were members of Parliament for Peebles, Stirling, +Pittenweem, Kilrenny, and Inverurie. We find them burgesses of +Edinburgh; indwellers in Biggar, Perth, and Dalkeith. Thomas was +the forester of Newbattle Park, Gavin was a baker, John a maltman, Francis +a chirurgeon, and ‘Schir William’ a priest. In the +feuds of Humes and Heatleys, Cunninghams, Montgomeries, Mures, Ogilvies, +and Turnbulls, we find them inconspicuously involved, and apparently +getting rather better than they gave. Schir William (reverend +gentleman) was cruellie slaughtered on the Links of Kincraig in 1582; +James (‘in the mill-town of Roberton’), murdered in 1590; +Archibald (‘in Gallowfarren’), killed with shots of pistols +and hagbuts in 1608. Three violent deaths in about seventy years, +against which we can only put the case of Thomas, servant to Hume of +Cowden Knowes, who was arraigned with his two young masters for the +death of the Bastard of Mellerstanes in 1569. John (‘in +Dalkeith’) stood sentry without Holyrood while the banded lords +were despatching Rizzio within. William, at the ringing of Perth +bell, ran before Gowrie House ‘with ane sword, and, entering to +the yearde, saw George Craiggingilt with ane twa-handit sword and utheris +nychtbouris; at quilk time James Boig cryit ower ane wynds, “Awa +hame! ye will all be hangit”’ - a piece of advice which +William took, and immediately ‘depairtit.’ John got +a maid with child to him in Biggar, and seemingly deserted her; she +was hanged on the Castle Hill for infanticide, June 1614; and Martin, +elder in Dalkeith, eternally disgraced the name by signing witness in +a witch trial, 1661. These are two of our black sheep. <a name="citation3a"></a><a href="#footnote3a">{3a}</a> +Under the Restoration, one Stevenson was a bailie in Edinburgh, and +another the lessee of the Canonmills. There were at the same period +two physicians of the name in Edinburgh, one of whom, Dr. Archibald, +appears to have been a famous man in his day and generation. The +Court had continual need of him; it was he who reported, for instance, +on the state of Rumbold; and he was for some time in the enjoyment of +a pension of a thousand pounds Scots (about eighty pounds sterling) +at a time when five hundred pounds is described as ‘an opulent +future.’ I do not know if I should be glad or sorry that +he failed to keep favour; but on 6th January 1682 (rather a cheerless +New Year’s present) his pension was expunged. <a name="citation4a"></a><a href="#footnote4a">{4a}</a> +There need be no doubt, at least, of my exultation at the fact that +he was knighted and recorded arms. Not quite so genteel, but still +in public life, Hugh was Under-Clerk to the Privy Council, and liked +being so extremely. I gather this from his conduct in September +1681, when, with all the lords and their servants, he took the woful +and soul-destroying Test, swearing it ‘word by word upon his knees.’ +And, behold! it was in vain, for Hugh was turned out of his small post +in 1684. <a name="citation4b"></a><a href="#footnote4b">{4b}</a> +Sir Archibald and Hugh were both plainly inclined to be trimmers; but +there was one witness of the name of Stevenson who held high the banner +of the Covenant - John, ‘Land-Labourer, <a name="citation4c"></a><a href="#footnote4c">{4c}</a> +in the parish of Daily, in Carrick,’ that ‘eminently pious +man.’ He seems to have been a poor sickly soul, and shows +himself disabled with scrofula, and prostrate and groaning aloud with +fever; but the enthusiasm of the martyr burned high within him.<br> +<br> +‘I was made to take joyfully the spoiling of my goods, and with +pleasure for His name’s sake wandered in deserts and in mountains, +in dens and caves of the earth. I lay four months in the coldest +season of the year in a haystack in my father’s garden, and a +whole February in the open fields not far from Camragen, and this I +did without the least prejudice from the night air; one night, when +lying in the fields near to the Carrick-Miln, I was all covered with +snow in the morning. Many nights have I lain with pleasure in +the churchyard of Old Daily, and made a grave my pillow; frequently +have I resorted to the old walls about the glen, near to Camragen, and +there sweetly rested.’ The visible band of God protected +and directed him. Dragoons were turned aside from the bramble-bush +where he lay hidden. Miracles were performed for his behoof. +‘I got a horse and a woman to carry the child, and came to the +same mountain, where I wandered by the mist before; it is commonly known +by the name of Kellsrhins: when we came to go up the mountain, there +came on a great rain, which we thought was the occasion of the child’s +weeping, and she wept so bitterly, that all we could do could not divert +her from it, so that she was ready to burst. When we got to the +top of the mountain, where the Lord had been formerly kind to my soul +in prayer, I looked round me for a stone, and espying one, I went and +brought it. When the woman with me saw me set down the stone, +she smiled, and asked what I was going to do with it. I told her +I was going to set it up as my Ebenezer, because hitherto, and in that +place, the Lord had formerly helped, and I hoped would yet help. +The rain still continuing, the child weeping bitterly, I went to prayer, +and no sooner did I cry to God, but the child gave over weeping, and +when we got up from prayer, the rain was pouring down on every side, +but in the way where we were to go there fell not one drop; the place +not rained on was as big as an ordinary avenue.’ And so +great a saint was the natural butt of Satan’s persecutions. +‘I retired to the fields for secret prayer about mid-night. +When I went to pray I was much straitened, and could not get one request, +but “Lord pity,” “Lord help”; this I came over +frequently; at length the terror of Satan fell on me in a high degree, +and all I could say even then was - “Lord help.” I +continued in the duty for some time, notwithstanding of this terror. +At length I got up to my feet, and the terror still increased; then +the enemy took me by the arm-pits, and seemed to lift me up by my arms. +I saw a loch just before me, and I concluded he designed to throw me +there by force; and had he got leave to do so, it might have brought +a great reproach upon religion. <a name="citation7a"></a><a href="#footnote7a">{7a}</a> +But it was otherwise ordered, and the cause of piety escaped that danger. +<a name="citation7b"></a><a href="#footnote7b">{7b}</a><br> +<br> +On the whole, the Stevensons may be described as decent, reputable folk, +following honest trades - millers, maltsters, and doctors, playing the +character parts in the Waverley Novels with propriety, if without distinction; +and to an orphan looking about him in the world for a potential ancestry, +offering a plain and quite unadorned refuge, equally free from shame +and glory. John, the land-labourer, is the one living and memorable +figure, and he, alas! cannot possibly be more near than a collateral. +It was on August 12, 1678, that he heard Mr. John Welsh on the Craigdowhill, +and ‘took the heavens, earth, and sun in the firmament that was +shining on us, as also the ambassador who made the offer, and <i>the +clerk who raised the</i> <i>psalms</i>, to witness that I did give myself +away to the Lord in a personal and perpetual covenant never to be forgotten’; +and already, in 1675, the birth of my direct ascendant was registered +in Glasgow. So that I have been pursuing ancestors too far down; +and John the land-labourer is debarred me, and I must relinquish from +the trophies of my house his <i>rare soul-strengthening</i> <i>and</i> +<i>comforting cordial</i>. It is the same case with the Edinburgh +bailie and the miller of the Canonmills, worthy man! and with that public +character, Hugh the Under-Clerk, and, more than all, with Sir Archibald, +the physician, who recorded arms. And I am reduced to a family +of inconspicuous maltsters in what was then the clean and handsome little +city on the Clyde.<br> +<br> +The name has a certain air of being Norse. But the story of Scottish +nomenclature is confounded by a continual process of translation and +half-translation from the Gaelic which in olden days may have been sometimes +reversed. Roy becomes Reid; Gow, Smith. A great Highland +clan uses the name of Robertson; a sept in Appin that of Livingstone; +Maclean in Glencoe answers to Johnstone at Lockerby. And we find +such hybrids as Macalexander for Macallister. There is but one +rule to be deduced: that however uncompromisingly Saxon a name may appear, +you can never be sure it does not designate a Celt. My great-grandfather +wrote the name <i>Stevenson</i> but pronounced it <i>Steenson</i>, after +the fashion of the immortal minstrel in <i>Redgauntlet</i>; and this +elision of a medial consonant appears a Gaelic process; and, curiously +enough, I have come across no less than two Gaelic forms: <i>John Macstophane +cordinerius in</i> <i>Crossraguel</i>, 1573, and <i>William M’Steen</i> +in Dunskeith (co. Ross), 1605. Stevenson, Steenson, Macstophane, +M’Steen: which is the original? which the translation? Or +were these separate creations of the patronymic, some English, some +Gaelic? The curiously compact territory in which we find them +seated - Ayr, Lanark, Peebles, Stirling, Perth, Fife, and the Lothians +- would seem to forbid the supposition. <a name="citation9a"></a><a href="#footnote9a">{9a}</a><br> +<br> +‘STEVENSON - or according to tradition of one of the proscribed +of the clan MacGregor, who was born among the willows or in a hill-side +sheep-pen - “Son of my love,” a heraldic bar sinister, but +history reveals a reason for the birth among the willows far other than +the sinister aspect of the name’: these are the dark words of +Mr. Cosmo Innes; but history or tradition, being interrogated, tells +a somewhat tangled tale. The heir of Macgregor of Glenorchy, murdered +about 1858 by the Argyll Campbells, appears to have been the original +‘Son of my love’; and his more loyal clansmen took the name +to fight under. It may be supposed the story of their resistance +became popular, and the name in some sort identified with the idea of +opposition to the Campbells. Twice afterwards, on some renewed +aggression, in 1502 and 1552, we find the Macgregors again banding themselves +into a sept of ‘Sons of my love’; and when the great disaster +fell on them in 1603, the whole original legend reappears, and we have +the heir of Alaster of Glenstrae born ‘among the willows’ +of a fugitive mother, and the more loyal clansmen again rallying under +the name of Stevenson. A story would not be told so often unless +it had some base in fact; nor (if there were no bond at all between +the Red Macgregors and the Stevensons) would that extraneous and somewhat +uncouth name be so much repeated in the legends of the Children of the +Mist.<br> +<br> +But I am enabled, by my very lively and obliging correspondent, Mr. +George A. Macgregor Stevenson of New York, to give an actual instance. +His grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, and great-great-great-grandfather, +all used the names of Macgregor and Stevenson as occasion served; being +perhaps Macgregor by night and Stevenson by day. The great-great-great-grandfather +was a mighty man of his hands, marched with the clan in the ‘Forty-five, +and returned with <i>spolia opima</i> in the shape of a sword, which +he had wrested from an officer in the retreat, and which is in the possession +of my correspondent to this day. His great-grandson (the grandfather +of my correspondent), being converted to Methodism by some wayside preacher, +discarded in a moment his name, his old nature, and his political principles, +and with the zeal of a proselyte sealed his adherence to the Protestant +Succession by baptising his next son George. This George became +the publisher and editor of the <i>Wesleyan Times</i>. His children +were brought up in ignorance of their Highland pedigree; and my correspondent +was puzzled to overhear his father speak of him as a true Macgregor, +and amazed to find, in rummaging about that peaceful and pious house, +the sword of the Hanoverian officer. After he was grown up and +was better informed of his descent, ‘I frequently asked my father,’ +he writes, ‘why he did not use the name of Macgregor; his replies +were significant, and give a picture of the man: “It isn’t +a good <i>Methodist</i> name. You can use it, but it will do you +no <i>good</i>.” Yet the old gentleman, by way of pleasantry, +used to announce himself to friends as “Colonel Macgregor.”’<br> +<br> +Here, then, are certain Macgregors habitually using the name of Stevenson, +and at last, under the influence of Methodism, adopting it entirely. +Doubtless a proscribed clan could not be particular; they took a name +as a man takes an umbrella against a shower; as Rob Roy took Campbell, +and his son took Drummond. But this case is different; Stevenson +was not taken and left - it was consistently adhered to. It does +not in the least follow that all Stevensons are of the clan Alpin; but +it does follow that some may be. And I cannot conceal from myself +the possibility that James Stevenson in Glasgow, my first authentic +ancestor, may have had a Highland <i>alias</i> upon his conscience and +a claymore in his back parlour.<br> +<br> +To one more tradition I may allude, that we are somehow descended from +a French barber-surgeon who came to St. Andrews in the service of one +of the Cardinal Beatons. No details were added. But the +very name of France was so detested in my family for three generations, +that I am tempted to suppose there may be something in it. <a name="citation12a"></a><a href="#footnote12a">{12a}</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER I: DOMESTIC ANNALS<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +It is believed that in 1665, James Stevenson in Nether Carsewell, parish +of Neilston, county of Renfrew, and presumably a tenant farmer, married +one Jean Keir; and in 1675, without doubt, there was born to these two +a son Robert, possibly a maltster in Glasgow. In 1710, Robert +married, for a second time, Elizabeth Cumming, and there was born to +them, in 1720, another Robert, certainly a maltster in Glasgow. +In 1742, Robert the second married Margaret Fulton (Margret, she called +herself), by whom he had ten children, among whom were Hugh, born February +1749, and Alan, born June 1752.<br> +<br> +With these two brothers my story begins. Their deaths were simultaneous; +their lives unusually brief and full. Tradition whispered me in +childhood they were the owners of an islet near St. Kitts; and it is +certain they had risen to be at the head of considerable interests in +the West Indies, which Hugh managed abroad and Alan at home, at an age +when others are still curveting a clerk’s stool. My kinsman, +Mr. Stevenson of Stirling, has heard his father mention that there had +been ‘something romantic’ about Alan’s marriage: and, +alas! he has forgotten what. It was early at least. His +wife was Jean, daughter of David Lillie, a builder in Glasgow, and several +times ‘Deacon of the Wrights’: the date of the marriage +has not reached me; but on 8th June 1772, when Robert, the only child +of the union, was born, the husband and father had scarce passed, or +had not yet attained, his twentieth year. Here was a youth making +haste to give hostages to fortune. But this early scene of prosperity +in love and business was on the point of closing.<br> +<br> +There hung in the house of this young family, and successively in those +of my grandfather and father, an oil painting of a ship of many tons +burthen. Doubtless the brothers had an interest in the vessel; +I was told she had belonged to them outright; and the picture was preserved +through years of hardship, and remains to this day in the possession +of the family, the only memorial of my great-grandsire Alan. It +was on this ship that he sailed on his last adventure, summoned to the +West Indies by Hugh. An agent had proved unfaithful on a serious +scale; and it used to be told me in my childhood how the brothers pursued +him from one island to another in an open boat, were exposed to the +pernicious dews of the tropics, and simultaneously struck down. +The dates and places of their deaths (now before me) would seem to indicate +a more scattered and prolonged pursuit: Hugh, on the 16th April 1774, +in Tobago, within sight of Trinidad; Alan, so late as 26th May, and +so far away as ‘Santt Kittes,’ in the Leeward Islands - +both, says the family Bible, ‘of a fiver’(!). The +death of Hugh was probably announced by Alan in a letter, to which we +may refer the details of the open boat and the dew. Thus, at least, +in something like the course of post, both were called away, the one +twenty-five, the other twenty-two; their brief generation became extinct, +their short-lived house fell with them; and ‘in these lawless +parts and lawless times’ - the words are my grandfather’s +- their property was stolen or became involved. Many years later, +I understand some small recovery to have been made; but at the moment +almost the whole means of the family seem to have perished with the +young merchants. On the 27th April, eleven days after Hugh Stevenson, +twenty-nine before Alan, died David Lillie, the Deacon of the Wrights; +so that mother and son were orphaned in one month. Thus, from +a few scraps of paper bearing little beyond dates, we construct the +outlines of the tragedy that shadowed the cradle of Robert Stevenson.<br> +<br> +Jean Lillie was a young woman of strong sense, well fitted to contend +with poverty, and of a pious disposition, which it is like that these +misfortunes heated. Like so many other widowed Scots-women, she +vowed her son should wag his head in a pulpit; but her means were inadequate +to her ambition. A charity school, and some time under a Mr. M’Intyre, +‘a famous linguist,’ were all she could afford in the way +of education to the would-be minister. He learned no Greek; in +one place he mentions that the Orations of Cicero were his highest book +in Latin; in another that he had ‘delighted’ in Virgil and +Horace; but his delight could never have been scholarly. This +appears to have been the whole of his training previous to an event +which changed his own destiny and moulded that of his descendants - +the second marriage of his mother.<br> +<br> +There was a Merchant-Burgess of Edinburgh of the name of Thomas Smith. +The Smith pedigree has been traced a little more particularly than the +Stevensons’, with a similar dearth of illustrious names. +One character seems to have appeared, indeed, for a moment at the wings +of history: a skipper of Dundee who smuggled over some Jacobite big-wig +at the time of the ‘Fifteen, and was afterwards drowned in Dundee +harbour while going on board his ship. With this exception, the +generations of the Smiths present no conceivable interest even to a +descendant; and Thomas, of Edinburgh, was the first to issue from respectable +obscurity. His father, a skipper out of Broughty Ferry, was drowned +at sea while Thomas was still young. He seems to have owned a +ship or two - whalers, I suppose, or coasters - and to have been a member +of the Dundee Trinity House, whatever that implies. On his death +the widow remained in Broughty, and the son came to push his future +in Edinburgh. There is a story told of him in the family which +I repeat here because I shall have to tell later on a similar, but more +perfectly authenticated, experience of his stepson, Robert Stevenson. +Word reached Thomas that his mother was unwell, and he prepared to leave +for Broughty on the morrow. It was between two and three in the +morning, and the early northern daylight was already clear, when he +awoke and beheld the curtains at the bed-foot drawn aside and his mother +appear in the interval, smile upon him for a moment, and then vanish. +The sequel is stereo-type; he took the time by his watch, and arrived +at Broughty to learn it was the very moment of her death. The +incident is at least curious in having happened to such a person - as +the tale is being told of him. In all else, he appears as a man +ardent, passionate, practical, designed for affairs and prospering in +them far beyond the average. He founded a solid business in lamps +and oils, and was the sole proprietor of a concern called the Greenside +Company’s Works - ‘a multifarious concern it was,’ +writes my cousin, Professor Swan, ‘of tinsmiths, coppersmiths, +brass-founders, blacksmiths, and japanners.’ He was also, +it seems, a shipowner and underwriter. He built himself ‘a +land’ - Nos. 1 and 2 Baxter’s Place, then no such unfashionable +neighbourhood - and died, leaving his only son in easy circumstances, +and giving to his three surviving daughters portions of five thousand +pounds and upwards. There is no standard of success in life; but +in one of its meanings, this is to succeed.<br> +<br> +In what we know of his opinions, he makes a figure highly characteristic +of the time. A high Tory and patriot, a captain - so I find it +in my notes - of Edinburgh Spearmen, and on duty in the Castle during +the Muir and Palmer troubles, he bequeathed to his descendants a bloodless +sword and a somewhat violent tradition, both long preserved. The +judge who sat on Muir and Palmer, the famous Braxfield, let fall from +the bench the <i>obiter dictum</i> - ‘I never liked the French +all my days, but now I hate them.’ If Thomas Smith, the +Edinburgh Spearman, were in court, he must have been tempted to applaud. +The people of that land were his abhorrence; he loathed Buonaparte like +Antichrist. Towards the end he fell into a kind of dotage; his +family must entertain him with games of tin soldiers, which he took +a childish pleasure to array and overset; but those who played with +him must be upon their guard, for if his side, which was always that +of the English against the French, should chance to be defeated, there +would be trouble in Baxter’s Place. For these opinions he +may almost be said to have suffered. Baptised and brought up in +the Church of Scotland, he had, upon some conscientious scruple, joined +the communion of the Baptists. Like other Nonconformists, these +were inclined to the Liberal side in politics, and, at least in the +beginning, regarded Buonaparte as a deliverer. From the time of +his joining the Spearmen, Thomas Smith became in consequence a bugbear +to his brethren in the faith. ‘They that take the sword +shall perish with the sword,’ they told him; they gave him ‘no +rest’; ‘his position became intolerable’; it was plain +he must choose between his political and his religious tenets; and in +the last years of his life, about 1812, he returned to the Church of +his fathers.<br> +<br> +August 1786 was the date of his chief advancement, when, having designed +a system of oil lights to take the place of the primitive coal fires +before in use, he was dubbed engineer to the newly-formed Board of Northern +Lighthouses. Not only were his fortunes bettered by the appointment, +but he was introduced to a new and wider field for the exercise of his +abilities, and a new way of life highly agreeable to his active constitution. +He seems to have rejoiced in the long journeys, and to have combined +them with the practice of field sports. ‘A tall, stout man +coming ashore with his gun over his arm’ - so he was described +to my father - the only description that has come down to me by a light-keeper +old in the service. Nor did this change come alone. On the +9th July of the same year, Thomas Smith had been left for the second +time a widower. As he was still but thirty-three years old, prospering +in his affairs, newly advanced in the world, and encumbered at the time +with a family of children, five in number, it was natural that he should +entertain the notion of another wife. Expeditious in business, +he was no less so in his choice; and it was not later than June 1787 +- for my grandfather is described as still in his fifteenth year - that +he married the widow of Alan Stevenson.<br> +<br> +The perilous experiment of bringing together two families for once succeeded. +Mr. Smith’s two eldest daughters, Jean and Janet, fervent in piety, +unwearied in kind deeds, were well qualified both to appreciate and +to attract the stepmother; and her son, on the other hand, seems to +have found immediate favour in the eyes of Mr. Smith. It is, perhaps, +easy to exaggerate the ready-made resemblances; the tired woman must +have done much to fashion girls who were under ten; the man, lusty and +opinionated, must have stamped a strong impression on the boy of fifteen. +But the cleavage of the family was too marked, the identity of character +and interest produced between the two men on the one hand, and the three +women on the other, was too complete to have been the result of influence +alone. Particular bonds of union must have pre-existed on each +side. And there is no doubt that the man and the boy met with +common ambitions, and a common bent, to the practice of that which had +not so long before acquired the name of civil engineering.<br> +<br> +For the profession which is now so thronged, famous, and influential, +was then a thing of yesterday. My grandfather had an anecdote +of Smeaton, probably learned from John Clerk of Eldin, their common +friend. Smeaton was asked by the Duke of Argyll to visit the West +Highland coast for a professional purpose. He refused, appalled, +it seems, by the rough travelling. ‘You can recommend some +other fit person?’ asked the Duke. ‘No,’ said +Smeaton, ‘I’m sorry I can’t.’ ‘What!’ +cried the Duke, ‘a profession with only one man in it! Pray, +who taught you?’ ‘Why,’ said Smeaton, ‘I +believe I may say I was self-taught, an’t please your grace.’ +Smeaton, at the date of Thomas Smith’s third marriage, was yet +living; and as the one had grown to the new profession from his place +at the instrument-maker’s, the other was beginning to enter it +by the way of his trade. The engineer of to-day is confronted +with a library of acquired results; tables and formulae to the value +of folios full have been calculated and recorded; and the student finds +everywhere in front of him the footprints of the pioneers. In +the eighteenth century the field was largely unexplored; the engineer +must read with his own eyes the face of nature; he arose a volunteer, +from the workshop or the mill, to undertake works which were at once +inventions and adventures. It was not a science then - it was +a living art; and it visibly grew under the eyes and between the hands +of its practitioners.<br> +<br> +The charm of such an occupation was strongly felt by stepfather and +stepson. It chanced that Thomas Smith was a reformer; the superiority +of his proposed lamp and reflectors over open fires of coal secured +his appointment; and no sooner had he set his hand to the task than +the interest of that employment mastered him. The vacant stage +on which he was to act, and where all had yet to be created - the greatness +of the difficulties, the smallness of the means intrusted him - would +rouse a man of his disposition like a call to battle. The lad +introduced by marriage under his roof was of a character to sympathise; +the public usefulness of the service would appeal to his judgment, the +perpetual need for fresh expedients stimulate his ingenuity. And +there was another attraction which, in the younger man at least, appealed +to, and perhaps first aroused, a profound and enduring sentiment of +romance: I mean the attraction of the life. The seas into which +his labours carried the new engineer were still scarce charted, the +coasts still dark; his way on shore was often far beyond the convenience +of any road; the isles in which he must sojourn were still partly savage. +He must toss much in boats; he must often adventure on horseback by +the dubious bridle-track through unfrequented wildernesses; he must +sometimes plant his lighthouse in the very camp of wreckers; and he +was continually enforced to the vicissitudes of outdoor life. +The joy of my grandfather in this career was strong as the love of woman. +It lasted him through youth and manhood, it burned strong in age, and +at the approach of death his last yearning was to renew these loved +experiences. What he felt himself he continued to attribute to +all around him. And to this supposed sentiment in others I find +him continually, almost pathetically, appealing; often in vain.<br> +<br> +Snared by these interests, the boy seems to have become almost at once +the eager confidant and adviser of his new connection; the Church, if +he had ever entertained the prospect very warmly, faded from his view; +and at the age of nineteen I find him already in a post of some authority, +superintending the construction of the lighthouse on the isle of Little +Cumbrae, in the Firth of Clyde. The change of aim seems to have +caused or been accompanied by a change of character. It sounds +absurd to couple the name of my grandfather with the word indolence; +but the lad who had been destined from the cradle to the Church, and +who had attained the age of fifteen without acquiring more than a moderate +knowledge of Latin, was at least no unusual student. And from +the day of his charge at Little Cumbrae he steps before us what he remained +until the end, a man of the most zealous industry, greedy of occupation, +greedy of knowledge, a stern husband of time, a reader, a writer, unflagging +in his task of self-improvement. Thenceforward his summers were +spent directing works and ruling workmen, now in uninhabited, now in +half-savage islands; his winters were set apart, first at the Andersonian +Institution, then at the University of Edinburgh to improve himself +in mathematics, chemistry, natural history, agriculture, moral philosophy, +and logic; a bearded student - although no doubt scrupulously shaved. +I find one reference to his years in class which will have a meaning +for all who have studied in Scottish Universities. He mentions +a recommendation made by the professor of logic. ‘The high-school +men,’ he writes, ‘and <i>bearded men like myself</i>, were +all attention.’ If my grandfather were throughout life a +thought too studious of the art of getting on, much must be forgiven +to the bearded and belated student who looked across, with a sense of +difference, at ‘the high-school men.’ Here was a gulf +to be crossed; but already he could feel that he had made a beginning, +and that must have been a proud hour when he devoted his earliest earnings +to the repayment of the charitable foundation in which he had received +the rudiments of knowledge.<br> +<br> +In yet another way he followed the example of his father-in-law, and +from 1794 to 1807, when the affairs of the Bell Rock made it necessary +for him to resign, he served in different corps of volunteers. +In the last of these he rose to a position of distinction, no less than +captain of the Grenadier Company, and his colonel, in accepting his +resignation, entreated he would do them ‘the favour of continuing +as an honorary member of a corps which has been so much indebted for +your zeal and exertions.’<br> +<br> +To very pious women the men of the house are apt to appear worldly. +The wife, as she puts on her new bonnet before church, is apt to sigh +over that assiduity which enabled her husband to pay the milliner’s +bill. And in the household of the Smiths and Stevensons the women +were not only extremely pious, but the men were in reality a trifle +worldly. Religious they both were; conscious, like all Scots, +of the fragility and unreality of that scene in which we play our uncomprehended +parts; like all Scots, realising daily and hourly the sense of another +will than ours and a perpetual direction in the affairs of life. +But the current of their endeavours flowed in a more obvious channel. +They had got on so far; to get on further was their next ambition - +to gather wealth, to rise in society, to leave their descendants higher +than themselves, to be (in some sense) among the founders of families. +Scott was in the same town nourishing similar dreams. But in the +eyes of the women these dreams would be foolish and idolatrous.<br> +<br> +I have before me some volumes of old letters addressed to Mrs. Smith +and the two girls, her favourites, which depict in a strong light their +characters and the society in which they moved.<br> +<br> +‘My very dear and much esteemed Friend,’ writes one correspondent, +‘this day being the anniversary of our acquaintance, I feel inclined +to address you; but where shall I find words to express the fealings +of a graitful <i>Heart</i>, first to the Lord who graiciously inclined +you on this day last year to notice an afflicted Strainger providentially +cast in your way far from any Earthly friend? . . . Methinks I +shall hear him say unto you, “Inasmuch as ye shewed kindness to +my afflicted handmaiden, ye did it unto me.”’<br> +<br> +This is to Jean; but the same afflicted lady wrote indifferently to +Jean, to Janet, and to Ms. Smith, whom she calls ‘my Edinburgh +mother.’ It is plain the three were as one person, moving +to acts of kindness, like the Graces, inarmed. Too much stress +must not be laid on the style of this correspondence; Clarinda survived, +not far away, and may have met the ladies on the Calton Hill; and many +of the writers appear, underneath the conventions of the period, to +be genuinely moved. But what unpleasantly strikes a reader is, +that these devout unfortunates found a revenue in their devotion. +It is everywhere the same tale; on the side of the soft-hearted ladies, +substantial acts of help; on the side of the correspondents, affection, +italics, texts, ecstasies, and imperfect spelling. When a midwife +is recommended, not at all for proficiency in her important art, but +because she has ‘a sister whom I [the correspondent] esteem and +respect, and [who] is a spiritual daughter of my Hond Father in the +Gosple,’ the mask seems to be torn off, and the wages of godliness +appear too openly. Capacity is a secondary matter in a midwife, +temper in a servant, affection in a daughter, and the repetition of +a shibboleth fulfils the law. Common decency is at times forgot +in the same page with the most sanctified advice and aspiration. +Thus I am introduced to a correspondent who appears to have been at +the time the housekeeper at Invermay, and who writes to condole with +my grandmother in a season of distress. For nearly half a sheet +she keeps to the point with an excellent discretion in language then +suddenly breaks out:<br> +<br> +‘It was fully my intention to have left this at Martinmass, but +the Lord fixes the bounds of our habitation. I have had more need +of patience in my situation here than in any other, partly from the +very violent, unsteady, deceitful temper of the Mistress of the Family, +and also from the state of the house. It was in a train of repair +when I came here two years ago, and is still in Confusion. There +is above six Thousand Pounds’ worth of Furniture come from London +to be put up when the rooms are completely finished; and then, woe be +to the Person who is Housekeeper at Invermay!’<br> +<br> +And by the tail of the document, which is torn, I see she goes on to +ask the bereaved family to seek her a new place. It is extraordinary +that people should have been so deceived in so careless an impostor; +that a few sprinkled ‘God willings’ should have blinded +them to the essence of this venomous letter; and that they should have +been at the pains to bind it in with others (many of them highly touching) +in their memorial of harrowing days. But the good ladies were +without guile and without suspicion; they were victims marked for the +axe, and the religious impostors snuffed up the wind as they drew near.<br> +<br> +I have referred above to my grandmother; it was no slip of the pen: +for by an extraordinary arrangement, in which it is hard not to suspect +the managing hand of a mother, Jean Smith became the wife of Robert +Stevenson. Mrs. Smith had failed in her design to make her son +a minister, and she saw him daily more immersed in business and worldly +ambition. One thing remained that she might do: she might secure +for him a godly wife, that great means of sanctification; and she had +two under her hand, trained by herself, her dear friends and daughters +both in law and love - Jean and Janet. Jean’s complexion +was extremely pale, Janet’s was florid; my grandmother’s +nose was straight, my great-aunt’s aquiline; but by the sound +of the voice, not even a son was able to distinguish one from other. +The marriage of a man of twenty-seven and a girl of twenty who have +lived for twelve years as brother and sister, is difficult to conceive. +It took place, however, and thus in 1799 the family was still further +cemented by the union of a representative of the male or worldly element +with one of the female and devout.<br> +<br> +This essential difference remained unbridged, yet never diminished the +strength of their relation. My grandfather pursued his design +of advancing in the world with some measure of success; rose to distinction +in his calling, grew to be the familiar of members of Parliament, judges +of the Court of Session, and ‘landed gentlemen’; learned +a ready address, had a flow of interesting conversation, and when he +was referred to as ‘a highly respectable <i>bourgeois</i>,’ +resented the description. My grandmother remained to the end devout +and unambitious, occupied with her Bible, her children, and her house; +easily shocked, and associating largely with a clique of godly parasites. +I do not know if she called in the midwife already referred to; but +the principle on which that lady was recommended, she accepted fully. +The cook was a godly woman, the butcher a Christian man, and the table +suffered. The scene has been often described to me of my grandfather +sawing with darkened countenance at some indissoluble joint - ‘Preserve +me, my dear, what kind of a reedy, stringy beast is this?’ - of +the joint removed, the pudding substituted and uncovered; and of my +grandmother’s anxious glance and hasty, deprecatory comment, ‘Just +mismanaged!’ Yet with the invincible obstinacy of soft natures, +she would adhere to the godly woman and the Christian man, or find others +of the same kidney to replace them. One of her confidants had +once a narrow escape; an unwieldy old woman, she had fallen from an +outside stair in a close of the Old Town; and my grandmother rejoiced +to communicate the providential circumstance that a baker had been passing +underneath with his bread upon his head. ‘I would like to +know what kind of providence the baker thought it!’ cried my grandfather.<br> +<br> +But the sally must have been unique. In all else that I have heard +or read of him, so far from criticising, he was doing his utmost to +honour and even to emulate his wife’s pronounced opinions. +In the only letter which has come to my hand of Thomas Smith’s, +I find him informing his wife that he was ‘in time for afternoon +church’; similar assurances or cognate excuses abound in the correspondence +of Robert Stevenson; and it is comical and pretty to see the two generations +paying the same court to a female piety more highly strung: Thomas Smith +to the mother of Robert Stevenson - Robert Stevenson to the daughter +of Thomas Smith. And if for once my grandfather suffered himself +to be hurried, by his sense of humour and justice, into that remark +about the case of Providence and the Baker, I should be sorry for any +of his children who should have stumbled into the same attitude of criticism. +In the apocalyptic style of the housekeeper of Invermay, woe be to that +person! But there was no fear; husband and sons all entertained +for the pious, tender soul the same chivalrous and moved affection. +I have spoken with one who remembered her, and who had been the intimate +and equal of her sons, and I found this witness had been struck, as +I had been, with a sense of disproportion between the warmth of the +adoration felt and the nature of the woman, whether as described or +observed. She diligently read and marked her Bible; she was a +tender nurse; she had a sense of humour under strong control; she talked +and found some amusement at her (or rather at her husband’s) dinner-parties. +It is conceivable that even my grandmother was amenable to the seductions +of dress; at least, I find her husband inquiring anxiously about ‘the +gowns from Glasgow,’ and very careful to describe the toilet of +the Princess Charlotte, whom he had seen in church ‘in a Pelisse +and Bonnet of the same colour of cloth as the Boys’ Dress jackets, +trimmed with blue satin ribbons; the hat or Bonnet, Mr. Spittal said, +was a Parisian slouch, and had a plume of three white feathers.’ +But all this leaves a blank impression, and it is rather by reading +backward in these old musty letters, which have moved me now to laughter +and now to impatience, that I glean occasional glimpses of how she seemed +to her contemporaries, and trace (at work in her queer world of godly +and grateful parasites) a mobile and responsive nature. Fashion +moulds us, and particularly women, deeper than we sometimes think; but +a little while ago, and, in some circles, women stood or fell by the +degree of their appreciation of old pictures; in the early years of +the century (and surely with more reason) a character like that of my +grandmother warmed, charmed, and subdued, like a strain of music, the +hearts of the men of her own household. And there is little doubt +that Mrs. Smith, as she looked on at the domestic life of her son and +her stepdaughter, and numbered the heads in their increasing nursery, +must have breathed fervent thanks to her Creator.<br> +<br> +Yet this was to be a family unusually tried; it was not for nothing +that one of the godly women saluted Miss Janet Smith as ‘a veteran +in affliction’; and they were all before middle life experienced +in that form of service. By the 1st of January 1808, besides a +pair of still-born twins, children had been born and still survived +to the young couple. By the 11th two were gone; by the 28th a +third had followed, and the two others were still in danger. In +the letters of a former nurserymaid - I give her name, Jean Mitchell, +<i>honoris causa</i> - we are enabled to feel, even at this distance +of time, some of the bitterness of that month of bereavement.<br> +<br> +‘I have this day received,’ she writes to Miss Janet, ‘the +melancholy news of my dear babys’ deaths. My heart is like +to break for my dear Mrs. Stevenson. O may she be supported on +this trying occasion! I hope her other three babys will be spared +to her. O, Miss Smith, did I think when I parted from my sweet +babys that I never was to see them more?’ ‘I received,’ +she begins her next, ‘the mournful news of my dear Jessie’s +death. I also received the hair of my three sweet babys, which +I will preserve as dear to their memorys and as a token of Mr. and Mrs. +Stevenson’s friendship and esteem. At my leisure hours, +when the children are in bed, they occupy all my thoughts, I dream of +them. About two weeks ago I dreamed that my sweet little Jessie +came running to me in her usual way, and I took her in my arms. +O my dear babys, were mortal eyes permitted to see them in heaven, we +would not repine nor grieve for their loss.’<br> +<br> +By the 29th of February, the Reverend John Campbell, a man of obvious +sense and human value, but hateful to the present biographer, because +he wrote so many letters and conveyed so little information, summed +up this first period of affliction in a letter to Miss Smith: ‘Your +dear sister but a little while ago had a full nursery, and the dear +blooming creatures sitting around her table filled her breast with hope +that one day they should fill active stations in society and become +an ornament in the Church below. But ah!’<br> +<br> +Near a hundred years ago these little creatures ceased to be, and for +not much less a period the tears have been dried. And to this +day, looking in these stitched sheaves of letters, we hear the sound +of many soft-hearted women sobbing for the lost. Never was such +a massacre of the innocents; teething and chincough and scarlet fever +and smallpox ran the round; and little Lillies, and Smiths, and Stevensons +fell like moths about a candle; and nearly all the sympathetic correspondents +deplore and recall the little losses of their own. ‘It is +impossible to describe the Heavnly looks of the Dear Babe the three +last days of his life,’ writes Mrs. Laurie to Mrs. Smith. +‘Never - never, my dear aunt, could I wish to eface the rememberance +of this Dear Child. Never, never, my dear aunt!’ And +so soon the memory of the dead and the dust of the survivors are buried +in one grave.<br> +<br> +There was another death in 1812; it passes almost unremarked; a single +funeral seemed but a small event to these ‘veterans in affliction’; +and by 1816 the nursery was full again. Seven little hopefuls +enlivened the house; some were growing up; to the elder girl my grandfather +already wrote notes in current hand at the tail of his letters to his +wife: and to the elder boys he had begun to print, with laborious care, +sheets of childish gossip and pedantic applications. Here, for +instance, under date of 26th May 1816, is part of a mythological account +of London, with a moral for the three gentlemen, ‘Messieurs Alan, +Robert, and James Stevenson,’ to whom the document is addressed:<br> +<br> +‘There are many prisons here like Bridewell, for, like other large +towns, there are many bad men here as well as many good men. The +natives of London are in general not so tall and strong as the people +of Edinburgh, because they have not so much pure air, and instead of +taking porridge they eat cakes made with sugar and plums. Here +you have thousands of carts to draw timber, thousands of coaches to +take you to all parts of the town, and thousands of boats to sail on +the river Thames. But you must have money to pay, otherwise you +can get nothing. Now the way to get money is, become clever men +and men of education, by being good scholars.’<br> +<br> +From the same absence, he writes to his wife on a Sunday:<br> +<br> +‘It is now about eight o’clock with me, and I imagine you +to be busy with the young folks, hearing the questions [<i>Anglicé</i>, +catechism], and indulging the boys with a chapter from the large Bible, +with their interrogations and your answers in the soundest doctrine. +I hope James is getting his verse as usual, and that Mary is not forgetting +her little <i>hymn</i>. While Jeannie will be reading Wotherspoon, +or some other suitable and instructive book, I presume our friend, Aunt +Mary, will have just arrived with the news of <i>a throng kirk</i> [a +crowded church] and a great sermon. You may mention, with my compliments +to my mother, that I was at St. Paul’s to-day, and attended a +very excellent service with Mr. James Lawrie. The text was “Examine +and see that ye be in the faith.”’<br> +<br> +A twinkle of humour lights up this evocation of the distant scene - +the humour of happy men and happy homes. Yet it is penned upon +the threshold of fresh sorrow. James and Mary - he of the verse +and she of the hymn - did not much more than survive to welcome their +returning father. On the 25th, one of the godly women writes to +Janet:<br> +<br> +‘My dearest beloved madam, when I last parted from you, you was +so affected with your affliction [you? or I?] could think of nothing +else. But on Saturday, when I went to inquire after your health, +how was I startled to hear that dear James was gone! Ah, what +is this? My dear benefactors, doing so much good to many, to the +Lord, suddenly to be deprived of their most valued comforts! I +was thrown into great perplexity, could do nothing but murmur, why these +things were done to such a family. I could not rest, but at midnight, +whether spoken [or not] it was presented to my mind - “Those whom +ye deplore are walking with me in white.” I conclude from +this the Lord saying to sweet Mrs. Stevenson: “I gave them to +be brought up for me: well done, good and faithful! they are fully prepared, +and now I must present them to my father and your father, to my God +and your God.”’<br> +<br> +It would be hard to lay on flattery with a more sure and daring hand. +I quote it as a model of a letter of condolence; be sure it would console. +Very different, perhaps quite as welcome, is this from a lighthouse +inspector to my grandfather:<br> +<br> +‘In reading your letter the trickling tear ran down ray cheeks +in silent sorrow for your departed dear ones, my sweet little friends. +Well do I remember, and you will call to mind, their little innocent +and interesting stories. Often have they come round me and taken +me by the hand, but alas! I am no more destined to behold them.’<br> +<br> +The child who is taken becomes canonised, and the looks of the homeliest +babe seem in the retrospect ‘heavenly the three last days of his +life.’ But it appears that James and Mary had indeed been +children more than usually engaging; a record was preserved a long while +in the family of their remarks and ‘little innocent and interesting +stories,’ and the blow and the blank were the more sensible.<br> +<br> +Early the next month Robert Stevenson must proceed upon his voyage of +inspection, part by land, part by sea. He left his wife plunged +in low spirits; the thought of his loss, and still more of her concern, +was continually present in his mind, and he draws in his letters home +an interesting picture of his family relations:<br> +<br> +<i>‘Windygates Inn, Monday (Postmark July 16th)<br> +<br> +</i>‘MY DEAREST JEANNIE, - While the people of the inn are getting +me a little bit of something to eat, I sit down to tell you that I had +a most excellent passage across the water, and got to Wemyss at mid-day. +I hope the children will be very good, and that Robert will take a course +with you to learn his Latin lessons daily; he may, however, read English +in company. Let them have strawberries on Saturdays.’<br> +<br> +<i>‘Westhaven, 17th July.<br> +<br> +</i>‘I have been occupied to-day at the harbour of Newport, opposite +Dundee, and am this far on my way to Arbroath. You may tell the +boys that I slept last night in Mr. Steadman’s tent. I found +my bed rather hard, but the lodgings were otherwise extremely comfortable. +The encampment is on the Fife side of the Tay, immediately opposite +to Dundee. From the door of the tent you command the most beautiful +view of the Firth, both up and down, to a great extent. At night +all was serene and still, the sky presented the most beautiful appearance +of bright stars, and the morning was ushered in with the song of many +little birds.’<br> +<br> +<i>‘Aberdeen, July 19th.<br> +<br> +</i>‘I hope, my dear, that you are going out of doors regularly +and taking much exercise. I would have you to <i>make the markets +daily</i> - and by all means to take a seat in the coach once or twice +in the week and see what is going on in town. [The family were +at the sea-side.] It will be good not to be too great a stranger +to the house. It will be rather painful at first, but as it is +to be done, I would have you not to be too strange to the house in town.<br> +<br> +‘Tell the boys that I fell in with a soldier - his name is Henderson +- who was twelve years with Lord Wellington and other commanders. +He returned very lately with only eightpence-halfpenny in his pocket, +and found his father and mother both in life, though they had never +heard from him, nor he from them. He carried my great-coat and +umbrella a few miles.’<br> +<br> +<i>‘Fraserburgh, July</i> 20th.<br> +<br> +‘Fraserburgh is the same dull place which [Auntie] Mary and Jeannie +found it. As I am travelling along the coast which they are acquainted +with, you had better cause Robert bring down the map from Edinburgh; +and it will be a good exercise in geography for the young folks to trace +my course. I hope they have entered upon the writing. The +library will afford abundance of excellent books, which I wish you would +employ a little. I hope you are doing me the favour to go much +out with the boys, which will do you much good and prevent them from +getting so very much overheated.’<br> +<br> +[<i>To the Boys - Printed</i>.]<br> +<br> +‘When I had last the pleasure of writing to you, your dear little +brother James and your sweet little sister Mary were still with us. +But it has pleased God to remove them to another and a better world, +and we must submit to the will of Providence. I must, however, +request of you to think sometimes upon them, and to be very careful +not to do anything that will displease or vex your mother. It +is therefore proper that you do not roamp [Scottish indeed] too much +about, and that you learn your lessons.’<br> +<br> +‘I went to Fraserburgh and visited Kinnaird Head Lighthouse, which +I found in good order. All this time I travelled upon good roads, +and paid many a toll-man by the way; but from Fraserburgh to Banff there +is no toll-bars, and the road is so bad that I had to walk up and down +many a hill, and for want of bridges the horses had to drag the chaise +up to the middle of the wheels in water. At Banff I saw a large +ship of 300 tons lying on the sands upon her beam-ends, and a wreck +for want of a good harbour. Captain Wilson - to whom I beg my +compliments - will show you a ship of 300 tons. At the towns of +Macduff, Banff, and Portsoy, many of the houses are built of marble, +and the rocks on this part of the coast or sea-side are marble. +But, my dear Boys, unless marble be polished and dressed, it is a very +coarse-looking stone, and has no more beauty than common rock. +As a proof of this, ask the favour of your mother to take you to Thomson’s +Marble Works in South Leith, and you will see marble in all its stages, +and perhaps you may there find Portsoy marble! The use I wish +to make of this is to tell you that, without education, a man is just +like a block of rough, unpolished marble. Notice, in proof of +this, how much Mr. Neill and Mr. M’Gregor [the tutor] know, and +observe how little a man knows who is not a good scholar. On my +way to Fochabers I passed through many thousand acres of Fir timber, +and saw many deer running in these woods.’<br> +<br> +[<i>To Mrs. Stevenson</i>.]<br> +<br> +<i>‘Inverness, July 21st.<br> +<br> +</i>‘I propose going to church in the afternoon, and as I have +breakfasted late, I shall afterwards take a walk, and dine about six +o’clock. I do not know who is the clergyman here, but I +shall think of you all. I travelled in the mail-coach [from Banff] +almost alone. While it was daylight I kept the top, and the passing +along a country I had never before seen was a considerable amusement. +But, my dear, you are all much in my thoughts, and many are the objects +which recall the recollection of our tender and engaging children we +have so recently lost. We must not, however, repine. I could +not for a moment wish any change of circumstances in their case; and +in every comparative view of their state, I see the Lord’s goodness +in removing them from an evil world to an abode of bliss; and I must +earnestly hope that you may be enabled to take such a view of this affliction +as to live in the happy prospect of our all meeting again to part no +more - and that under such considerations you are getting up your spirits. +I wish you would walk about, and by all means go to town, and do not +sit much at home.’<br> +<br> +<i>‘Inverness, July</i> <i>23rd</i>.<br> +<br> +‘I am duly favoured with your much-valued letter, and I am happy +to find that you are so much with my mother, because that sort of variety +has a tendency to occupy the mind, and to keep it from brooding too +much upon one subject. Sensibility and tenderness are certainly +two of the most interesting and pleasing qualities of the mind. +These qualities are also none of the least of the many endearingments +of the female character. But if that kind of sympathy and pleasing +melancholy, which is familiar to us under distress, be much indulged, +it becomes habitual, and takes such a hold of the mind as to absorb +all the other affections, and unfit us for the duties and proper enjoyments +of life. Resignation sinks into a kind of peevish discontent. +I am far, however, from thinking there is the least danger of this in +your case, my dear; for you have been on all occasions enabled to look +upon the fortunes of this life as under the direction of a higher power, +and have always preserved that propriety and consistency of conduct +in all circumstances which endears your example to your family in particular, +and to your friends. I am therefore, my dear, for you to go out +much, and to go to the house up-stairs [he means to go up-stairs in +the house, to visit the place of the dead children], and to put yourself +in the way of the visits of your friends. I wish you would call +on the Miss Grays, and it would be a good thing upon a Saturday to dine +with my mother, and take Meggy and all the family with you, and let +them have their strawberries in town. The tickets of one of the +<i>old-fashioned coaches</i> would take you all up, and if the evening +were good, they could all walk down, excepting Meggy and little David.’<br> +<br> +<i>‘Inverness, July 25th, 11 p.m.<br> +<br> +</i>‘Captain Wemyss, of Wemyss, has come to Inverness to go the +voyage with me, and as we are sleeping in a double-bedded room, I must +no longer transgress. You must remember me the best way you can +to the children.’<br> +<br> +<i>‘On board of the Lighthouse Yacht, July 29th.<br> +<br> +</i>‘I got to Cromarty yesterday about mid-day, and went to church. +It happened to be the sacrament there, and I heard a Mr. Smith at that +place conclude the service with a very suitable exhortation. There +seemed a great concourse of people, but they had rather an unfortunate +day for them at the tent, as it rained a good deal. After drinking +tea at the inn, Captain Wemyss accompanied me on board, and we sailed +about eight last night. The wind at present being rather a beating +one, I think I shall have an opportunity of standing into the bay of +Wick, and leaving this letter to let you know my progress and that I +am well.’<br> +<br> +<i>‘Lighthouse Yacht, Stornoway, August 4th.<br> +<br> +</i>‘To-day we had prayers on deck as usual when at sea. +I read the 14th chapter, I think, of Job. Captain Wemyss has been +in the habit of doing this on board his own ship, agreeably to the Articles +of War. Our passage round the Cape [Cape Wrath] was rather a cross +one, and as the wind was northerly, we had a pretty heavy sea, but upon +the whole have made a good passage, leaving many vessels behind us in +Orkney. I am quite well, my dear; and Captain Wemyss, who has +much spirit, and who is much given to observation, and a perfect enthusiast +in his profession, enlivens the voyage greatly. Let me entreat +you to move about much, and take a walk with the boys to Leith. +I think they have still many places to see there, and I wish you would +indulge them in this respect. Mr. Scales is the best person I +know for showing them the sailcloth-weaving, etc., and he would have +great pleasure in undertaking this. My dear, I trust soon to be +with you, and that through the goodness of God we shall meet all well.’<br> +<br> +‘There are two vessels lying here with emigrants for America, +each with eighty people on board, at all ages, from a few days to upwards +of sixty! Their prospects must be very forlorn to go with a slender +purse for distant and unknown countries.’<br> +<br> +<i>‘Lighthouse Yacht, off Greenock, Aug. 18th.<br> +<br> +</i>‘It was after <i>church-time</i> before we got here, but we +had prayers upon deck on the way up the Clyde. This has, upon +the whole, been a very good voyage, and Captain Wemyss, who enjoys it +much, has been an excellent companion; we met with pleasure, and shall +part with regret.’<br> +<br> +Strange that, after his long experience, my grandfather should have +learned so little of the attitude and even the dialect of the spiritually-minded; +that after forty-four years in a most religious circle, he could drop +without sense of incongruity from a period of accepted phrases to ‘trust +his wife was <i>getting up her spirits</i>,’ or think to reassure +her as to the character of Captain Wemyss by mentioning that he had +read prayers on the deck of his frigate ‘<i>agreeably to the Articles</i> +<i>of War</i>’! Yet there is no doubt - and it is one of +the most agreeable features of the kindly series - that he was doing +his best to please, and there is little doubt that he succeeded. +Almost all my grandfather’s private letters have been destroyed. +This correspondence has not only been preserved entire, but stitched +up in the same covers with the works of the godly women, the Reverend +John Campbell, and the painful Mrs. Ogle. I did not think to mention +the good dame, but she comes in usefully as an example. Amongst +the treasures of the ladies of my family, her letters have been honoured +with a volume to themselves. I read about a half of them myself; +then handed over the task to one of stauncher resolution, with orders +to communicate any fact that should be found to illuminate these pages. +Not one was found; it was her only art to communicate by post second-rate +sermons at second-hand; and such, I take it, was the correspondence +in which my grandmother delighted. If I am right, that of Robert +Stevenson, with his quaint smack of the contemporary ‘Sandford +and Merton,’ his interest in the whole page of experience, his +perpetual quest, and fine scent of all that seems romantic to a boy, +his needless pomp of language, his excellent good sense, his unfeigned, +unstained, unwearied human kindliness, would seem to her, in a comparison, +dry and trivial and worldly. And if these letters were by an exception +cherished and preserved, it would be for one or both of two reasons +- because they dealt with and were bitter-sweet reminders of a time +of sorrow; or because she was pleased, perhaps touched, by the writer’s +guileless efforts to seem spiritually-minded.<br> +<br> +After this date there were two more births and two more deaths, so that +the number of the family remained unchanged; in all five children survived +to reach maturity and to outlive their parents.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER II: THE SERVICE OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +I<br> +<br> +It were hard to imagine a contrast more sharply defined than that between +the lives of the men and women of this family: the one so chambered, +so centred in the affections and the sensibilities; the other so active, +healthy, and expeditious. From May to November, Thomas Smith and +Robert Stevenson were on the mail, in the saddle, or at sea; and my +grandfather, in particular, seems to have been possessed with a demon +of activity in travel. In 1802, by direction of the Northern Lighthouse +Board, he had visited the coast of England from St. Bees, in Cumberland, +and round by the Scilly Islands to some place undecipherable by me; +in all a distance of 2500 miles. In 1806 I find him starting ‘on +a tour round the south coast of England, from the Humber to the Severn.’ +Peace was not long declared ere he found means to visit Holland, where +he was in time to see, in the navy-yard at Helvoetsluys, ‘about +twenty of Bonaparte’s <i>English flotilla</i> lying in a state +of decay, the object of curiosity to Englishmen.’ By 1834 +he seems to have been acquainted with the coast of France from Dieppe +to Bordeaux; and a main part of his duty as Engineer to the Board of +Northern Lights was one round of dangerous and laborious travel.<br> +<br> +In 1786, when Thomas Smith first received the appointment, the extended +and formidable coast of Scotland was lighted at a single point - the +Isle of May, in the jaws of the Firth of Forth, where, on a tower already +a hundred and fifty years old, an open coal-fire blazed in an iron chauffer. +The whole archipelago, thus nightly plunged in darkness, was shunned +by sea-going vessels, and the favourite courses were north about Shetland +and west about St. Kilda. When the Board met, four new lights +formed the extent of their intentions - Kinnaird Head, in Aberdeenshire, +at the eastern elbow of the coast; North Ronaldsay, in Orkney, to keep +the north and guide ships passing to the south’ard of Shetland; +Island Glass, on Harris, to mark the inner shore of the Hebrides and +illuminate the navigation of the Minch; and the Mull of Kintyre. +These works were to be attempted against obstacles, material and financial, +that might have staggered the most bold. Smith had no ship at +his command till 1791; the roads in those outlandish quarters where +his business lay were scarce passable when they existed, and the tower +on the Mull of Kintyre stood eleven months unlighted while the apparatus +toiled and foundered by the way among rocks and mosses. Not only +had towers to be built and apparatus transplanted; the supply of oil +must be maintained, and the men fed, in the same inaccessible and distant +scenes; a whole service, with its routine and hierarchy, had to be called +out of nothing; and a new trade (that of lightkeeper) to be taught, +recruited, and organised. The funds of the Board were at the first +laughably inadequate. They embarked on their career on a loan +of twelve hundred pounds, and their income in 1789, after relief by +a fresh Act of Parliament, amounted to less than three hundred. +It must be supposed that the thoughts of Thomas Smith, in these early +years, were sometimes coloured with despair; and since he built and +lighted one tower after another, and created and bequeathed to his successors +the elements of an excellent administration, it may be conceded that +he was not after all an unfortunate choice for a first engineer.<br> +<br> +War added fresh complications. In 1794 Smith came ‘very +near to be taken’ by a French squadron. In 1813 Robert Stevenson +was cruising about the neighbourhood of Cape Wrath in the immediate +fear of Commodore Rogers. The men, and especially the sailors, +of the lighthouse service must be protected by a medal and ticket from +the brutal activity of the press-gang. And the zeal of volunteer +patriots was at times embarrassing.<br> +<br> +‘I set off on foot,’ writes my grandfather, ‘for Marazion, +a town at the head of Mount’s Bay, where I was in hopes of getting +a boat to freight. I had just got that length, and was making +the necessary inquiry, when a young man, accompanied by several idle-looking +fellows, came up to me, and in a hasty tone said, “Sir, in the +king’s name I seize your person and papers.” To which +I replied that I should be glad to see his authority, and know the reason +of an address so abrupt. He told me the want of time prevented +his taking regular steps, but that it would be necessary for me to return +to Penzance, as I was suspected of being a French spy. I proposed +to submit my papers to the nearest Justice of Peace, who was immediately +applied to, and came to the inn where I was. He seemed to be greatly +agitated, and quite at a loss how to proceed. The complaint preferred +against me was “that I had examined the Longships Lighthouse with +the most minute attention, and was no less particular in my inquiries +at the keepers of the lighthouse regarding the sunk rocks lying off +the Land’s End, with the sets of the currents and tides along +the coast: that I seemed particularly to regret the situation of the +rocks called the Seven Stones, and the loss of a beacon which the Trinity +Board had caused to be fixed on the Wolf Rock; that I had taken notes +of the bearings of several sunk rocks, and a drawing of the lighthouse, +and of Cape Cornwall. Further, that I had refused the honour of +Lord Edgecombe’s invitation to dinner, offering as an apology +that I had some particular business on hand.”’<br> +<br> +My grandfather produced in answer his credentials and letter of credit; +but the justice, after perusing them, ‘very gravely observed that +they were “musty bits of paper,”’ and proposed to +maintain the arrest. Some more enlightened magistrates at Penzance +relieved him of suspicion and left him at liberty to pursue his journey, +- ‘which I did with so much eagerness,’ he adds, ‘that +I gave the two coal lights on the Lizard only a very transient look.’<br> +<br> +Lighthouse operations in Scotland differed essentially in character +from those in England. The English coast is in comparison a habitable, +homely place, well supplied with towns; the Scottish presents hundreds +of miles of savage islands and desolate moors. The Parliamentary +committee of 1834, profoundly ignorant of this distinction, insisted +with my grandfather that the work at the various stations should be +let out on contract ‘in the neighbourhood,’ where sheep +and deer, and gulls and cormorants, and a few ragged gillies, perhaps +crouching in a bee-hive house, made up the only neighbours. In +such situations repairs and improvements could only be overtaken by +collecting (as my grandfather expressed it) a few ‘lads,’ +placing them under charge of a foreman, and despatching them about the +coast as occasion served. The particular danger of these seas +increased the difficulty. The course of the lighthouse tender +lies amid iron-bound coasts, among tide-races, the whirlpools of the +Pentland Firth, flocks of islands, flocks of reefs, many of them uncharted. +The aid of steam was not yet. At first in random coasting sloop, +and afterwards in the cutter belonging to the service, the engineer +must ply and run amongst these multiplied dangers, and sometimes late +into the stormy autumn. For pages together my grandfather’s +diary preserves a record of these rude experiences; of hard winds and +rough seas; and of ‘the try-sail and storm-jib, those old friends +which I never like to see.’ They do not tempt to quotation, +but it was the man’s element, in which he lived, and delighted +to live, and some specimen must be presented. On Friday, September +10th, 1830, the <i>Regent</i> lying in Lerwick Bay, we have this entry: +‘The gale increases, with continued rain.’ On the +morrow, Saturday, 11th, the weather appeared to moderate, and they put +to sea, only to be driven by evening into Levenswick. There they +lay, ‘rolling much,’ with both anchors ahead and the square +yard on deck, till the morning of Saturday, 18th. Saturday and +Sunday they were plying to the southward with a ‘strong breeze +and a heavy sea,’ and on Sunday evening anchored in Otterswick. +‘Monday, 20th, it blows so fresh that we have no communication +with the shore. We see Mr. Rome on the beach, but we cannot communicate +with him. It blows “mere fire,” as the sailors express +it.’ And for three days more the diary goes on with tales +of davits unshipped, high seas, strong gales from the southward, and +the ship driven to refuge in Kirkwall or Deer Sound. I have many +a passage before me to transcribe, in which my grandfather draws himself +as a man of minute and anxious exactitude about details. It must +not be forgotten that these voyages in the tender were the particular +pleasure and reward of his existence; that he had in him a reserve of +romance which carried him delightedly over these hardships and perils; +that to him it was ‘great gain’ to be eight nights and seven +days in the savage bay of Levenswick - to read a book in the much agitated +cabin - to go on deck and hear the gale scream in his ears, and see +the landscape dark with rain and the ship plunge at her two anchors +- and to turn in at night and wake again at morning, in his narrow berth, +to the glamorous and continued voices of the gale.<br> +<br> +His perils and escapes were beyond counting. I shall only refer +to two: the first, because of the impression made upon himself; the +second, from the incidental picture it presents of the north islanders. +On the 9th October 1794 he took passage from Orkney in the sloop <i>Elizabeth</i> +of Stromness. She made a fair passage till within view of Kinnaird +Head, where, as she was becalmed some three miles in the offing, and +wind seemed to threaten from the south-east, the captain landed him, +to continue his journey more expeditiously ashore. A gale immediately +followed, and the <i>Elizabeth</i> was driven back to Orkney and lost +with all hands. The second escape I have been in the habit of +hearing related by an eye-witness, my own father, from the earliest +days of childhood. On a September night, the <i>Regent</i> lay +in the Pentland Firth in a fog and a violent and windless swell. +It was still dark, when they were alarmed by the sound of breakers, +and an anchor was immediately let go. The peep of dawn discovered +them swinging in desperate proximity to the Isle of Swona <a name="citation54a"></a><a href="#footnote54a">{54a}</a> +and the surf bursting close under their stern. There was in this +place a hamlet of the inhabitants, fisher-folk and wreckers; their huts +stood close about the head of the beach. All slept; the doors +were closed, and there was no smoke, and the anxious watchers on board +ship seemed to contemplate a village of the dead. It was thought +possible to launch a boat and tow the <i>Regent</i> from her place of +danger; and with this view a signal of distress was made and a gun fired +with a red-hot poker from the galley. Its detonation awoke the +sleepers. Door after door was opened, and in the grey light of +the morning fisher after fisher was seen to come forth, yawning and +stretching himself, nightcap on head. Fisher after fisher, I wrote, +and my pen tripped; for it should rather stand wrecker after wrecker. +There was no emotion, no animation, it scarce seemed any interest; not +a hand was raised; but all callously awaited the harvest of the sea, +and their children stood by their side and waited also. To the +end of his life, my father remembered that amphitheatre of placid spectators +on the beach; and with a special and natural animosity, the boys of +his own age. But presently a light air sprang up, and filled the +sails, and fainted, and filled them again; and little by little the +<i>Regent</i> fetched way against the swell, and clawed off shore into +the turbulent firth.<br> +<br> +The purpose of these voyages was to effect a landing on open beaches +or among shelving rocks, not for persons only, but for coals and food, +and the fragile furniture of light-rooms. It was often impossible. +In 1831 I find my grandfather ‘hovering for a week’ about +the Pentland Skerries for a chance to land; and it was almost always +difficult. Much knack and enterprise were early developed among +the seamen of the service; their management of boats is to this day +a matter of admiration; and I find my grandfather in his diary depicting +the nature of their excellence in one happily descriptive phrase, when +he remarks that Captain Soutar had landed ‘the small stores and +nine casks of oil <i>with all the activity of a</i> <i>smuggler</i>.’ +And it was one thing to land, another to get on board again. I +have here a passage from the diary, where it seems to have been touch-and-go. +‘I landed at Tarbetness, on the eastern side of the point, in +a <i>mere gale or blast of wind</i> from west-south-west, at 2 p.m. +It blew so fresh that the captain, in a kind of despair, went off to +the ship, leaving myself and the steward ashore. While I was in +the light-room, I felt it shaking and waving, not with the tremor of +the Bell Rock, but with the <i>waving of a tree</i>! This the +light-keepers seemed to be quite familiar to, the principal keeper remarking +that “it was very pleasant,” perhaps meaning interesting +or curious. The captain worked the vessel into smooth water with +admirable dexterity, and I got on board again about 6 p.m. from the +other side of the point.’ But not even the dexterity of +Soutar could prevail always; and my grandfather must at times have been +left in strange berths and with but rude provision. I may instance +the case of my father, who was storm-bound three days upon an islet, +sleeping in the uncemented and unchimneyed houses of the islanders, +and subsisting on a diet of nettle-soup and lobsters.<br> +<br> +The name of Soutar has twice escaped my pen, and I feel I owe him a +vignette. Soutar first attracted notice as mate of a praam at +the Bell Rock, and rose gradually to be captain of the <i>Regent</i>. +He was active, admirably skilled in his trade, and a man incapable of +fear. Once, in London, he fell among a gang of confidence-men, +naturally deceived by his rusticity and his prodigious accent. +They plied him with drink - a hopeless enterprise, for Soutar could +not be made drunk; they proposed cards, and Soutar would not play. +At last, one of them, regarding him with a formidable countenance, inquired +if he were not frightened? ‘I’m no’ very easy +fleyed,’ replied the captain. And the rooks withdrew after +some easier pigeon. So many perils shared, and the partial familiarity +of so many voyages, had given this man a stronghold in my grandfather’s +estimation; and there is no doubt but he had the art to court and please +him with much hypocritical skill. He usually dined on Sundays +in the cabin. He used to come down daily after dinner for a glass +of port or whisky, often in his full rig of sou’-wester, oilskins, +and long boots; and I have often heard it described how insinuatingly +he carried himself on these appearances, artfully combining the extreme +of deference with a blunt and seamanlike demeanour. My father +and uncles, with the devilish penetration of the boy, were far from +being deceived; and my father, indeed, was favoured with an object-lesson +not to be mistaken. He had crept one rainy night into an apple-barrel +on deck, and from this place of ambush overheard Soutar and a comrade +conversing in their oilskins. The smooth sycophant of the cabin +had wholly disappeared, and the boy listened with wonder to a vulgar +and truculent ruffian. Of Soutar, I may say <i>tantum vidi</i>, +having met him in the Leith docks now more than thirty years ago, when +he abounded in the praises of my grandfather, encouraged me (in the +most admirable manner) to pursue his footprints, and left impressed +for ever on my memory the image of his own Bardolphian nose. He +died not long after.<br> +<br> +The engineer was not only exposed to the hazards of the sea; he must +often ford his way by land to remote and scarce accessible places, beyond +reach of the mail or the post-chaise, beyond even the tracery of the +bridle-path, and guided by natives across bog and heather. Up +to 1807 my grand-father seems to have travelled much on horseback; but +he then gave up the idea - ‘such,’ he writes with characteristic +emphasis and capital letters, ‘is the Plague of Baiting.’ +He was a good pedestrian; at the age of fifty-eight I find him covering +seventeen miles over the moors of the Mackay country in less than seven +hours, and that is not bad travelling for a scramble. The piece +of country traversed was already a familiar track, being that between +Loch Eriboll and Cape Wrath; and I think I can scarce do better than +reproduce from the diary some traits of his first visit. The tender +lay in Loch Eriboll; by five in the morning they sat down to breakfast +on board; by six they were ashore - my grandfather, Mr. Slight an assistant, +and Soutar of the jolly nose, and had been taken in charge by two young +gentlemen of the neighbourhood and a pair of gillies. About noon +they reached the Kyle of Durness and passed the ferry. By half-past +three they were at Cape Wrath - not yet known by the emphatic abbreviation +of ‘The Cape’ - and beheld upon all sides of them unfrequented +shores, an expanse of desert moor, and the high-piled Western Ocean. +The site of the tower was chosen. Perhaps it is by inheritance +of blood, but I know few things more inspiriting than this location +of a lighthouse in a designated space of heather and air, through which +the sea-birds are still flying. By 9 p.m. the return journey had +brought them again to the shores of the Kyle. The night was dirty, +and as the sea was high and the ferry-boat small, Soutar and Mr. Stevenson +were left on the far side, while the rest of the party embarked and +were received into the darkness. They made, in fact, a safe though +an alarming passage; but the ferryman refused to repeat the adventure; +and my grand-father and the captain long paced the beach, impatient +for their turn to pass, and tormented with rising anxiety as to the +fate of their companions. At length they sought the shelter of +a shepherd’s house. ‘We had miserable up-putting,’ +the diary continues, ‘and on both sides of the ferry much anxiety +of mind. Our beds were clean straw, and but for the circumstance +of the boat, I should have slept as soundly as ever I did after a walk +through moss and mire of sixteen hours.’<br> +<br> +To go round the lights, even to-day, is to visit past centuries. +The tide of tourists that flows yearly in Scotland, vulgarising all +where it approaches, is still defined by certain barriers. It +will be long ere there is a hotel at Sumburgh or a hydropathic at Cape +Wrath; it will be long ere any <i>char-à-banc</i>, laden with +tourists, shall drive up to Barra Head or Monach, the Island of the +Monks. They are farther from London than St. Petersburg, and except +for the towers, sounding and shining all night with fog-bells and the +radiance of the light-room, glittering by day with the trivial brightness +of white paint, these island and moorland stations seem inaccessible +to the civilisation of to-day, and even to the end of my grandfather’s +career the isolation was far greater. There ran no post at all +in the Long Island; from the light-house on Barra Head a boat must be +sent for letters as far as Tobermory, between sixty and seventy miles +of open sea; and the posts of Shetland, which had surprised Sir Walter +Scott in 1814, were still unimproved in 1833, when my grandfather reported +on the subject. The group contained at the time a population of +30,000 souls, and enjoyed a trade which had increased in twenty years +seven-fold, to between three and four thousand tons. Yet the mails +were despatched and received by chance coasting vessels at the rate +of a penny a letter; six and eight weeks often elapsed between opportunities, +and when a mail was to be made up, sometimes at a moment’s notice, +the bellman was sent hastily through the streets of Lerwick. Between +Shetland and Orkney, only seventy miles apart, there was ‘no trade +communication whatever.’<br> +<br> +Such was the state of affairs, only sixty years ago, with the three +largest clusters of the Scottish Archipelago; and forty-seven years +earlier, when Thomas Smith began his rounds, or forty-two, when Robert +Stevenson became conjoined with him in these excursions, the barbarism +was deep, the people sunk in superstition, the circumstances of their +life perhaps unique in history. Lerwick and Kirkwall, like Guam +or the Bay of Islands, were but barbarous ports where whalers called +to take up and to return experienced seamen. On the outlying islands +the clergy lived isolated, thinking other thoughts, dwelling in a different +country from their parishioners, like missionaries in the South Seas. +My grandfather’s unrivalled treasury of anecdote was never written +down; it embellished his talk while he yet was, and died with him when +he died; and such as have been preserved relate principally to the islands +of Ronaldsay and Sanday, two of the Orkney group. These bordered +on one of the water-highways of civilisation; a great fleet passed annually +in their view, and of the shipwrecks of the world they were the scene +and cause of a proportion wholly incommensurable to their size. +In one year, 1798, my grandfather found the remains of no fewer than +five vessels on the isle of Sanday, which is scarcely twelve miles long.<br> +<br> +‘Hardly a year passed,’ he writes, ‘without instances +of this kind; for, owing to the projecting points of this strangely +formed island, the lowness and whiteness of its eastern shores, and +the wonderful manner in which the scanty patches of land are intersected +with lakes and pools of water, it becomes, even in daylight, a deception, +and has often been fatally mistaken for an open sea. It had even +become proverbial with some of the inhabitants to observe that “if +wrecks were to happen, they might as well be sent to the poor isle of +Sanday as anywhere else.” On this and the neighbouring islands +the inhabitants had certainly had their share of wrecked goods, for +the eye is presented with these melancholy remains in almost every form. +For example, although quarries are to be met with generally in these +islands, and the stones are very suitable for building dykes (<i>Anglicé</i>, +walls), yet instances occur of the land being enclosed, even to a considerable +extent, with ship-timbers. The author has actually seen a park +(<i>Anglicé</i>, meadow) paled round chiefly with cedar-wood +and mahogany from the wreck of a Honduras-built ship; and in one island, +after the wreck of a ship laden with wine, the inhabitants have been +known to take claret to their barley-meal porridge. On complaining +to one of the pilots of the badness of his boat’s sails, he replied +to the author with some degree of pleasantry, “Had it been His +will that you came na’ here wi’ your lights, we might ‘a’ +had better sails to our boats, and more o’ other things.” +It may further be mentioned that when some of Lord Dundas’s farms +are to be let in these islands a competition takes place for the lease, +and it is <i>bona fide</i> understood that a much higher rent is paid +than the lands would otherwise give were it not for the chance of making +considerably by the agency and advantages attending shipwrecks on the +shores of the respective farms.’<br> +<br> +The people of North Ronaldsay still spoke Norse, or, rather, mixed it +with their English. The walls of their huts were built to a great +thickness of rounded stones from the sea-beach; the roof flagged, loaded +with earth, and perforated by a single hole for the escape of smoke. +The grass grew beautifully green on the flat house-top, where the family +would assemble with their dogs and cats, as on a pastoral lawn; there +were no windows, and in my grandfather’s expression, ‘there +was really no demonstration of a house unless it were the diminutive +door.’ He once landed on Ronaldsay with two friends. +The inhabitants crowded and pressed so much upon the strangers that +the bailiff, or resident factor of the island, blew with his ox-horn, +calling out to the natives to stand off and let the gentlemen come forward +to the laird; upon which one of the islanders, as spokesman, called +out, “God ha’e us, man! thou needsna mak’ sic a noise. +It’s no’ every day we ha’e <i>three hatted men</i> +on our isle.”’ When the Surveyor of Taxes came (for +the first time, perhaps) to Sanday, and began in the King’s name +to complain of the unconscionable swarms of dogs, and to menace the +inhabitants with taxation, it chanced that my grandfather and his friend, +Dr. Patrick Neill, were received by an old lady in a Ronaldsay hut. +Her hut, which was similar to the model described, stood on a Ness, +or point of land jutting into the sea. They were made welcome +in the firelit cellar, placed ‘in <i>casey</i> or straw-worked +chairs, after the Norwegian fashion, with arms, and a canopy overhead,’ +and given milk in a wooden dish. These hospitalities attended +to, the old lady turned at once to Dr. Neill, whom she took for the +Surveyor of Taxes. ‘Sir,’ said she, ‘gin ye’ll +tell the King that I canna keep the Ness free o’ the Bangers (sheep) +without twa hun’s, and twa guid hun’s too, he’ll pass +me threa the tax on dugs.’<br> +<br> +This familiar confidence, these traits of engaging simplicity, are characters +of a secluded people. Mankind - and, above all, islanders - come +very swiftly to a bearing, and find very readily, upon one convention +or another, a tolerable corporate life. The danger is to those +from without, who have not grown up from childhood in the islands, but +appear suddenly in that narrow horizon, life-sized apparitions. +For these no bond of humanity exists, no feeling of kinship is awakened +by their peril; they will assist at a shipwreck, like the fisher-folk +of Lunga, as spectators, and when the fatal scene is over, and the beach +strewn with dead bodies, they will fence their fields with mahogany, +and, after a decent grace, sup claret to their porridge. It is +not wickedness: it is scarce evil; it is only, in its highest power, +the sense of isolation and the wise disinterestedness of feeble and +poor races. Think how many viking ships had sailed by these islands +in the past, how many vikings had landed, and raised turmoil, and broken +up the barrows of the dead, and carried off the wines of the living; +and blame them, if you are able, for that belief (which may be called +one of the parables of the devil’s gospel) that a man rescued +from the sea will prove the bane of his deliverer. It might be +thought that my grandfather, coming there unknown, and upon an employment +so hateful to the inhabitants, must have run the hazard of his life. +But this were to misunderstand. He came franked by the laird and +the clergyman; he was the King’s officer; the work was ‘opened +with prayer by the Rev. Walter Trail, minister of the parish’; +God and the King had decided it, and the people of these pious islands +bowed their heads. There landed, indeed, in North Ronaldsay, during +the last decade of the eighteenth century, a traveller whose life seems +really to have been imperilled. A very little man of a swarthy +complexion, he came ashore, exhausted and unshaved, from a long boat +passage, and lay down to sleep in the home of the parish schoolmaster. +But he had been seen landing. The inhabitants had identified him +for a Pict, as, by some singular confusion of name, they called the +dark and dwarfish aboriginal people of the land. Immediately the +obscure ferment of a race-hatred, grown into a superstition, began to +work in their bosoms, and they crowded about the house and the room-door +with fearful whisperings. For some time the schoolmaster held +them at bay, and at last despatched a messenger to call my grand-father. +He came: he found the islanders beside themselves at this unwelcome +resurrection of the dead and the detested; he was shown, as adminicular +of testimony, the traveller’s uncouth and thick-soled boots; he +argued, and finding argument unavailing, consented to enter the room +and examine with his own eyes the sleeping Pict. One glance was +sufficient: the man was now a missionary, but he had been before that +an Edinburgh shopkeeper with whom my grandfather had dealt. He +came forth again with this report, and the folk of the island, wholly +relieved, dispersed to their own houses. They were timid as sheep +and ignorant as limpets; that was all. But the Lord deliver us +from the tender mercies of a frightened flock!<br> +<br> +I will give two more instances of their superstition. When Sir +Walter Scott visited the Stones of Stennis, my grandfather put in his +pocket a hundred-foot line, which he unfortunately lost.<br> +<br> +‘Some years afterwards,’ he writes, ‘one of my assistants +on a visit to the Stones of Stennis took shelter from a storm in a cottage +close by the lake; and seeing a box-measuring-line in the bole or sole +of the cottage window, he asked the woman where she got this well-known +professional appendage. She said: “O sir, ane of the bairns +fand it lang syne at the Stanes; and when drawing it out we took fright, +and thinking it had belanged to the fairies, we threw it into the bole, +and it has layen there ever since.”’<br> +<br> +This is for the one; the last shall be a sketch by the master hand of +Scott himself:<br> +<br> +‘At the village of Stromness, on the Orkney main island, called +Pomona, lived, in 1814, an aged dame called Bessie Millie, who helped +out her subsistence by selling favourable winds to mariners. He +was a venturous master of a vessel who left the roadstead of Stromness +without paying his offering to propitiate Bessie Millie! Her fee +was extremely moderate, being exactly sixpence, for which she boiled +her kettle and gave the bark the advantage of her prayers, for she disclaimed +all unlawful acts. The wind thus petitioned for was sure, she +said, to arrive, though occasionally the mariners had to wait some time +for it. The woman’s dwelling and appearance were not unbecoming +her pretensions. Her house, which was on the brow of the steep +hill on which Stromness is founded, was only accessible by a series +of dirty and precipitous lanes, and for exposure might have been the +abode of Eolus himself, in whose commodities the inhabitant dealt. +She herself was, as she told us, nearly one hundred years old, withered +and dried up like a mummy. A clay-coloured kerchief, folded round +her neck, corresponded in colour to her corpse-like complexion. +Two light blue eyes that gleamed with a lustre like that of insanity, +an utterance of astonishing rapidity, a nose and chin that almost met +together, and a ghastly expression of cunning, gave her the effect of +Hecate. Such was Bessie Millie, to whom the mariners paid a sort +of tribute with a feeling between jest and earnest.’<br> +<br> +<br> +II<br> +<br> +<br> +From about the beginning of the century up to 1807 Robert Stevenson +was in partnership with Thomas Smith. In the last-named year the +partnership was dissolved; Thomas Smith returning to his business, and +my grandfather becoming sole engineer to the Board of Northern Lights.<br> +<br> +I must try, by excerpts from his diary and correspondence, to convey +to the reader some idea of the ardency and thoroughness with which he +threw himself into the largest and least of his multifarious engagements +in this service. But first I must say a word or two upon the life +of lightkeepers, and the temptations to which they are more particularly +exposed. The lightkeeper occupies a position apart among men. +In sea-towers the complement has always been three since the deplorable +business in the Eddystone, when one keeper died, and the survivor, signalling +in vain for relief, was compelled to live for days with the dead body. +These usually pass their time by the pleasant human expedient of quarrelling; +and sometimes, I am assured, not one of the three is on speaking terms +with any other. On shore stations, which on the Scottish coast +are sometimes hardly less isolated, the usual number is two, a principal +and an assistant. The principal is dissatisfied with the assistant, +or perhaps the assistant keeps pigeons, and the principal wants the +water from the roof. Their wives and families are with them, living +cheek by jowl. The children quarrel; Jockie hits Jimsie in the +eye, and the mothers make haste to mingle in the dissension. Perhaps +there is trouble about a broken dish; perhaps Mrs. Assistant is more +highly born than Mrs. Principal and gives herself airs; and the men +are drawn in and the servants presently follow. ‘Church +privileges have been denied the keeper’s and the assistant’s +servants,’ I read in one case, and the eminently Scots periphrasis +means neither more nor less than excommunication, ‘on account +of the discordant and quarrelsome state of the families. The cause, +when inquired into, proves to be <i>tittle</i>-<i>tattle</i> on both +sides.’ The tender comes round; the foremen and artificers +go from station to station; the gossip flies through the whole system +of the service, and the stories, disfigured and exaggerated, return +to their own birthplace with the returning tender. The English +Board was apparently shocked by the picture of these dissensions. +‘When the Trinity House can,’ I find my grandfather writing +at Beachy Head, in 1834, ‘they do not appoint two keepers, they +disagree so ill. A man who has a family is assisted by his family; +and in this way, to my experience and present observation, the business +is very much neglected. One keeper is, in my view, a bad system. +This day’s visit to an English lighthouse convinces me of this, +as the lightkeeper was walking on a staff with the gout, and the business +performed by one of his daughters, a girl of thirteen or fourteen years +of age.’ This man received a hundred a year! It shows +a different reading of human nature, perhaps typical of Scotland and +England, that I find in my grandfather’s diary the following pregnant +entry: ‘<i>The lightkeepers, agreeing ill</i>, <i>keep one another +to their duty</i>.’ But the Scottish system was not alone +founded on this cynical opinion. The dignity and the comfort of +the northern lightkeeper were both attended to. He had a uniform +to ‘raise him in his own estimation, and in that of his neighbour, +which is of consequence to a person of trust. The keepers,’ +my grandfather goes on, in another place, ‘are attended to in +all the detail of accommodation in the best style as shipmasters; and +this is believed to have a sensible effect upon their conduct, and to +regulate their general habits as members of society.’ He +notes, with the same dip of ink, that ‘the brasses were not clean, +and the persons of the keepers not <i>trig’</i>; and thus we find +him writing to a culprit: ‘I have to complain that you are not +cleanly in your person, and that your manner of speech is ungentle, +and rather inclines to rudeness. You must therefore take a different +view of your duties as a lightkeeper.’ A high ideal for +the service appears in these expressions, and will be more amply illustrated +further on. But even the Scottish lightkeeper was frail. +During the unbroken solitude of the winter months, when inspection is +scarce possible, it must seem a vain toil to polish the brass hand-rail +of the stair, or to keep an unrewarded vigil in the light-room; and +the keepers are habitually tempted to the beginnings of sloth, and must +unremittingly resist. He who temporises with his conscience is +already lost. I must tell here an anecdote that illustrates the +difficulties of inspection. In the days of my uncle David and +my father there was a station which they regarded with jealousy. +The two engineers compared notes and were agreed. The tower was +always clean, but seemed always to bear traces of a hasty cleansing, +as though the keepers had been suddenly forewarned. On inquiry, +it proved that such was the case, and that a wandering fiddler was the +unfailing harbinger of the engineer. At last my father was storm-stayed +one Sunday in a port at the other side of the island. The visit +was quite overdue, and as he walked across upon the Monday morning he +promised himself that he should at last take the keepers unprepared. +They were both waiting for him in uniform at the gate; the fiddler had +been there on Saturday!<br> +<br> +My grandfather, as will appear from the following extracts, was much +a martinet, and had a habit of expressing himself on paper with an almost +startling emphasis. Personally, with his powerful voice, sanguine +countenance, and eccentric and original locutions, he was well qualified +to inspire a salutary terror in the service.<br> +<br> +‘I find that the keepers have, by some means or another, got into +the way of cleaning too much with rotten-stone and oil. I take +the principal keeper to <i>task</i> on this subject, and make him bring +a clean towel and clean one of the brazen frames, which leaves the towel +in an odious state. This towel I put up in a sheet of paper, seal, +and take with me to confront Mr. Murdoch, who has just left the station.’ +‘This letter’ - a stern enumeration of complaints - ‘to +lie a week on the light-room book-place, and to be put in the Inspector’s +hands when he comes round.’ ‘It is the most painful +thing that can occur for me to have a correspondence of this kind with +any of the keepers; and when I come to the Lighthouse, instead of having +the satisfaction to meet them with approbation, it is distressing when +one is obliged to put on a most angry countenance and demeanour; but +from such culpable negligence as you have shown there is no avoiding +it. I hold it as a fixed maxim that, when a man or a family put +on a slovenly appearance in their houses, stairs, and lanterns, I always +find their reflectors, burners, windows, and light in general, ill attended +to; and, therefore, I must insist on cleanliness throughout.’ +‘I find you very deficient in the duty of the high tower. +You thus place your appointment as Principal Keeper in jeopardy; and +I think it necessary, as an old servant of the Board, to put you upon +your guard once for all at this time. I call upon you to recollect +what was formerly and is now said to you. The state of the backs +of the reflectors at the high tower was disgraceful, as I pointed out +to you on the spot. They were as if spitten upon, and greasy finger-marks +upon the back straps. I demand an explanation of this state of +things.’ ‘The cause of the Commissioners dismissing +you is expressed in the minute; and it must be a matter of regret to +you that you have been so much engaged in smuggling, and also that the +Reports relative to the cleanliness of the Lighthouse, upon being referred +to, rather added to their unfavourable opinion.’ ‘I +do not go into the dwelling-house, but severely chide the lightkeepers +for the disagreement that seems to subsist among them.’ +‘The families of the two lightkeepers here agree very ill. +I have effected a reconciliation for the present.’ ‘Things +are in a very <i>humdrum</i> state here. There is no painting, +and in and out of doors no taste or tidiness displayed. Robert’s +wife <i>greets</i> and M’Gregor’s scolds; and Robert is +so down-hearted that he says he is unfit for duty. I told him +that if he was to mind wives’ quarrels, and to take them up, the +only way was for him and M’Gregor to go down to the point like +Sir G. Grant and Lord Somerset.’ ‘I cannot say that +I have experienced a more unpleasant meeting than that of the lighthouse +folks this morning, or ever saw a stronger example of unfeeling barbarity +than the conduct which the ---s exhibited. These two cold-hearted +persons, not contented with having driven the daughter of the poor nervous +woman from her father’s house, <i>both</i> kept <i>pouncing</i> +at her, lest she should forget her great misfortune. Write me +of their conduct. Do not make any communication of the state of +these families at Kinnaird Head, as this would be like <i>Tale-bearing.’<br> +<br> +</i>There is the great word out. Tales and Tale-bearing, always +with the emphatic capitals, run continually in his correspondence. +I will give but two instances:-<br> +<br> +‘Write to David [one of the lightkeepers] and caution him to be +more prudent how he expresses himself. Let him attend his duty +to the Lighthouse and his family concerns, and give less heed to Tale-bearers.’ +‘I have not your last letter at hand to quote its date; but, if +I recollect, it contains some kind of tales, which nonsense I wish you +would lay aside, and notice only the concerns of your family and the +important charge committed to you.’<br> +<br> +Apparently, however, my grandfather was not himself inaccessible to +the Tale-bearer, as the following indicates:<br> +<br> +‘In walking along with Mr. --- , I explain to him that I should +be under the necessity of looking more closely into the business here +from his conduct at Buddonness, which had given an instance of weakness +in the Moral principle which had staggered my opinion of him. +His answer was, “That will be with regard to the lass?” +I told him I was to enter no farther with him upon the subject.’ +‘Mr. Miller appears to be master and man. I am sorry about +this foolish fellow. Had I known his train, I should not, as I +did, have rather forced him into the service. Upon finding the +windows in the state they were, I turned upon Mr. Watt, and especially +upon Mr. Stewart. The latter did not appear for a length of time +to have visited the light-room. On asking the cause - did Mr. +Watt and him (<i>sic</i>) disagree; he said no; but he had got very +bad usage from the assistant, “who was a very obstreperous man.” +I could not bring Mr. Watt to put in language his objections to Miller; +all I could get was that, he being your friend, and saying he was unwell, +he did not like to complain or to push the man; that the man seemed +to have no liking to anything like work; that he was unruly; that, being +an educated man, he despised them. I was, however, determined +to have out of these <i>unwilling</i> witnesses the language alluded +to. I fixed upon Mr. Stewart as chief; he hedged. My curiosity +increased, and I urged. Then he said, “What would I think, +just exactly, of Mr. Watt being called an Old B-?” You may +judge of my surprise. There was not another word uttered. +This was quite enough, as coming from a person I should have calculated +upon quite different behaviour from. It spoke a volume of the +man’s mind and want of principle.’ ‘Object to +the keeper keeping a Bull-Terrier dog of ferocious appearance. +It is dangerous, as we land at all times of the night.’ +‘Have only to complain of the storehouse floor being spotted with +oil. Give orders for this being instantly rectified, so that on +my return to-morrow I may see things in good order.’ ‘The +furniture of both houses wants much rubbing. Mrs. -’s carpets +are absurd beyond anything I have seen. I want her to turn the +fenders up with the bottom to the fireplace: the carpets, when not likely +to be in use, folded up and laid as a hearthrug partly under the fender.’<br> +<br> +My grandfather was king in the service to his finger-tips. All +should go in his way, from the principal lightkeeper’s coat to +the assistant’s fender, from the gravel in the garden-walks to +the bad smell in the kitchen, or the oil-spots on the store-room floor. +It might be thought there was nothing more calculated to awake men’s +resentment, and yet his rule was not more thorough than it was beneficent. +His thought for the keepers was continual, and it did not end with their +lives. He tried to manage their successions; he thought no pains +too great to arrange between a widow and a son who had succeeded his +father; he was often harassed and perplexed by tales of hardship; and +I find him writing, almost in despair, of their improvident habits and +the destitution that awaited their families upon a death. ‘The +house being completely furnished, they come into possession without +necessaries, and they go out NAKED. The insurance seems to have +failed, and what next is to be tried?’ While they lived +he wrote behind their backs to arrange for the education of their children, +or to get them other situations if they seemed unsuitable for the Northern +Lights. When he was at a lighthouse on a Sunday he held prayers +and heard the children read. When a keeper was sick, he lent him +his horse and sent him mutton and brandy from the ship. ‘The +assistant’s wife having been this morning confined, there was +sent ashore a bottle of sherry and a few rusks - a practice which I +have always observed in this service,’ he writes. They dwelt, +many of them, in uninhabited isles or desert forelands, totally cut +off from shops. Many of them were, besides, fallen into a rustic +dishabitude of life, so that even when they visited a city they could +scarce be trusted with their own affairs, as (for example) he who carried +home to his children, thinking they were oranges, a bag of lemons. +And my grandfather seems to have acted, at least in his early years, +as a kind of gratuitous agent for the service. Thus I find him +writing to a keeper in 1806, when his mind was already preoccupied with +arrangements for the Bell Rock: ‘I am much afraid I stand very +unfavourably with you as a man of promise, as I was to send several +things of which I believe I have more than once got the memorandum. +All I can say is that in this respect you are not singular. This +makes me no better; but really I have been driven about beyond all example +in my past experience, and have been essentially obliged to neglect +my own urgent affairs.’ No servant of the Northern Lights +came to Edinburgh but he was entertained at Baxter’s Place to +breakfast. There, at his own table, my grandfather sat down delightedly +with his broad-spoken, homespun officers. His whole relation to +the service was, in fact, patriarchal; and I believe I may say that +throughout its ranks he was adored. I have spoken with many who +knew him; I was his grandson, and their words may have very well been +words of flattery; but there was one thing that could not be affected, +and that was the look and light that came into their faces at the name +of Robert Stevenson.<br> +<br> +In the early part of the century the foreman builder was a young man +of the name of George Peebles, a native of Anstruther. My grandfather +had placed in him a very high degree of confidence, and he was already +designated to be foreman at the Bell Rock, when, on Christmas-day 1806, +on his way home from Orkney, he was lost in the schooner <i>Traveller</i>. +The tale of the loss of the <i>Traveller</i> is almost a replica of +that of the <i>Elizabeth</i> of Stromness; like the <i>Elizabeth</i> +she came as far as Kinnaird Head, was then surprised by a storm, driven +back to Orkney, and bilged and sank on the island of Flotta. It +seems it was about the dusk of the day when the ship struck, and many +of the crew and passengers were drowned. About the same hour, +my grandfather was in his office at the writing-table; and the room +beginning to darken, he laid down his pen and fell asleep. In +a dream he saw the door open and George Peebles come in, ‘reeling +to and fro, and staggering like a drunken man,’ with water streaming +from his head and body to the floor. There it gathered into a +wave which, sweeping forward, submerged my grandfather. Well, +no matter how deep; versions vary; and at last he awoke, and behold +it was a dream! But it may be conceived how profoundly the impression +was written even on the mind of a man averse from such ideas, when the +news came of the wreck on Flotta and the death of George.<br> +<br> +George’s vouchers and accounts had perished with himself; and +it appeared he was in debt to the Commissioners. But my grandfather +wrote to Orkney twice, collected evidence of his disbursements, and +proved him to be seventy pounds ahead. With this sum, he applied +to George’s brothers, and had it apportioned between their mother +and themselves. He approached the Board and got an annuity of +£5 bestowed on the widow Peebles; and we find him writing her +a long letter of explanation and advice, and pressing on her the duty +of making a will. That he should thus act executor was no singular +instance. But besides this we are able to assist at some of the +stages of a rather touching experiment; no less than an attempt to secure +Charles Peebles heir to George’s favour. He is despatched, +under the character of ‘a fine young man’; recommended to +gentlemen for ‘advice, as he’s a stranger in your place, +and indeed to this kind of charge, this being his first outset as Foreman’; +and for a long while after, the letter-book, in the midst of that thrilling +first year of the Bell Rock, is encumbered with pages of instruction +and encouragement. The nature of a bill, and the precautions that +are to be observed about discounting it, are expounded at length and +with clearness. ‘You are not, I hope, neglecting, Charles, +to work the harbour at spring-tides; and see that you pay the greatest +attention to get the well so as to supply the keeper with water, for +he is a very helpless fellow, and so unfond of hard work that I fear +he could do ill to keep himself in water by going to the other side +for it.’ - ‘With regard to spirits, Charles, I see very +little occasion for it.’ These abrupt apostrophes sound +to me like the voice of an awakened conscience; but they would seem +to have reverberated in vain in the ears of Charles. There was +trouble in Pladda, his scene of operations; his men ran away from him, +there was at least a talk of calling in the Sheriff. ‘I +fear,’ writes my grandfather, ‘you have been too indulgent, +and I am sorry to add that men do not answer to be too well treated, +a circumstance which I have experienced, and which you will learn as +you go on in business.’ I wonder, was not Charles Peebles +himself a case in point? Either death, at least, or disappointment +and discharge, must have ended his service in the Northern Lights; and +in later correspondence I look in vain for any mention of his name - +Charles, I mean, not Peebles: for as late as 1839 my grandfather is +patiently writing to another of the family: ‘I am sorry you took +the trouble of applying to me about your son, as it lies quite out of +my way to forward his views in the line of his profession as a Draper.’<br> +<br> +<br> +III<br> +<br> +<br> +A professional life of Robert Stevenson has been already given to the +world by his son David, and to that I would refer those interested in +such matters. But my own design, which is to represent the man, +would be very ill carried out if I suffered myself or my reader to forget +that he was, first of all and last of all, an engineer. His chief +claim to the style of a mechanical inventor is on account of the Jib +or Balance Crane of the Bell Rock, which are beautiful contrivances. +But the great merit of this engineer was not in the field of engines. +He was above all things a projector of works in the face of nature, +and a modifier of nature itself. A road to be made, a tower to +be built, a harbour to be constructed, a river to be trained and guided +in its channel - these were the problems with which his mind was continually +occupied; and for these and similar ends he travelled the world for +more than half a century, like an artist, note-book in hand.<br> +<br> +He once stood and looked on at the emptying of a certain oil-tube; he +did so watch in hand, and accurately timed the operation; and in so +doing offered the perfect type of his profession. The fact acquired +might never be of use: it was acquired: another link in the world’s +huge chain of processes was brought down to figures and placed at the +service of the engineer. ‘The very term mensuration sounds +<i>engineer-like</i>,’ I find him writing; and in truth what the +engineer most properly deals with is that which can be measured, weighed, +and numbered. The time of any operation in hours and minutes, +its cost in pounds, shillings, and pence, the strain upon a given point +in foot-pounds - these are his conquests, with which he must continually +furnish his mind, and which, after he has acquired them, he must continually +apply and exercise. They must be not only entries in note-books, +to be hurriedly consulted; in the actor’s phrase, he must be <i>stale</i> +in them; in a word of my grandfather’s, they must be ‘fixed +in the mind like the ten fingers and ten toes.’<br> +<br> +These are the certainties of the engineer; so far he finds a solid footing +and clear views. But the province of formulas and constants is +restricted. Even the mechanical engineer comes at last to an end +of his figures, and must stand up, a practical man, face to face with +the discrepancies of nature and the hiatuses of theory. After +the machine is finished, and the steam turned on, the next is to drive +it; and experience and an exquisite sympathy must teach him where a +weight should be applied or a nut loosened. With the civil engineer, +more properly so called (if anything can be proper with this awkward +coinage), the obligation starts with the beginning. He is always +the practical man. The rains, the winds and the waves, the complexity +and the fitfulness of nature, are always before him. He has to +deal with the unpredictable, with those forces (in Smeaton’s phrase) +that ‘are subject to no calculation’; and still he must +predict, still calculate them, at his peril. His work is not yet +in being, and he must foresee its influence: how it shall deflect the +tide, exaggerate the waves, dam back the rain-water, or attract the +thunderbolt. He visits a piece of sea-board; and from the inclination +and soil of the beach, from the weeds and shell-fish, from the configuration +of the coast and the depth of soundings outside, he must deduce what +magnitude of waves is to be looked for. He visits a river, its +summer water babbling on shallows; and he must not only read, in a thousand +indications, the measure of winter freshets, but be able to predict +the violence of occasional great floods. Nay, and more; he must +not only consider that which is, but that which may be. Thus I +find my grandfather writing, in a report on the North Esk Bridge: ‘A +less waterway might have sufficed, but the <i>valleys may come to be +meliorated by drainage</i>.’ One field drained after another +through all that confluence of vales, and we come to a time when they +shall precipitate by so much a more copious and transient flood, as +the gush of the flowing drain-pipe is superior to the leakage of a peat.<br> +<br> +It is plain there is here but a restricted use for formulas. In +this sort of practice, the engineer has need of some transcendental +sense. Smeaton, the pioneer, bade him obey his ‘feelings’; +my father, that ‘power of estimating obscure forces which supplies +a coefficient of its own to every rule.’ The rules must +be everywhere indeed; but they must everywhere be modified by this transcendental +coefficient, everywhere bent to the impression of the trained eye and +the <i>feelings</i> of the engineer. A sentiment of physical laws +and of the scale of nature, which shall have been strong in the beginning +and progressively fortified by observation, must be his guide in the +last recourse. I had the most opportunity to observe my father. +He would pass hours on the beach, brooding over the waves, counting +them, noting their least deflection, noting when they broke. On +Tweedside, or by Lyne or Manor, we have spent together whole afternoons; +to me, at the time, extremely wearisome; to him, as I am now sorry to +think, bitterly mortifying. The river was to me a pretty and various +spectacle; I could not see - I could not be made to see - it otherwise. +To my father it was a chequer-board of lively forces, which he traced +from pool to shallow with minute appreciation and enduring interest. +‘That bank was being under-cut,’ he might say. ‘Why? +Suppose you were to put a groin out here, would not the <i>filum fluminis</i> +be cast abruptly off across the channel? and where would it impinge +upon the other shore? and what would be the result? Or suppose +you were to blast that boulder, what would happen? Follow it - +use the eyes God has given you - can you not see that a great deal of +land would be reclaimed upon this side?’ It was to me like +school in holidays; but to him, until I had worn him out with my invincible +triviality, a delight. Thus he pored over the engineer’s +voluminous handy-book of nature; thus must, too, have pored my grand-father +and uncles.<br> +<br> +But it is of the essence of this knowledge, or this knack of mind, to +be largely incommunicable. ‘It cannot be imparted to another,’ +says my father. The verbal casting-net is thrown in vain over +these evanescent, inferential relations. Hence the insignificance of +much engineering literature. So far as the science can be reduced +to formulas or diagrams, the book is to the point; so far as the art +depends on intimate study of the ways of nature, the author’s +words will too often be found vapid. This fact - that engineering +looks one way, and literature another - was what my grand-father overlooked. +All his life long, his pen was in his hand, piling up a treasury of +knowledge, preparing himself against all possible contingencies. +Scarce anything fell under his notice but he perceived in it some relation +to his work, and chronicled it in the pages of his journal in his always +lucid, but sometimes inexact and wordy, style. The Travelling +Diary (so he called it) was kept in fascicles of ruled paper, which +were at last bound up, rudely indexed, and put by for future reference. +Such volumes as have reached me contain a surprising medley: the whole +details of his employment in the Northern Lights and his general practice; +the whole biography of an enthusiastic engineer. Much of it is +useful and curious; much merely otiose; and much can only be described +as an attempt to impart that which cannot be imparted in words. +Of such are his repeated and heroic descriptions of reefs; monuments +of misdirected literary energy, which leave upon the mind of the reader +no effect but that of a multiplicity of words and the suggested vignette +of a lusty old gentleman scrambling among tangle. It is to be +remembered that he came to engineering while yet it was in the egg and +without a library, and that he saw the bounds of that profession widen +daily. He saw iron ships, steamers, and the locomotive engine, +introduced. He lived to travel from Glasgow to Edinburgh in the +inside of a forenoon, and to remember that he himself had ‘often +been twelve hours upon the journey, and his grand-father (Lillie) two +days’! The profession was still but in its second generation, +and had already broken down the barriers of time and space. Who +should set a limit to its future encroachments? And hence, with +a kind of sanguine pedantry, he pursued his design of ‘keeping +up with the day’ and posting himself and his family on every mortal +subject. Of this unpractical idealism we shall meet with many +instances; there was not a trade, and scarce an accomplishment, but +he thought it should form part of the outfit of an engineer; and not +content with keeping an encyclopaedic diary himself, he would fain have +set all his sons to work continuing and extending it. They were +more happily inspired. My father’s engineering pocket-book +was not a bulky volume; with its store of pregnant notes and vital formulas, +it served him through life, and was not yet filled when he came to die. +As for Robert Stevenson and the Travelling Diary, I should be ungrateful +to complain, for it has supplied me with many lively traits for this +and subsequent chapters; but I must still remember much of the period +of my study there as a sojourn in the Valley of the Shadow.<br> +<br> +The duty of the engineer is twofold - to design the work, and to see +the work done. We have seen already something of the vociferous +thoroughness of the man, upon the cleaning of lamps and the polishing +of reflectors. In building, in road-making, in the construction +of bridges, in every detail and byway of his employments, he pursued +the same ideal. Perfection (with a capital P and violently under-scored) +was his design. A crack for a penknife, the waste of ‘six-and-thirty +shillings,’ ‘the loss of a day or a tide,’ in each +of these he saw and was revolted by the finger of the sloven; and to +spirits intense as his, and immersed in vital undertakings, the slovenly +is the dishonest, and wasted time is instantly translated into lives +endangered. On this consistent idealism there is but one thing +that now and then trenches with a touch of incongruity, and that is +his love of the picturesque. As when he laid out a road on Hogarth’s +line of beauty; bade a foreman be careful, in quarrying, not ‘to +disfigure the island’; or regretted in a report that ‘the +great stone, called the <i>Devil in the Hole</i>, was blasted or broken +down to make road-metal, and for other purposes of the work.’<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER III: THE BUILDING OF THE BELL ROCK<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +Off the mouths of the Tay and the Forth, thirteen miles from Fifeness, +eleven from Arbroath, and fourteen from the Red Head of Angus, lies +the Inchcape or Bell Rock. It extends to a length of about fourteen +hundred feet, but the part of it discovered at low water to not more +than four hundred and twenty-seven. At a little more than half-flood +in fine weather the seamless ocean joins over the reef, and at high-water +springs it is buried sixteen feet. As the tide goes down, the +higher reaches of the rock are seen to be clothed by <i>Conferva rupestris</i> +as by a sward of grass; upon the more exposed edges, where the currents +are most swift and the breach of the sea heaviest, Baderlock or Henware +flourishes; and the great Tangle grows at the depth of several fathoms +with luxuriance. Before man arrived, and introduced into the silence +of the sea the smoke and clangour of a blacksmith’s shop, it was +a favourite resting-place of seals. The crab and lobster haunt +in the crevices; and limpets, mussels, and the white buckie abound.<br> +<br> +According to a tradition, a bell had been once hung upon this rock by +an abbot of Arbroath, <a name="citation91a"></a><a href="#footnote91a">{91a}</a> +‘and being taken down by a sea-pirate, a year thereafter he perished +upon the same rock, with ship and goods, in the righteous judgment of +God.’ From the days of the abbot and the sea-pirate no man +had set foot upon the Inchcape, save fishers from the neighbouring coast, +or perhaps - for a moment, before the surges swallowed them - the unfortunate +victims of shipwreck. The fishers approached the rock with an +extreme timidity; but their harvest appears to have been great, and +the adventure no more perilous than lucrative. In 1800, on the +occasion of my grandfather’s first landing, and during the two +or three hours which the ebb-tide and the smooth water allowed them +to pass upon its shelves, his crew collected upwards of two hundredweight +of old metal: pieces of a kedge anchor and a cabin stove, crowbars, +a hinge and lock of a door, a ship’s marking-iron, a piece of +a ship’s caboose, a soldier’s bayonet, a cannon ball, several +pieces of money, a shoe-buckle, and the like. Such were the spoils +of the Bell Rock.<br> +<br> +From 1794 onward, the mind of my grandfather had been exercised with +the idea of a light upon this formidable danger. To build a tower +on a sea rock, eleven miles from shore, and barely uncovered at low +water of neaps, appeared a fascinating enterprise. It was something +yet unattempted, unessayed; and even now, after it has been lighted +for more than eighty years, it is still an exploit that has never been +repeated. <a name="citation92a"></a><a href="#footnote92a">{92a}</a> +My grandfather was, besides, but a young man, of an experience comparatively +restricted, and a reputation confined to Scotland; and when he prepared +his first models, and exhibited them in Merchants’ Hall, he can +hardly be acquitted of audacity. John Clerk of Eldin stood his +friend from the beginning, kept the key of the model room, to which +he carried ‘eminent strangers,’ and found words of counsel +and encouragement beyond price. ‘Mr. Clerk had been personally +known to Smeaton, and used occasionally to speak of him to me,’ +says my grandfather; and again: ‘I felt regret that I had not +the opportunity of a greater range of practice to fit me for such an +undertaking; but I was fortified by an expression of my friend Mr. Clerk +in one of our conversations. “This work,” said he, “is +unique, and can be little forwarded by experience of ordinary masonic +operations. In this case Smeaton’s ‘Narrative’ +must be the text-book, and energy and perseverance the pratique.”’<br> +<br> +A Bill for the work was introduced into Parliament and lost in the Lords +in 1802-3. John Rennie was afterwards, at my grandfather’s +suggestion, called in council, with the style of chief engineer. +The precise meaning attached to these words by any of the parties appears +irrecoverable. Chief engineer should have full authority, full +responsibility, and a proper share of the emoluments; and there were +none of these for Rennie. I find in an appendix a paper which +resumes the controversy on this subject; and it will be enough to say +here that Rennie did not design the Bell Rock, that he did not execute +it, and that he was not paid for it. <a name="citation94a"></a><a href="#footnote94a">{94a}</a> +From so much of the correspondence as has come down to me, the acquaintance +of this man, eleven years his senior, and already famous, appears to +have been both useful and agreeable to Robert Stevenson. It is +amusing to find my grandfather seeking high and low for a brace of pistols +which his colleague had lost by the way between Aberdeen and Edinburgh; +and writing to Messrs. Dollond, ‘I have not thought it necessary +to trouble Mr. Rennie with this order, but <i>I beg you will see to +get two minutes of him as he passes your door</i>’ - a proposal +calculated rather from the latitude of Edinburgh than from London, even +in 1807. It is pretty, too, to observe with what affectionate +regard Smeaton was held in mind by his immediate successors. ‘Poor +old fellow,’ writes Rennie to Stevenson, ‘I hope he will +now and then take a peep at us, and inspire you with fortitude and courage +to brave all difficulties and dangers to accomplish a work which will, +if successful, immortalise you in the annals of fame.’ The +style might be bettered, but the sentiment is charming.<br> +<br> +Smeaton was, indeed, the patron saint of the Bell Rock. Undeterred +by the sinister fate of Winstanley, he had tackled and solved the problem +of the Eddystone; but his solution had not been in all respects perfect. +It remained for my grand-father to outdo him in daring, by applying +to a tidal rock those principles which had been already justified by +the success of the Eddystone, and to perfect the model by more than +one exemplary departure. Smeaton had adopted in his floors the +principle of the arch; each therefore exercised an outward thrust upon +the walls, which must be met and combated by embedded chains. +My grandfather’s flooring-stones, on the other hand, were flat, +made part of the outer wall, and were keyed and dovetailed into a central +stone, so as to bind the work together and be positive elements of strength. +In 1703 Winstanley still thought it possible to erect his strange pagoda, +with its open gallery, its florid scrolls and candlesticks: like a rich +man’s folly for an ornamental water in a park. Smeaton followed; +then Stevenson in his turn corrected such flaws as were left in Smeaton’s +design; and with his improvements, it is not too much to say the model +was made perfect. Smeaton and Stevenson had between them evolved +and finished the sea-tower. No subsequent builder has departed +in anything essential from the principles of their design. It +remains, and it seems to us as though it must remain for ever, an ideal +attained. Every stone in the building, it may interest the reader +to know, my grandfather had himself cut out in the model; and the manner +in which the courses were fitted, joggled, trenailed, wedged, and the +bond broken, is intricate as a puzzle and beautiful by ingenuity.<br> +<br> +In 1806 a second Bill passed both Houses, and the preliminary works +were at once begun. The same year the Navy had taken a great harvest +of prizes in the North Sea, one of which, a Prussian fishing dogger, +flat-bottomed and rounded at the stem and stern, was purchased to be +a floating lightship, and re-named the <i>Pharos</i>. By July +1807 she was overhauled, rigged for her new purpose, and turned into +the lee of the Isle of May. ‘It was proposed that the whole +party should meet in her and pass the night; but she rolled from side +to side in so extraordinary a manner, that even the most seahardy fled. +It was humorously observed of this vessel that she was in danger of +making a round turn and appearing with her keel uppermost; and that +she would even turn a half-penny if laid upon deck.’ By +two o’clock on the morning of the 15th July this purgatorial vessel +was moored by the Bell Rock.<br> +<br> +A sloop of forty tons had been in the meantime built at Leith, and named +the <i>Smeaton</i>; by the 7th of August my grandfather set sail in +her -<br> +<br> +‘carrying with him Mr. Peter Logan, foreman builder, and five +artificers selected from their having been somewhat accustomed to the +sea, the writer being aware of the distressing trial which the floating +light would necessarily inflict upon landsmen from her rolling motion. +Here he remained till the 10th, and, as the weather was favourable, +a landing was effected daily, when the workmen were employed in cutting +the large seaweed from the sites of the lighthouse and beacon, which +were respectively traced with pickaxes upon the rock. In the meantime +the crew of the <i>Smeaton</i> was employed in laying down the several +sets of moorings within about half a mile of the rock for the convenience +of vessels. The artificers, having, fortunately, experienced moderate +weather, returned to the workyard of Arbroath with a good report of +their treatment afloat; when their comrades ashore began to feel some +anxiety to see a place of which they had heard so much, and to change +the constant operations with the iron and mallet in the process of hewing +for an occasional tide’s work on the rock, which they figured +to themselves as a state of comparative ease and comfort.’<br> +<br> +I am now for many pages to let my grandfather speak for himself, and +tell in his own words the story of his capital achievement. The +tall quarto of 533 pages from which the following narrative has been +dug out is practically unknown to the general reader, yet good judges +have perceived its merit, and it has been named (with flattering wit) +‘The Romance of Stone and Lime’ and ‘The Robinson +Crusoe of Civil Engineering.’ The tower was but four years +in the building; it took Robert Stevenson, in the midst of his many +avocations, no less than fourteen to prepare the <i>Account</i>. +The title-page is a solid piece of literature of upwards of a hundred +words; the table of contents runs to thirteen pages; and the dedication +(to that revered monarch, George IV) must have cost him no little study +and correspondence. Walter Scott was called in council, and offered +one miscorrection which still blots the page. In spite of all +this pondering and filing, there remain pages not easy to construe, +and inconsistencies not easy to explain away. I have sought to +make these disappear, and to lighten a little the baggage with which +my grandfather marches; here and there I have rejointed and rearranged +a sentence, always with his own words, and all with a reverent and faithful +hand; and I offer here to the reader the true Monument of Robert Stevenson +with a little of the moss removed from the inscription, and the Portrait +of the artist with some superfluous canvas cut away.<br> +<br> +<br> +I - OPERATIONS OF 1807<br> +<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 16th Aug.]<br> +<br> +Everything being arranged for sailing to the rock on Saturday the 15th, +the vessel might have proceeded on the Sunday; but understanding that +this would not be so agreeable to the artificers it was deferred until +Monday. Here we cannot help observing that the men allotted for +the operations at the rock seemed to enter upon the undertaking with +a degree of consideration which fully marked their opinion as to the +hazardous nature of the undertaking on which they were about to enter. +They went in a body to church on Sunday, and whether it was in the ordinary +course, or designed for the occasion, the writer is not certain, but +the service was, in many respects, suitable to their circumstances.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 17th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The tide happening to fall late in the evening of Monday the 17th, the +party, counting twenty-four in number, embarked on board of the <i>Smeaton</i> +about ten o’clock p.m., and sailed from Arbroath with a gentle +breeze at west. Our ship’s colours having been flying all +day in compliment to the commencement of the work, the other vessels +in the harbour also saluted, which made a very gay appearance. +A number of the friends and acquaintances of those on board having been +thus collected, the piers, though at a late hour, were perfectly crowded, +and just as the <i>Smeaton</i> cleared the harbour, all on board united +in giving three hearty cheers, which were returned by those on shore +in such good earnest, that, in the still of the evening, the sound must +have been heard in all parts of the town, re-echoing from the walls +and lofty turrets of the venerable Abbey of Aberbrothwick. The +writer felt much satisfaction at the manner of this parting scene, though +he must own that the present rejoicing was, on his part, mingled with +occasional reflections upon the responsibility of his situation, which +extended to the safety of all who should be engaged in this perilous +work. With such sensations he retired to his cabin; but as the +artificers were rather inclined to move about the deck than to remain +in their confined berths below, his repose was transient, and the vessel +being small every motion was necessarily heard. Some who were +musically inclined occasionally sung; but he listened with peculiar +pleasure to the sailor at the helm, who hummed over Dibdin’s characteristic +air:-<br> +<br> +‘They say there’s a Providence sits up aloft,<br> +To keep watch for the life of poor Jack.’<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 18th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The weather had been very gentle all night, and, about four in the morning +of the 18th, the <i>Smeaton</i> anchored. Agreeably to an arranged +plan of operations, all hands were called at five o’clock a.m., +just as the highest part of the Bell Rock began to show its sable head +among the light breakers, which occasionally whitened with the foaming +sea. The two boats belonging to the floating light attended the +<i>Smeaton</i>, to carry the artificers to the rock, as her boat could +only accommodate about six or eight sitters. Every one was more +eager than his neighbour to leap into the boats and it required a good +deal of management on the part of the coxswains to get men unaccustomed +to a boat to take their places for rowing and at the same time trimming +her properly. The landing-master and foreman went into one boat, +while the writer took charge of another, and steered it to and from +the rock. This became the more necessary in the early stages of +the work, as places could not be spared for more than two, or at most +three seamen to each boat, who were always stationed, one at the bow, +to use the boat-hook in fending or pushing off, and the other at the +aftermost oar, to give the proper time in rowing, while the middle oars +were double-banked, and rowed by the artificers.<br> +<br> +As the weather was extremely fine, with light airs of wind from the +east, we landed without difficulty upon the central part of the rock +at half-past five, but the water had not yet sufficiently left it for +commencing the work. This interval, however, did not pass unoccupied. +The first and last of all the principal operations at the Bell Rock +were accompanied by three hearty cheers from all hands, and, on occasions +like the present, the steward of the ship attended, when each man was +regaled with a glass of rum. As the water left the rock about +six, some began to bore the holes for the great bats or holdfasts, for +fixing the beams of the Beacon-house, while the smith was fully attended +in laying out the site of his forge, upon a somewhat sheltered spot +of the rock, which also recommended itself from the vicinity of a pool +of water for tempering his irons. These preliminary steps occupied +about an hour, and as nothing further could be done during this tide +towards fixing the forge, the workmen gratified their curiosity by roaming +about the rock, which they investigated with great eagerness till the +tide overflowed it. Those who had been sick picked dulse <i>(Fucus +palmatus</i>), which they ate with much seeming appetite; others were +more intent upon collecting limpets for bait, to enjoy the amusement +of fishing when they returned on board of the vessel. Indeed, +none came away empty-handed, as everything found upon the Bell Rock +was considered valuable, being connected with some interesting association. +Several coins, and numerous bits of shipwrecked iron, were picked up, +of almost every description; and, in particular, a marking-iron lettered +JAMES - a circumstance of which it was thought proper to give notice +to the public, as it might lead to the knowledge of some unfortunate +shipwreck, perhaps unheard of till this simple occurrence led to the +discovery. When the rock began to be overflowed, the landing-master +arranged the crews of the respective boats, appointing twelve persons +to each. According to a rule which the writer had laid down to +himself, he was always the last person who left the rock.<br> +<br> +In a short time the Bell Rock was laid completely under water, and the +weather being extremely fine, the sea was so smooth that its place could +not be pointed out from the appearance of the surface - a circumstance +which sufficiently demonstrates the dangerous nature of this rock, even +during the day, and in the smoothest and calmest state of the sea. +During the interval between the morning and the evening tides, the artificers +were variously employed in fishing and reading; others were busy in +drying and adjusting their wet clothes, and one or two amused their +companions with the violin and German flute.<br> +<br> +About seven in the evening the signal bell for landing on the rock was +again rung, when every man was at his quarters. In this service +it was thought more appropriate to use the bell than to <i>pipe</i> +to quarters, as the use of this instrument is less known to the mechanic +than the sound of the bell. The landing, as in the morning, was +at the eastern harbour. During this tide the seaweed was pretty +well cleared from the site of the operations, and also from the tracks +leading to the different landing-places; for walking upon the rugged +surface of the Bell Rock, when covered with seaweed, was found to be +extremely difficult and even dangerous. Every hand that could +possibly be occupied now employed in assisting the smith to fit up the +apparatus for his forge. At 9 p.m. the boats returned to the tender, +after other two hours’ work, in the same order as formerly - perhaps +as much gratified with the success that attended the work of this day +as with any other in the whole course of the operations. Although +it could not he said that the fatigues of this day had been great, yet +all on board retired early to rest. The sea being calm, and no +movement on deck, it was pretty generally remarked in the morning that +the bell awakened the greater number on board from their first sleep; +and though this observation was not altogether applicable to the writer +himself, yet he was not a little pleased to find that thirty people +could all at once become so reconciled to a night’s quarters within +a few hundred paces of the Bell Rock.<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 19th Aug.]<br> +<br> +Being extremely anxious at this time to get forward with fixing the +smith’s forge, on which the progress of the work at present depended, +the writer requested that he might be called at daybreak to learn the +landing-master’s opinion of the weather from the appearance of +the rising sun, a criterion by which experienced seamen can generally +judge pretty accurately of the state of the weather for the following +day. About five o’clock, on coming upon deck, the sun’s +upper limb or disc had just begun to appear as if rising from the ocean, +and in less than a minute he was seen in the fullest splendour; but +after a short interval he was enveloped in a soft cloudy sky, which +was considered emblematical of fine weather. His rays had not +yet sufficiently dispelled the clouds which hid the land from view, +and the Bell Rock being still overflowed, the whole was one expanse +of water. This scene in itself was highly gratifying; and, when +the morning bell was tolled, we were gratified with the happy forebodings +of good weather and the expectation of having both a morning and an +evening tide’s work on the rock.<br> +<br> +The boat which the writer steered happened to be the last which approached +the rock at this tide; and, in standing up in the stern, while at some +distance, to see how the leading boat entered the creek, he was astonished +to observe something in the form of a human figure, in a reclining posture, +upon one of the ledges of the rock. He immediately steered the +boat through a narrow entrance to the eastern harbour, with a thousand +unpleasant sensations in his mind. He thought a vessel or boat +must have been wrecked upon the rock during the night; and it seemed +probable that the rock might be strewed with dead bodies, a spectacle +which could not fail to deter the artificers from returning so freely +to their work. In the midst of these reveries the boat took the +ground at an improper landing-place; but, without waiting to push her +off, he leapt upon the rock, and making his way hastily to the spot +which had privately given him alarm, he had the satisfaction to ascertain +that he had only been deceived by the peculiar situation and aspect +of the smith’s anvil and block, which very completely represented +the appearance of a lifeless body upon the rock. The writer carefully +suppressed his feelings, the simple mention of which might have had +a bad effect upon the artificers, and his haste passed for an anxiety +to examine the apparatus of the smith’s forge, left in an unfinished +state at evening tide.<br> +<br> +In the course of this morning’s work two or three apparently distant +peals of thunder were heard, and the atmosphere suddenly became thick +and foggy. But as the <i>Smeaton</i>, our present tender, was +moored at no great distance from the rock, the crew on board continued +blowing with a horn, and occasionally fired a musket, so that the boats +got to the ship without difficulty.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 20th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The wind this morning inclined from the north-east, and the sky had +a heavy and cloudy appearance, but the sea was smooth, though there +was an undulating motion on, the surface, which indicated easterly winds, +and occasioned a slight surf upon the rock. But the boats found +no difficulty in landing at the western creek at half-past seven, and, +after a good tide’s work, left it again about a quarter from eleven. +In the evening the artificers landed at half-past seven, and continued +till half-past eight, having completed the fixing of the smith’s +forge, his vice, and a wooden board or bench, which were also batted +to a ledge of the rock, to the great joy of all, under a salute of three +hearty cheers. From an oversight on the part of the smith, who +had neglected to bring his tinder-box and matches from the vessel, the +work was prevented from being continued for at least an hour longer.<br> +<br> +The smith’s shop was, of course, in <i>open space</i>: the large +bellows were carried to and from the rock every tide, for the serviceable +condition of which, together with the tinder-box, fuel, and embers of +the former fire, the smith was held responsible. Those who have +been placed in situations to feel the inconveniency and want of this +useful artisan, will be able to appreciate his value in a case like +the present. It often happened, to our annoyance and disappointment, +in the early state of the work, when the smith was in the middle of +a <i>favourite</i> <i>heat</i> in making some useful article, or in +sharpening the tools, after the flood-tide had obliged the pickmen to +strike work, a sea would come rolling over the rocks, dash out the fire, +and endanger his indispensable implement, the bellows. If the +sea was smooth, while the smith often stood at work knee-deep in water, +the tide rose by imperceptible degrees, first cooling the exterior of +the fireplace, or hearth, and then quietly blackening and extinguishing +the fire from below. The writer has frequently been amused at +the perplexing anxiety of the blacksmith when coaxing his fire and endeavouring +to avert the effects of the rising tide.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 21st Aug.]<br> +<br> +Everything connected with the forge being now completed, the artificers +found no want of sharp tools, and the work went forward with great alacrity +and spirit. It was also alleged that the rock had a more habitable +appearance from the volumes of smoke which ascended from the smith’s +shop and the busy noise of his anvil, the operations of the masons, +the movements of the boats, and shipping at a distance - all contributed +to give life and activity to the scene. This noise and traffic +had, however, the effect of almost completely banishing the herd of +seals which had hitherto frequented the rock as a resting-place during +the period of low water. The rock seemed to be peculiarly adapted +to their habits, for, excepting two or three days at neap-tides, a part +of it always dries at low water - at least, during the summer season +- and as there was good fishing-ground in the neighbourhood, without +a human being to disturb or molest them, it had become a very favourite +residence of these amphibious animals, the writer having occasionally +counted from fifty to sixty playing about the rock at a time. +But when they came to be disturbed every tide, and their seclusion was +broken in upon by the kindling of great fires, together with the beating +of hammers and picks during low water, after hovering about for a time, +they changed their place, and seldom more than one or two were to be +seen about the rock upon the more detached outlayers which dry partially, +whence they seemed to look with that sort of curiosity which is observable +in these animals when following a boat.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 22nd Aug.]<br> +<br> +Hitherto the artificers had remained on board the <i>Smeaton</i>, which +was made fast to one of the mooring buoys at a distance only of about +a quarter of a mile from the rock, and, of course, a very great conveniency +to the work. Being so near, the seamen could never be mistaken +as to the progress of the tide, or state of the sea upon the rock, nor +could the boats be much at a loss to pull on board of the vessel during +fog, or even in very rough weather; as she could be cast loose from +her moorings at pleasure, and brought to the lee side of the rock. +But the <i>Smeaton</i> being only about forty register tons, her accommodations +were extremely limited. It may, therefore, be easily imagined +that an addition of twenty-four persons to her own crew must have rendered +the situation of those on board rather uncomfortable. The only +place for the men’s hammocks on board being in the hold, they +were unavoidably much crowded: and if the weather had required the hatches +to be fastened down, so great a number of men could not possibly have +been accommodated. To add to this evil, the <i>co-boose</i> or +cooking-place being upon deck, it would not have been possible to have +cooked for so large a company in the event of bad weather.<br> +<br> +The stock of water was now getting short, and some necessaries being +also wanted for the floating light, the <i>Smeaton</i> was despatched +for Arbroath; and the writer, with the artificers at the same time shifted +their quarters from her to the floating light.<br> +<br> +Although the rock barely made its appearance at this period of the tides +till eight o’clock, yet, having now a full mile to row from the +floating light to the rock, instead of about a quarter of a mile from +the moorings of the <i>Smeaton</i>, it was necessary to be earlier astir, +and to form different arrangements; breakfast was accordingly served +up at seven o’clock this morning. From the excessive motion +of the floating light, the writer had looked forward rather with anxiety +to the removal of the workmen to this ship. Some among them, who +had been congratulating themselves upon having become sea-hardy while +on board the <i>Smeaton</i>, had a complete relapse upon returning to +the floating light. This was the case with the writer. From +the spacious and convenient berthage of the floating light, the exchange +to the artificers was, in this respect, much for the better. The +boats were also commodious, measuring sixteen feet in length on the +keel, so that, in fine weather, their complement of sitters was sixteen +persons for each, with which, however, they were rather crowded, but +she could not stow two boats of larger dimensions. When there +was what is called a breeze of wind, and a swell in the sea, the proper +number for each boat could not, with propriety, be rated at more than +twelve persons.<br> +<br> +When the tide-bell rung the boats were hoisted out, and two active seamen +were employed to keep them from receiving damage alongside. The +floating light being very buoyant, was so quick in her motions that +when those who were about to step from her gunwale into a boat, placed +themselves upon a cleat or step on the ship’s side, with the man +or rail ropes in their hands, they had often to wait for some time till +a favourable opportunity occurred for stepping into the boat. +While in this situation, with the vessel rolling from side to side, +watching the proper time for letting go the man-ropes, it required the +greatest dexterity and presence of mind to leap into the boats. +One who was rather awkward would often wait a considerable period in +this position: at one time his side of the ship would be so depressed +that he would touch the boat to which he belonged, while the next sea +would elevate him so much that he would see his comrades in the boat +on the opposite side of the ship, his friends in the one boat calling +to him to ‘Jump,’ while those in the boat on the other side, +as he came again and again into their view, would jocosely say, ‘Are +you there yet? You seem to enjoy a swing.’ In this +situation it was common to see a person upon each side of the ship for +a length of time, waiting to quit his hold.<br> +<br> +On leaving the rock to-day a trial of seamanship was proposed amongst +the rowers, for by this time the artificers had become tolerably expert +in this exercise. By inadvertency some of the oars provided had +been made of fir instead of ash, and although a considerable stock had +been laid in, the workmen, being at first awkward in the art, were constantly +breaking their oars; indeed it was no uncommon thing to see the broken +blades of a pair of oars floating astern, in the course of a passage +from the rock to the vessel. The men, upon the whole, had but +little work to perform in the course of a day; for though they exerted +themselves extremely hard while on the rock, yet, in the early state +of the operations, this could not be continued for more than three or +four hours at a time, and as their rations were large - consisting of +one pound and a half of beef, one pound of ship biscuit, eight ounces +oatmeal, two ounces barley, two ounces butter, three quarts of small +beer, with vegetables and salt - they got into excellent spirits when +free of sea-sickness. The rowing of the boats against each other +became a favourite amusement, which was rather a fortunate circumstance, +as it must have been attended with much inconvenience had it been found +necessary to employ a sufficient number of sailors for this purpose. +The writer, therefore, encouraged the spirit of emulation, and the speed +of their respective boats became a favourite topic. Premiums for +boat-races were instituted, which were contended for with great eagerness, +and the respective crews kept their stations in the boats with as much +precision as they kept their beds on board of the ship. With these +and other pastimes, when the weather was favourable, the time passed +away among the inmates of the forecastle and waist of the ship. +The writer looks back with interest upon the hours of solitude which +he spent in this lonely ship with his small library.<br> +<br> +This being the first Saturday that the artificers were afloat, all hands +were served with a glass of rum and water at night, to drink the sailors’ +favourite toast of ‘Wives and Sweethearts.’ It was +customary, upon these occasions, for the seamen and artificers to collect +in the galley, when the musical instruments were put in requisition: +for, according to invariable practice, every man must play a tune, sing +a song, or tell a story.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 23rd Aug.]<br> +<br> +Having, on the previous evening, arranged matters with the landing-master +as to the business of the day, the signal was rung for all hands at +half-past seven this morning. In the early state of the spring-tides +the artificers went to the rock before breakfast, but as the tides fell +later in the day, it became necessary to take this meal before leaving +the ship. At eight o’clock all hands were assembled on the +quarter-deck for prayers, a solemnity which was gone through in as orderly +a manner as circumstances would admit. When the weather permitted, +the flags of the ship were hung up as an awning or screen, forming the +quarter-deck into a distinct compartment; the pendant was also hoisted +at the mainmast, and a large ensign flag was displayed over the stern; +and lastly, the ship’s companion, or top of the staircase, was +covered with the <i>flag proper</i> of the Lighthouse Service, on which +the Bible was laid. A particular toll of the bell called all hands +to the quarter-deck, when the writer read a chapter of the Bible, and, +the whole ship’s company being uncovered, he also read the impressive +prayer composed by the Reverend Dr. Brunton, one of the ministers of +Edinburgh.<br> +<br> +Upon concluding this service, which was attended with becoming reverence +and attention, all on board retired to their respective berths to breakfast, +and, at half-past nine, the bell again rung for the artificers to take +their stations in their respective boats. Some demur having been +evinced on board about the propriety of working on Sunday, which had +hitherto been touched upon as delicately as possible, all hands being +called aft, the writer, from the quarter-deck, stated generally the +nature of the service, expressing his hopes that every man would feel +himself called upon to consider the erection of a lighthouse on the +Bell Rock, in every point of view, as a work of necessity and mercy. +He knew that scruples had existed with some, and these had, indeed, +been fairly and candidly urged before leaving the shore; but it was +expected that, after having seen the critical nature of the rock, and +the necessity of the measure, every man would now be satisfied of the +propriety of embracing all opportunities of landing on the rock when +the state of the weather would permit. The writer further took +them to witness that it did not proceed from want of respect for the +appointments and established forms of religion that he had himself adopted +the resolution of attending the Bell Rock works on the Sunday; but, +as he hoped, from a conviction that it was his bounden duty, on the +strictest principles of morality. At the same time it was intimated +that, if any were of a different opinion, they should be perfectly at +liberty to hold their sentiments without the imputation of contumacy +or disobedience; the only difference would be in regard to the pay.<br> +<br> +Upon stating this much, he stepped into his boat, requesting all who +were so disposed to follow him. The sailors, from their habits, +found no scruple on this subject, and all of the artificers, though +a little tardy, also embarked, excepting four of the masons, who, from +the beginning, mentioned that they would decline working on Sundays. +It may here be noticed that throughout the whole of the operations it +was observable that the men wrought, if possible, with more keenness +upon the Sundays than at other times from an impression that they were +engaged in a work of imperious necessity, which required every possible +exertion. On returning to the floating light, after finishing +the tide’s work, the boats were received by the part of the ship’s +crew left on board with the usual attention of handing ropes to the +boats and helping the artificers on board; but the four masons who had +absented themselves from the work did not appear upon deck.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 24th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The boats left the floating light at a quarter-past nine o’clock +this morning, and the work began at three-quarters past nine; but as +the neap-tides were approaching the working time at the rock became +gradually shorter, and it was now with difficulty that two and a half +hours’ work could be got. But so keenly had the workmen +entered into the spirit of the beacon-house operations, that they continued +to bore the holes in the rock till some of them were knee-deep in water.<br> +<br> +The operations at this time were entirely directed to the erection of +the beacon, in which every man felt an equal interest, as at this critical +period the slightest casualty to any of the boats at the rock might +have been fatal to himself individually, while it was perhaps peculiar +to the writer more immediately to feel for the safety of the whole. +Each log or upright beam of the beacon was to be fixed to the rock by +two strong and massive bats or stanchions of iron. These bats, +for the fixture of the principal and diagonal beams and bracing chains, +required fifty-four holes, each measuring two inches in diameter and +eighteen inches in depth. There had already been so considerable +a progress made in boring and excavating the holes that the writer’s +hopes of getting the beacon erected this year began to be more and more +confirmed, although it was now advancing towards what was considered +the latter end of the proper working season at the Bell Rock. +The foreman joiner, Mr. Francis Watt, was accordingly appointed to attend +at the rock to-day, when the necessary levels were taken for the step +or seat of each particular beam of the beacon, that they might be cut +to their respective lengths, to suit the inequalities of the rock; several +of the stanchions were also tried into their places, and other necessary +observations made, to prevent mistakes on the application of the apparatus, +and to facilitate the operations when the beams came to be set up, which +would require to be done in the course of a single tide.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 25th Aug.]<br> +<br> +We had now experienced an almost unvaried tract of light airs of easterly +wind, with clear weather in the fore-part of the day and fog in the +evenings. To-day, however, it sensibly changed; when the wind +came to the south-west, and blew a fresh breeze. At nine a.m. +the bell rung, and the boats were hoisted out, and though the artificers +were now pretty well accustomed to tripping up and down the sides of +the floating light, yet it required more seamanship this morning than +usual. It therefore afforded some merriment to those who had got +fairly seated in their respective boats to see the difficulties which +attended their companions, and the hesitating manner in which they quitted +hold of the man-ropes in leaving the ship. The passage to the +rock was tedious, and the boats did not reach it till half-past ten.<br> +<br> +It being now the period of neap-tides, the water only partially left +the rock, and some of the men who were boring on the lower ledges of +the site of the beacon stood knee-deep in water. The situation +of the smith to-day was particularly disagreeable, but his services +were at all times indispensable. As the tide did not leave the +site of the forge, he stood in the water, and as there was some roughness +on the surface it was with considerable difficulty that, with the assistance +of the sailors, he was enabled to preserve alive his fire; and, while +his feet were immersed in water, his face was not only scorched but +continually exposed to volumes of smoke, accompanied with sparks from +the fire, which were occasionally set up owing to the strength and direction +of the wind.<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 26th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The wind had shifted this morning to N.N.W., with rain, and was blowing +what sailors call a fresh breeze. To speak, perhaps, somewhat +more intelligibly to the general reader, the wind was such that a fishing-boat +could just carry full sail. But as it was of importance, specially +in the outset of the business, to keep up the spirit of enterprise for +landing on all practicable occasions, the writer, after consulting with +the landing-master, ordered the bell to be rung for embarking, and at +half-past eleven the boats reached the rock, and left it again at a +quarter-past twelve, without, however, being able to do much work, as +the smith could not be set to work from the smallness of the ebb and +the strong breach of sea, which lashed with great force among the bars +of the forge.<br> +<br> +Just as we were about to leave the rock the wind shifted to the S.W., +and, from a fresh gale, it became what seamen term a hard gale, or such +as would have required the fisherman to take in two or three reefs in +his sail. It is a curious fact that the respective tides of ebb +and flood are apparent upon the shore about an hour and a half sooner +than at the distance of three or four miles in the offing. But +what seems chiefly interesting here is that the tides around this small +sunken rock should follow exactly the same laws as on the extensive +shores of the mainland. When the boats left the Bell Rock to-day +it was overflowed by the flood-tide, but the floating light did not +swing round to the flood-tide for more than an hour afterwards. +Under this disadvantage the boats had to struggle with the ebb-tide +and a hard gale of wind, so that it was with the greatest difficulty +that they reached the floating light. Had this gale happened in +spring-tides when the current was strong we must have been driven to +sea in a very helpless condition.<br> +<br> +The boat which the writer steered was considerably behind the other, +one of the masons having unluckily broken his oar. Our prospect +of getting on board, of course, became doubtful, and our situation was +rather perilous, as the boat shipped so much sea that it occupied two +of the artificers to bale and clear her of water. When the oar +gave way we were about half a mile from the ship, but, being fortunately +to windward, we got into the wake of the floating light, at about 250 +fathoms astern, just as the landing-master’s boat reached the +vessel. He immediately streamed or floated a life-buoy astern, +with a line which was always in readiness, and by means of this useful +implement the boat was towed alongside of the floating light, where, +from her rolling motion, it required no small management to get safely +on board, as the men were much worn out with their exertions in pulling +from the rock. On the present occasion the crews of both boats +were completely drenched with spray, and those who sat upon the bottom +of the boats to bale them were sometimes pretty deep in the water before +it could be cleared out. After getting on board, all hands were +allowed an extra dram, and, having shifted and got a warm and comfortable +dinner, the affair, it is believed, was little more thought of.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 27th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The tides were now in that state which sailors term the dead of the +neap, and it was not expected that any part of the rock would be seen +above water to-day; at any rate, it was obvious, from the experience +of yesterday, that no work could be done upon it, and therefore the +artificers were not required to land. The wind was at west, with +light breezes, and fine clear weather; and as it was an object with +the writer to know the actual state of the Bell Rock at neap-tides, +he got one of the boats manned, and, being accompanied by the landing-master, +went to it at a quarter-past twelve. The parts of the rock that +appeared above water being very trifling, were covered by every wave, +so that no landing was made. Upon trying the depth of water with +a boathook, particularly on the sites of the lighthouse and beacon, +on the former, at low water, the depth was found to be three feet, and +on the central parts of the latter it was ascertained to be two feet +eight inches. Having made these remarks, the boat returned to +the ship at two p.m., and the weather being good, the artificers were +found amusing themselves with fishing. The <i>Smeaton</i> came +from Arbroath this afternoon, and made fast to her moorings, having +brought letters and newspapers, with parcels of clean linen, etc., for +the workmen, who were also made happy by the arrival of three of their +comrades from the workyard ashore. From these men they not only +received all the news of the workyard, but seemed themselves to enjoy +great pleasure in communicating whatever they considered to be interesting +with regard to the rock. Some also got letters from their friends +at a distance, the postage of which for the men afloat was always free, +so that they corresponded the more readily.<br> +<br> +The site of the building having already been carefully traced out with +the pick-axe, the artificers this day commenced the excavation of the +rock for the foundation or first course of the lighthouse. Four +men only were employed at this work, while twelve continued at the site +of the beacon-house, at which every possible opportunity was embraced, +till this essential art of the operations should be completed.<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 2nd Sept.]<br> +<br> +The floating light’s bell rung this morning at half-past four +o’clock, as a signal for the boats to be got ready, and the landing +took place at half-past five. In passing the <i>Smeaton</i> at +her moorings near the rock, her boat followed with eight additional +artificers who had come from Arbroath with her at last trip, but there +being no room for them in the floating light’s boats, they had +continued on board. The weather did not look very promising in +the morning, the wind blowing pretty fresh from W.S.W.: and had it not +been that the writer calculated upon having a vessel so much at command, +in all probability he would not have ventured to land. The <i>Smeaton</i> +rode at what sailors call a <i>salvagee</i>, with a cross-head made +fast to the floating buoy. This kind of attachment was found to +be more convenient than the mode of passing the hawser through the ring +of the buoy when the vessel was to be made fast. She had then +only to be steered very close to the buoy, when the salvagee was laid +hold of with a boat-hook, and the <i>bite</i> of the hawser thrown over +the cross-head. But the salvagee, by this method, was always left +at the buoy, and was, of course, more liable to chafe and wear than +a hawser passed through the ring, which could be wattled with canvas, +and shifted at pleasure. The salvagee and cross method is, however, +much practised; but the experience of this morning showed it to be very +unsuitable for vessels riding in an exposed situation for any length +of time.<br> +<br> +Soon after the artificers landed they commenced work; but the wind coming +to blow hard, the <i>Smeaton’s</i> boat and crew, who had brought +their complement of eight men to the rock, went off to examine her riding +ropes, and see that they were in proper order. The boat had no +sooner reached the vessel than she went adrift, carrying the boat along +with her. By the time that she was got round to make a tack towards +the rock, she had drifted at least three miles to leeward, with the +praam-boat astern; and, having both the wind and a tide against her, +the writer perceived, with no little anxiety, that she could not possibly +return to the rock till long after its being overflowed; for, owing +to the anomaly of the tides formerly noticed, the Bell Rock is completely +under water when the ebb abates to the offing.<br> +<br> +In this perilous predicament, indeed, he found himself placed between +hope and despair - but certainly the latter was by much the most predominant +feeling of his mind - situate upon a sunken rock in the middle of the +ocean, which, in the progress of the flood-tide, was to be laid under +water to the depth of at least twelve feet in a stormy sea. There +were this morning thirty-two persons in all upon the rock, with only +two boats, whose complement, even in good weather, did not exceed twenty-four +sitters; but to row to the floating light with so much wind, and in +so heavy a sea, a complement of eight men for each boat was as much +as could, with propriety, be attempted, so that, in this way, about +one-half of our number was unprovided for. Under these circumstances, +had the writer ventured to despatch one of the boats in expectation +of either working the <i>Smeaton</i> sooner up towards the rock, or +in hopes of getting her boat brought to our assistance, this must have +given an immediate alarm to the artificers, each of whom would have +insisted upon taking to his own boat, and leaving the eight artificers +belonging to the <i>Smeaton</i> to their chance. Of course a scuffle +might have ensued, and it is hard to say, in the ardour of men contending +for life, where it might have ended. It has even been hinted to +the writer that a party of the <i>pickmen</i> were determined to keep +exclusively to their own boat against all hazards.<br> +<br> +The unfortunate circumstance of the <i>Smeaton</i> and her boat having +drifted was, for a considerable time, only known to the writer and to +the landing-master, who removed to the farther point of the rock, where +he kept his eye steadily upon the progress of the vessel. While +the artificers were at work, chiefly in sitting or kneeling postures, +excavating the rock, or boring with the jumpers, and while their numerous +hammers, with the sound of the smith’s anvil, continued, the situation +of things did not appear so awful. In this state of suspense, +with almost certain destruction at hand, the water began to rise upon +those who were at work on the lower parts of the sites of the beacon +and lighthouse. From the run of sea upon the rock, the forge fire +was also sooner extinguished this morning than usual, and the volumes +of smoke having ceased, objects in every direction became visible from +all parts of the rock. After having had about three ‘hours’ +work, the men began, pretty generally, to make towards their respective +boats for their jackets and stockings, when, to their astonishment, +instead of three, they found only two boats, the third being adrift +with the <i>Smeaton</i>. Not a word was uttered by any one, but +all appeared to be silently calculating their numbers, and looking to +each other with evident marks of perplexity depicted in their countenances. +The landing-master, conceiving that blame might be attached to him for +allowing the boat to leave the rock, still kept at a distance. +At this critical moment the author was standing upon an elevated part +of Smith’s Ledge, where he endeavoured to mark the progress of +the <i>Smeaton</i>, not a little surprised that her crew did not cut +the praam adrift, which greatly retarded her way, and amazed that some +effort was not making to bring at least the boat, and attempt our relief. +The workmen looked steadfastly upon the writer, and turned occasionally +towards the vessel, still far to leeward. <a name="citation122a"></a><a href="#footnote122a">{122a}</a> +All this passed in the most perfect silence, and the melancholy solemnity +of the group made an impression never to be effaced from his mind.<br> +<br> +The writer had all along been considering of various schemes - providing +the men could be kept under command - which might be put in practice +for the general safety, in hopes that the <i>Smeaton</i> might be able +to pick up the boats to leeward, when they were obliged to leave the +rock. He was, accordingly, about to address the artificers on +the perilous nature of their circumstances, and to propose that all +hands should unstrip their upper clothing when the higher parts of the +rock were laid under water; that the seamen should remove every unnecessary +weight and encumbrance from the boats; that a specified number of men +should go into each boat, and that the remainder should hang by the +gunwales, while the boats were to be rowed gently towards the <i>Smeaton</i>, +as the course to the <i>Pharos</i>, or floating light, lay rather to +windward of the rock. But when he attempted to speak his mouth +was so parched that his tongue refused utterance, and he now learned +by experience that the saliva is as necessary as the tongue itself for +speech. He turned to one of the pools on the rock and lapped a +little water, which produced immediate relief. But what was his +happiness, when on rising from this unpleasant beverage, some one called +out, ‘A boat! a boat!’ and, on looking around, at no great +distance, a large boat was seen through the haze making towards the +rock. This at once enlivened and rejoiced every heart. The +timeous visitor proved to be James Spink, the Bell Rock pilot, who had +come express from Arbroath with letters. Spink had for some time +seen the <i>Smeaton</i>, and had even supposed, from the state of the +weather, that all hands were on board of her till he approached more +nearly and observed people upon the rock; but not supposing that the +assistance of his boat was necessary to carry the artificers off the +rock, he anchored on the lee-side and began to fish, waiting, as usual, +till the letters were sent for, as the pilot-boat was too large and +unwieldy for approaching the rock when there was any roughness or run +of the sea at the entrance of the landing creeks.<br> +<br> +Upon this fortunate change of circumstances, sixteen of the artificers +were sent, at two trips, in one of the boats, with instructions for +Spink to proceed with them to the floating light. This being accomplished, +the remaining sixteen followed in the two boats belonging to the service +of the rock. Every one felt the most perfect happiness at leaving +the Bell Rock this morning, though a very hard and even dangerous passage +to the floating light still awaited us, as the wind by this time had +increased to a pretty hard gale, accompanied with a considerable swell +of sea. Every one was as completely drenched in water as if he +had been dragged astern of the boats. The writer, in particular, +being at the helm, found, on getting on board, that his face and ears +were completely coated with a thin film of salt from the sea spray, +which broke constantly over the bows of the boat. After much baling +of water and severe work at the oars, the three boats reached the floating +light, where some new difficulties occurred in getting on board in safety, +owing partly to the exhausted state of the men, and partly to the violent +rolling of the vessel.<br> +<br> +As the tide flowed, it was expected that the <i>Smeaton</i> would have +got to windward; but, seeing that all was safe, after tacking for several +hours and making little progress, she bore away for Arbroath, with the +praam-boat. As there was now too much wind for the pilot-boat +to return to Arbroath, she was made fast astern of the floating light, +and the crew remained on board till next day, when the weather moderated. +There can be very little doubt that the appearance of James Spink with +his boat on this critical occasion was the means of preventing the loss +of lives at the rock this morning. When these circumstances, some +years afterwards, came to the knowledge of the Board, a small pension +was ordered to our faithful pilot, then in his seventieth year; and +he still continues to wear the uniform clothes and badge of the Lighthouse +service. Spink is a remarkably strong man, whose <i>tout ensemble</i> +is highly characteristic of a North-country fisherman. He usually +dresses in a <i>pé-jacket</i>, cut after a particular fashion, +and wears a large, flat, blue bonnet. A striking likeness of Spink +in his pilot-dress, with the badge or insignia on his left arm which +is characteristic of the boatmen in the service of the Northern Lights, +has been taken by Howe, and is in the writer’s possession.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 3rd Sept.]<br> +<br> +The bell rung this morning at five o’clock, but the writer must +acknowledge, from the circumstances of yesterday, that its sound was +extremely unwelcome. This appears also to have been the feelings +of the artificers, for when they came to be mustered, out of twenty-six, +only eight, besides the foreman and seamen, appeared upon deck to accompany +the writer to the rock. Such are the baneful effects of anything +like misfortune or accident connected with a work of this description. +The use of argument to persuade the men to embark in cases of this kind +would have been out of place, as it is not only discomfort, or even +the risk of the loss of a limb, but life itself that becomes the question. +The boats, notwithstanding the thinness of our ranks, left the vessel +at half-past five. The rough weather of yesterday having proved +but a summer’s gale, the wind came to-day in gentle breezes; yet, +the atmosphere being cloudy, it a not a very favourable appearance. +The boats reached the rock at six a.m., and the eight artificers who +landed were employed in clearing out the bat-holes for the beacon-house, +and had a very prosperous tide of four hours’ work, being the +longest yet experienced by half an hour.<br> +<br> +The boats left the rock again at ten o’clock, and the weather +having cleared up as we drew near the vessel, the eighteen artificers +who had remained on board were observed upon deck, but as the boats +approached they sought their way below, being quite ashamed of their +conduct. This was the only instance of refusal to go to the rock +which occurred during the whole progress of the work, excepting that +of the four men who declined working upon Sunday, a case which the writer +did not conceive to be at all analogous to the present. It may +here be mentioned, much to the credit of these four men, that they stood +foremost in embarking for the rock this morning.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 5th Sept.]<br> +<br> +It was fortunate that a landing was not attempted this evening, for +at eight o’clock the wind shifted to E.S.E., and at ten it had +become a hard gale, when fifty fathoms of the floating light’s +hempen cable were veered out. The gale still increasing, the ship +rolled and laboured excessively, and at midnight eighty fathoms of cable +were veered out; while the sea continued to strike the vessel with a +degree of force which had not before been experienced.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 6th Sept.]<br> +<br> +During the last night there was little rest on board of the <i>Pharos</i>, +and daylight, though anxiously wished for, brought no relief, as the +gale continued with unabated violence. The sea struck so hard +upon the vessel’s bows that it rose in great quantities, or in +‘green seas,’ as the sailors termed it, which were carried +by the wind as far aft as the quarter-deck, and not infrequently over +the stern of the ship altogether. It fell occasionally so heavily +on the skylight of the writer’s cabin, though so far aft as to +be within five feet of the helm, that the glass was broken to pieces +before the dead-light could be got into its place, so that the water +poured down in great quantities. In shutting out the water, the +admission of light was prevented, and in the morning all continued in +the most comfortless state of darkness. About ten o’clock +a.m. the wind shifted to N.E., and blew, if possible, harder than before, +and it was accompanied by a much heavier swell of sea. In the +course of the gale, the part of the cable in the hause-hole had been +so often shifted that nearly the whole length of one of her hempen cables, +of 120 fathoms, had been veered out, besides the chain-moorings. +The cable, for its preservation, was also carefully served or wattled +with pieces of canvas round the windlass, and with leather well greased +in the hause-hole. In this state things remained during the whole +day, every sea which struck the vessel - and the seas followed each +other in close succession - causing her to shake, and all on board occasionally +to tremble. At each of these strokes of the sea the rolling and +pitching of the vessel ceased for a time, and her motion was felt as +if she had either broke adrift before the wind or were in the act of +sinking; but, when another sea came, she ranged up against it with great +force, and this became the regular intimation of our being still riding +at anchor.<br> +<br> +About eleven o’clock, the writer with some difficulty got out +of bed, but, in attempting to dress, he was thrown twice upon the floor +at the opposite end of the cabin. In an undressed state he made +shift to get about half-way up the companion-stairs, with an intention +to observe the state of the sea and of the ship upon deck; but he no +sooner looked over the companion than a heavy sea struck the vessel, +which fell on the quarter-deck, and rushed downstairs in the officers’ +cabin in so considerable a quantity that it was found necessary to lift +one of the scuttles in the floor, to let the water into the limbers +of the ship, as it dashed from side to side in such a manner as to run +into the lower tier of beds. Having been foiled in this attempt, +and being completely wetted, he again got below and went to bed. +In this state of the weather the seamen had to move about the necessary +or indispensable duties of the ship with the most cautious use both +of hands and feet, while it required all the art of the landsman to +keep within the precincts of his bed. The writer even found himself +so much tossed about that it became necessary, in some measure, to shut +himself in bed, in order to avoid being thrown upon the floor. +Indeed, such was the motion of the ship that it seemed wholly impracticable +to remain in any other than a lying posture. On deck the most +stormy aspect presented itself, while below all was wet and comfortless.<br> +<br> + About two o’clock p.m. a great alarm was given throughout +the ship from the effects of a very heavy sea which struck her, and +almost filled the waist, pouring down into the berths below, through +every chink and crevice of the hatches and skylights. From the +motion of the vessel being thus suddenly deadened or checked, and from +the flowing in of the water above, it is believed there was not an individual +on board who did not think, at the moment, that the vessel had foundered, +and was in the act of sinking. The writer could withstand this +no longer, and as soon as she again began to range to the sea he determined +to make another effort to get upon deck. In the first instance, +however, he groped his way in darkness from his own cabin through the +berths of the officers, where all was quietness. He next entered +the galley and other compartments occupied by the artificers. +Here also all was shut up in darkness, the fire having been drowned +out in the early part of the gale. Several of the artificers were +employed in prayer, repeating psalms and other devotional exercises +in a full tone of voice; others protesting that, if they should fortunately +get once more on shore, no one should ever see them afloat again. +With the assistance of the landing-master, the writer made his way, +holding on step by step, among the numerous impediments which lay in +the way. Such was the creaking noise of the bulk-heads or partitions, +the dashing of the water, and the whistling noise of the winds, that +it was hardly possible to break in upon such a confusion of sounds. +In one or two instances, anxious and repeated inquiries were made by +the artificers as to the state of things upon deck, to which the captain +made the usual answer, that it could not blow long in this way, and +that we must soon have better weather. The next berth in succession, +moving forward in the ship, was that allotted for the seamen. +Here the scene was considerably different. Having reached the +middle of this darksome berth without its inmates being aware of any +intrusion, the writer had the consolation of remarking that, although +they talked of bad weather and the cross accidents of the sea, yet the +conversation was carried on in that sort of tone and manner which bespoke +an ease and composure of mind highly creditable to them and pleasing +to him. The writer immediately accosted the seamen about the state +of the ship. To these inquiries they replied that the vessel being +light, and having but little hold of the water, no top-rigging, with +excellent ground-tackle, and everything being fresh and new, they felt +perfect confidence in their situation.<br> +<br> +It being impossible to open any of the hatches in the fore part of the +ship in communicating with the deck, the watch was changed by passing +through the several berths to the companion-stair leading to the quarter-deck. +The writer, therefore, made the best of his way aft, and, on a second +attempt to look out, he succeeded, and saw indeed an astonishing sight. +The sea or waves appeared to be ten or fifteen feet in height of unbroken +water, and every approaching billow seemed as if it would overwhelm +our vessel, but she continued to rise upon the waves and to fall between +the seas in a very wonderful manner. It seemed to be only those +seas which caught her in the act of rising which struck her with so +much violence and threw such quantities of water aft. On deck +there was only one solitary individual looking out, to give the alarm +in the event of the ship breaking from her moorings. The seaman +on watch continued only two hours; he who kept watch at this time was +a tall, slender man of a black complexion; he had no greatcoat nor over-all +of any kind, but was simply dressed in his ordinary jacket and trousers; +his hat was tied under his chin with a napkin, and he stood aft the +foremast, to which he had lashed himself with a gasket or small rope +round his waist, to prevent his falling upon deck or being washed overboard. +When the writer looked up, he appeared to smile, which afforded a further +symptom of the confidence of the crew in their ship. This person +on watch was as completely wetted as if he had been drawn through the +sea, which was given as a reason for his not putting on a greatcoat, +that he might wet as few of his clothes as possible, and have a dry +shift when he went below. Upon deck everything that was movable +was out of sight, having either been stowed below, previous to the gale, +or been washed overboard. Some trifling parts of the quarter boards +were damaged by the breach of the sea; and one of the boats upon deck +was about one-third full of water, the oyle-hole or drain having been +accidently stopped up, and part of her gunwale had received considerable +injury. These observations were hastily made, and not without +occasionally shutting the companion, to avoid being wetted by the successive +seas which broke over the bows and fell upon different parts of the +deck according to the impetus with which the waves struck the vessel. +By this time it was about three o’clock in the afternoon, and +the gale, which had now continued with unabated force for twenty-seven +hours, had not the least appearance of going off.<br> +<br> +In the dismal prospect of undergoing another night like the last, and +being in imminent hazard of parting from our cable, the writer thought +it necessary to advise with the master and officers of the ship as to +the probable event of the vessel’s drifting from her moorings. +They severally gave it as their opinion that we had now every chance +of riding out the gale, which, in all probability, could not continue +with the same fury many hours longer; and that even if she should part +from her anchor, the storm-sails had been laid to hand, and could be +bent in a very short time. They further stated that from the direction +of the wind being N.E., she would sail up the Firth of Forth to Leith +Roads. But if this should appear doubtful, after passing the Island +and Light of May, it might be advisable at once to steer for Tyningham +Sands, on the western side of Dunbar, and there run the vessel ashore. +If this should happen at the time of high-water, or during the ebbing +of the tide, they were of opinion, from the flatness and strength of +the floating light, that no danger would attend her taking the ground, +even with a very heavy sea. The writer, seeing the confidence +which these gentlemen possessed with regard to the situation of things, +found himself as much relieved with this conversation as he had previously +been with the seeming indifference of the forecastle men, and the smile +of the watch upon deck, though literally lashed to the foremast. +From this time he felt himself almost perfectly at ease; at any rate, +he was entirely resigned to the ultimate result.<br> +<br> +About six o’clock in the evening the ship’s company was +heard moving upon deck, which on the present occasion was rather the +cause of alarm. The writer accordingly rang his bell to know what +was the matter, when he was informed by the steward that the weather +looked considerably better, and that the men upon deck were endeavouring +to ship the smoke-funnel of the galley that the people might get some +meat. This was a more favourable account than had been anticipated. +During the last twenty-one hours he himself had not only had nothing +to eat, but he had almost never passed a thought on the subject. +Upon the mention of a change of weather, he sent the steward to learn +how the artificers felt, and on his return he stated that they now seemed +to be all very happy, since the cook had begun to light the galley-fire +and make preparations for the suet-pudding of Sunday, which was the +only dish to be attempted for the mess, from the ease with which it +could both be cooked and served up.<br> +<br> +The principal change felt upon the ship as the wind abated was her increased +rolling motion, but the pitching was much diminished, and now hardly +any sea came farther aft than the foremast: but she rolled so extremely +hard as frequently to dip and take in water over the gunwales and rails +in the waist. By nine o’clock all hands had been refreshed +by the exertions of the cook and steward, and were happy in the prospect +of the worst of the gale being over. The usual complement of men +was also now set on watch, and more quietness was experienced throughout +the ship. Although the previous night had been a very restless +one, it had not the effect of inducing repose in the writer’s +berth on the succeeding night; for having been so much tossed about +in bed during the last thirty hours, he found no easy spot to turn to, +and his body was all sore to the touch, which ill accorded with the +unyielding materials with which his bed-place was surrounded.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 7th Sept.]<br> +<br> +This morning, about eight o’clock, the writer was agreeably surprised +to see the scuttle of his cabin sky-light removed, and the bright rays +of the sun admitted. Although the ship continued to roll excessively, +and the sea was still running very high, yet the ordinary business on +board seemed to be going forward on deck. It was impossible to +steady a telescope, so as to look minutely at the progress of the waves +and trace their breach upon the Bell Rock; but the height to which the +cross-running waves rose in sprays when they met each other was truly +grand, and the continued roar and noise of the sea was very perceptible +to the ear. To estimate the height of the sprays at forty or fifty +feet would surely be within the mark. Those of the workmen who +were not much afflicted with sea-sickness, came upon deck, and the wetness +below being dried up, the cabins were again brought into a habitable +state. Every one seemed to meet as if after a long absence, congratulating +his neighbour upon the return of good weather. Little could be +said as to the comfort of the vessel, but after riding out such a gale, +no one felt the least doubt or hesitation as to the safety and good +condition of her moorings. The master and mate were extremely +anxious, however, to heave in the hempen cable, and see the state of +the clinch or iron ring of the chain-cable. But the vessel rolled +at such a rate that the seamen could not possibly keep their feet at +the windlass nor work the hand-spikes, though it had been several times +attempted since the gale took off.<br> +<br> +About twelve noon, however, the vessel’s motion was observed to +be considerably less, and the sailors were enabled to walk upon deck +with some degree of freedom. But, to the astonishment of every +one, it was soon discovered that the floating light was adrift! +The windlass was instantly manned, and the men soon gave out that there +was no strain upon the cable. The mizzen sail, which was bent +for the occasional purpose of making the vessel ride more easily to +the tide, was immediately set, and the other sails were also hoisted +in a short time, when, in no small consternation, we bore away about +one mile to the south-westward of the former station, and there let +go the best bower anchor and cable in twenty fathoms water, to ride +until the swell of the sea should fall, when it might be practicable +to grapple for the moorings, and find a better anchorage for the ship.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 15th Sept.]<br> +<br> +This morning, at five a.m., the bell rung as a signal for landing upon +the rock, a sound which, after a lapse of ten days, it is believed was +welcomed by every one on board. There being a heavy breach of +sea at the eastern creek, we landed, though not without difficulty, +on the western side, every one seeming more eager than another to get +upon the rock; and never did hungry men sit down to a hearty meal with +more appetite than the artificers began to pick the dulse from the rocks. +This marine plant had the effect of reviving the sickly, and seemed +to be no less relished by those who were more hardy.<br> +<br> +While the water was ebbing, and the men were roaming in quest of their +favourite morsel, the writer was examining the effects of the storm +upon the forge and loose apparatus left upon the rock. Six large +blocks of granite which had been landed, by way of experiment, on the +1st instant, were now removed from their places and, by the force of +the sea, thrown over a rising ledge into a hole at the distance of twelve +or fifteen paces from the place on which they had been landed. +This was a pretty good evidence both of the violence of the storm and +the agitation of the sea upon the rock. The safety of the smith’s +forge was always an object of essential regard. The ash-pan of +the hearth or fireplace, with its weighty cast-iron back, had been washed +from their places of supposed security; the chains of attachment had +been broken, and these ponderous articles were found at a very considerable +distance in a hole on the western side of the rock; while the tools +and picks of the Aberdeen masons were scattered about in every direction. +It is, however, remarkable that not a single article was ultimately +lost.<br> +<br> +This being the night on which the floating light was advertised to be +lighted, it was accordingly exhibited, to the great joy of every one.<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 16th Sept.]<br> +<br> +The writer was made happy to-day by the return of the Lighthouse yacht +from a voyage to the Northern Lighthouses. Having immediately +removed on board of this fine vessel of eighty-one tons register, the +artificers gladly followed; for, though they found themselves more pinched +for accommodation on board of the yacht, and still more so in the <i>Smeaton</i>, +yet they greatly preferred either of these to the <i>Pharos</i>, or +floating light, on account of her rolling motion, though in all respects +fitted up for their conveniency.<br> +<br> +The writer called them to the quarter-deck and informed them that, having +been one mouth afloat, in terms of their agreement they were now at +liberty to return to the workyard at Arbroath if they preferred this +to continuing at the Bell Rock. But they replied that, in the +prospect of soon getting the beacon erected upon the rock, and having +made a change from the floating light, they were now perfectly reconciled +to their situation, and would remain afloat till the end of the working +season.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 17th Sept.]<br> +<br> +The wind was at N.E. this morning, and though they were only light airs, +yet there was a pretty heavy swell coming ashore upon the rock. +The boats landed at half-past seven o’clock a.m., at the creek +on the southern side of the rock, marked Port Hamilton. But as +one of the boats was in the act of entering this creek, the seaman at +the bow-oar, who had just entered the service, having inadvertently +expressed some fear from a heavy sea which came rolling towards the +boat, and one of the artificers having at the same time looked round +and missed a stroke with his oar, such a preponderance was thus given +to the rowers upon the opposite side that when the wave struck the boat +it threw her upon a ledge of shelving rocks, where the water left her, +and she having <i>kanted</i> to seaward, the next wave completely filled +her with water. After making considerable efforts the boat was +again got afloat in the proper track of the creek, so that we landed +without any other accident than a complete ducking. There being +no possibility of getting a shift of clothes, the artificers began with +all speed to work, so as to bring themselves into heat, while the writer +and his assistants kept as much as possible in motion. Having +remained more than an hour upon the rock, the boats left it at half-past +nine; and, after getting on board, the writer recommended to the artificers, +as the best mode of getting into a state of comfort, to strip off their +wet clothes and go to bed for an hour or two. No further inconveniency +was felt, and no one seemed to complain of the affection called ‘catching +cold.’<br> +<br> +[Friday, 18th Sept.]<br> +<br> +An important occurrence connected with the operations of this season +was the arrival of the <i>Smeaton</i> at four p.m., having in tow the +six principal beams of the beacon-house, together with all the stanchions +and other work on board for fixing it on the rock. The mooring +of the floating light was a great point gained, but in the erection +of the beacon at this late period of the season new difficulties presented +themselves. The success of such an undertaking at any season was +precarious, because a single day of bad weather occurring before the +necessary fixtures could be made might sweep the whole apparatus from +the rock. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the writer had determined +to make the trial, although he could almost have wished, upon looking +at the state of the clouds and the direction of the wind, that the apparatus +for the beacon had been still in the workyard.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 19th Sept.]<br> +<br> +The main beams of the beacon were made up in two separate rafts, fixed +with bars and bolts of iron. One of these rafts, not being immediately +wanted, was left astern of the floating light, and the other was kept +in tow by the <i>Smeaton</i>, at the buoy nearest to the rock. +The Lighthouse yacht rode at another buoy with all hands on board that +could possibly be spared out of the floating light. The party +of artificers and seamen which landed on the rock counted altogether +forty in number. At half-past eight o’clock a derrick, or +mast of thirty feet in height, was erected and properly supported with +guy-ropes, for suspending the block for raising the first principal +beam of the beacon; and a winch machine was also bolted down to the +rock for working the purchase-tackle.<br> +<br> +Upon raising the derrick, all hands on the rock spontaneously gave three +hearty cheers, as a favourable omen of our future exertions in pointing +out more permanently the position of the rock. Even to this single +spar of timber, could it be preserved, a drowning man might lay hold. +When the <i>Smeaton</i> drifted on the 2nd of this month such a spar +would have been sufficient to save us till she could have come to our +relief.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 20th Sept.]<br> +<br> +The wind this morning was variable, but the weather continued extremely +favourable for the operations throughout the whole day. At six +a.m. the boats were in motion, and the raft, consisting of four of the +six principal beams of the beacon-house, each measuring about sixteen +inches square, and fifty feet in length, was towed to the rock, where +it was anchored, that it might ground upon it as the water ebbed. +The sailors and artificers, including all hands, to-day counted no fewer +than fifty-two, being perhaps the greatest number of persons ever collected +upon the Bell Rock. It was early in the tide when the boats reached +the rock, and the men worked a considerable time up to their middle +in water, every one being more eager than his neighbour to be useful. +Even the four artificers who had hitherto declined working on Sunday +were to-day most zealous in their exertions. They had indeed become +so convinced of the precarious nature and necessity of the work that +they never afterwards absented themselves from the rock on Sunday when +a landing was practicable.<br> +<br> +Having made fast a piece of very good new line, at about two-thirds +from the lower end of one of the beams, the purchase-tackle of the derrick +was hooked into the turns of the line, and it was speedily raised by +the number of men on the rock and the power of the winch tackle. +When this log was lifted to a sufficient height, its foot, or lower +end, was <i>stepped</i> into the spot which had been previously prepared +for it. Two of the great iron stanchions were then set in their +respective holes on each side of the beam, when a rope was passed round +them and the beam, to prevent it from slipping till it could be more +permanently fixed. The derrick, or upright spar used for carrying +the tackle to raise the first beam, was placed in such a position as +to become useful for supporting the upper end of it, which now became, +in its turn, the prop of the tackle for raising the second beam. +The whole difficulty of this operation was in the raising and propping +of the first beam, which became a convenient derrick for raising the +second, these again a pair of shears for lifting the third, and the +shears a triangle for raising the fourth. Having thus got four +of the six principal beams set on end, it required a considerable degree +of trouble to get their upper ends to fit. Here they formed the +apex of a cone, and were all together mortised into a large piece of +beechwood, and secured, for the present, with ropes, in a temporary +manner. During the short period of one tide all that could further +be done for their security was to put a single screw-bolt through the +great kneed bats or stanchions on each side of the beams, and screw +the nut home.<br> +<br> +In this manner these four principal beams were erected, and left in +a pretty secure state. The men had commenced while there was about +two or three feet of water upon the side of the beacon, and as the sea +was smooth they continued the work equally long during flood-tide. +Two of the boats being left at the rock to take off the joiners, who +were busily employed on the upper parts till two o’clock p.m., +this tide’s work may be said to have continued for about seven +hours, which was the longest that had hitherto been got upon the rock +by at least three hours.<br> +<br> +When the first boats left the rock with the artificers employed on the +lower part of the work during the flood-tide, the beacon had quite a +novel appearance. The beams erected formed a common base of about +thirty-three feet, meeting at the top, which was about forty-five feet +above the rock, and here half a dozen of the artificers were still at +work. After clearing the rock the boats made a stop, when three +hearty cheers were given, which were returned with equal goodwill by +those upon the beacon, from the personal interest which every one felt +in the prosperity of this work, so intimately connected with his safety.<br> +<br> +All hands having returned to their respective ships, they got a shift +of dry clothes and some refreshment. Being Sunday, they were afterwards +convened by signal on board of the Lighthouse yacht, when prayers were +read; for every heart upon this occasion felt gladness, and every mind +was disposed to be thankful for the happy and successful termination +of the operations of this day.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 21st Sept.]<br> +<br> +The remaining two principal beams were erected in the course of this +tide, which, with the assistance of those set up yesterday, was found +to be a very simple operation.<br> +<br> +The six principal beams of the beacon were thus secured, at least in +a temporary manner, in the course of two tides, or in the short space +of about eleven hours and a half. Such is the progress that may +be made when active hands and willing minds set properly to work in +operations of this kind.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday 22nd, Sept.]<br> +<br> +Having now got the weighty part of this work over, and being thereby +relieved of the difficulty both of landing and victualling such a number +of men, the <i>Smeaton</i> could now be spared, and she was accordingly +despatched to Arbroath for a supply of water and provisions, and carried +with her six of the artificers who could best be spared.<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 23rd Sept.]<br> +<br> +In going out of the eastern harbour, the boat which the writer steered +shipped a sea, that filled her about one-third with water. She +had also been hid for a short time, by the waves breaking upon the rock, +from the sight of the crew of the preceding boat, who were much alarmed +for our safety, imagining for a time that she had gone down.<br> +<br> +The <i>Smeaton</i> returned from Arbroath this afternoon, but there +was so much sea that she could not be made fast to her moorings, and +the vessel was obliged to return to Arbroath without being able either +to deliver the provisions or take the artificers on board. The +Lighthouse yacht was also soon obliged to follow her example, as the +sea was breaking heavily over her bows. After getting two reefs +in the mainsail, and the third or storm-jib set, the wind being S.W., +she bent to windward, though blowing a hard gale, and got into St. Andrews +Bay, where we passed the night under the lee of Fifeness.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 24th Sept.]<br> +<br> +At two o’clock this morning we were in St. Andrews Bay, standing +off and on shore, with strong gales of wind at S.W.; at seven we were +off the entrance of the Tay; at eight stood towards the rock, and at +ten passed to leeward of it, but could not attempt a landing. +The beacon, however, appeared to remain in good order, and by six p.m. +the vessel had again beaten up to St. Andrews Bay, and got into somewhat +smoother water for the night.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 25th Sept.]<br> +<br> +At seven o’clock bore away for the Bell Rock, but finding a heavy +sea running on it were unable to land. The writer, however, had +the satisfaction to observe, with his telescope, that everything about +the beacon appeared entire: and although the sea had a most frightful +appearance, yet it was the opinion of every one that, since the erection +of the beacon, the Bell Rock was divested of many of its terrors, and +had it been possible to have got the boats hoisted out and manned, it +might have even been found practicable to land. At six it blew +so hard that it was found necessary to strike the topmast and take in +a third reef of the mainsail, and under this low canvas we soon reached +St. Andrews Bay, and got again under the lee of the land for the night. +The artificers, being sea-hardy, were quite reconciled to their quarters +on board of the Lighthouse yacht; but it is believed that hardly any +consideration would have induced them again to take up their abode in +the floating light.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 26th Sept.]<br> +<br> +At daylight the yacht steered towards the Bell Rock, and at eight a.m. +made fast to her moorings; at ten, all hands, to the amount of thirty, +landed, when the writer had the happiness to find that the beacon had +withstood the violence of the gale and the heavy breach of sea, everything +being found in the same state in which it had been left on the 21st. +The artificers were now enabled to work upon the rock throughout the +whole day, both at low and high water, but it required the strictest +attention to the state of the weather, in case of their being overtaken +with a gale, which might prevent the possibility of getting them off +the rock.<br> +<br> +Two somewhat memorable circumstances in the annals of the Bell Rock +attended the operations of this day: one was the removal of Mr. James +Dove, the foreman smith, with his apparatus, from the rock to the upper +part of the beacon, where the forge was now erected on a temporary platform, +laid on the cross beams or upper framing. The other was the artificers +having dined for the first time upon the rock, their dinner being cooked +on board of the yacht, and sent to them by one of the boats. But +what afforded the greatest happiness and relief was the removal of the +large bellows, which had all along been a source of much trouble and +perplexity, by their hampering and incommoding the boat which carried +the smiths and their apparatus.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 3rd Oct.]<br> +<br> +The wind being west to-day, the weather was very favourable for operations +at the rock, and during the morning and evening tides, with the aid +of torchlight, the masons had seven hours’ work upon the site +of the building. The smiths and joiners, who landed at half-past +six a.m., did not leave the rock till a quarter-past eleven p.m., having +been at work, with little intermission, for sixteen hours and three-quarters. +When the water left the rock, they were employed at the lower parts +of the beacon, and as the tide rose or fell, they shifted the place +of their operations. From these exertions, the fixing and securing +of the beacon made rapid advancement, as the men were now landed in +the morning and remained throughout the day. But, as a sudden +change of weather might have prevented their being taken off at the +proper time of tide, a quantity of bread and water was always kept on +the beacon.<br> +<br> +During this period of working at the beacon all the day, and often a +great part of the night, the writer was much on board of the tender; +but, while the masons could work on the rock, and frequently also while +it was covered by the tide, he remained on the beacon; especially during +the night, as he made a point of being on the rock to the latest hour, +and was generally the last person who stepped into the boat. He +had laid this down as part of his plan of procedure; and in this way +had acquired, in the course of the first season, a pretty complete knowledge +and experience of what could actually be done at the Bell Rock, under +all circumstances of the weather. By this means also his assistants, +and the artificers and mariners, got into a systematic habit of proceeding +at the commencement of the work, which, it is believed, continued throughout +the whole of the operations.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 4th Oct.]<br> +<br> +The external part of the beacon was now finished, with its supports +and bracing-chains, and whatever else was considered necessary for its +stability in so far as the season would permit; and although much was +still wanting to complete this fabric, yet it was in such a state that +it could be left without much fear of the consequences of a storm. +The painting of the upper part was nearly finished this afternoon; and +the <i>Smeaton</i> had brought off a quantity of brushwood and other +articles, for the purpose of heating or charring the lower part of the +principal beams, before being laid over with successive coats of boiling +pitch, to the height of from eight to twelve feet, or as high as the +rise of spring-tides. A small flagstaff having also been erected +to-day, a flag was displayed for the first time from the beacon, by +which its perspective effect was greatly improved. On this, as +on all like occasions at the Bell Rock, three hearty cheers were given; +and the steward served out a dram of rum to all hands, while the Lighthouse +yacht, <i>Smeaton</i>, and floating light, hoisted their colours in +compliment to the erection.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 5th Oct.]<br> +<br> +In the afternoon, and just as the tide’s work was over, Mr. John +Rennie, engineer, accompanied by his son Mr. George, on their way to +the harbour works of Fraserburgh, in Aberdeenshire, paid a visit to +the Bell Rock, in a boat from Arbroath. It being then too late +in the tide for landing, they remained on board of the Lighthouse yacht +all night, when the writer, who had now been secluded from society for +several weeks, enjoyed much of Mr. Rennie’s interesting conversation, +both on general topics, and professionally upon the progress of the +Bell Rock works, on which he was consulted as chief engineer.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 6th Oct.]<br> +<br> +The artificers landed this morning at nine, after which one of the boats +returned to the ship for the writer and Messrs. Rennie, who, upon landing, +were saluted with a display of the colours from the beacon and by three +cheers from the workmen. Everything was now in a prepared state +for leaving the rock, and giving up the works afloat for this season, +excepting some small articles, which would still occupy the smiths and +joiners for a few days longer. They accordingly shifted on board +of the <i>Smeaton</i>, while the yacht left the rock for Arbroath, with +Messrs. Rennie, the writer, and the remainder of the artificers. +But, before taking leave, the steward served out a farewell glass, when +three hearty cheers were given, and an earnest wish expressed that everything, +in the spring of 1808, might be found in the same state of good order +as it was now about to be left.<br> +<br> +<br> +II - OPERATIONS OF 1808<br> +<br> +<br> +[Monday, 29th Feb.]<br> +<br> +The writer sailed from Arbroath at one a.m. in the Lighthouse yacht. +At seven the floating light was hailed, and all on board found to be +well. The crew were observed to have a very healthy-like appearance, +and looked better than at the close of the works upon the rock. +They seemed only to regret one thing, which was the secession of their +cook, Thomas Elliot - not on account of his professional skill, but +for his facetious and curious manner. Elliot had something peculiar +in his history, and was reported by his comrades to have seen better +days. He was, however, happy with his situation on board of the +floating light, and, having a taste for music, dancing, and acting plays, +he contributed much to the amusement of the ship’s company in +their dreary abode during the winter months. He had also recommended +himself to their notice as a good shipkeeper, for as it did not answer +Elliot to go often ashore, he had always given up his turn of leave +to his neighbours. At his own desire he was at length paid off, +when he had a considerable balance of wages to receive, which he said +would be sufficient to carry him to the West Indies, and he accordingly +took leave of the Lighthouse service.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 1st March]<br> +<br> +At daybreak the Lighthouse yacht, attended by a boat from the floating +light, again stood towards the Bell Rock. The weather felt extremely +cold this morning, the thermometer being at 34 degrees, with the wind +at east, accompanied by occasional showers of snow, and the marine barometer +indicated 29.80. At half-past seven the sea ran with such force +upon the rock that it seemed doubtful if a landing could be effected. +At half-past eight, when it was fairly above water, the writer took +his place in the floating light’s boat with the artificers, while +the yacht’s boat followed, according to the general rule of having +two boats afloat in landing expeditions of this kind, that, in case +of accident to one boat, the other might assist. In several unsuccessful +attempts the boats were beat back by the breach of the sea upon the +rock. On the eastern side it separated into two distinct waves, +which came with a sweep round to the western side, where they met; and +at the instance of their confluence the water rose in spray to a considerable +height. Watching what the sailors term a <i>smooth</i>, we caught +a favourable opportunity, and in a very dexterous manner the boats were +rowed between the two seas, and made a favourable landing at the western +creek.<br> +<br> +At the latter end of last season, as was formerly noticed, the beacon +was painted white, and from the bleaching of the weather and the sprays +of the sea the upper parts were kept clean; but within the range of +the tide the principal beams were observed to be thickly coated with +a green stuff, the <i>conferva</i> of botanists. Notwithstanding +the intrusion of these works, which had formerly banished the numerous +seals that played about the rock, they were now seen in great numbers, +having been in an almost undisturbed state for six months. It +had now also, for the first time, got some inhabitants of the feathered +tribe: in particular the scarth or cormorant, and the large herring-gull, +had made the beacon a resting-place, from its vicinity to their fishing-grounds. +About a dozen of these birds had rested upon the cross-beams, which, +in some places, were coated with their dung; and their flight, as the +boats approached, was a very unlooked-for indication of life and habitation +on the Bell Rock, conveying the momentary idea of the conversion of +this fatal rock, from being a terror to the mariner, into a residence +of man and a safeguard to shipping.<br> +<br> +Upon narrowly examining the great iron stanchions with which the beams +were fixed to the rock, the writer had the satisfaction of finding that +there was not the least appearance of working or shifting at any of +the joints or places of connection; and, excepting the loosening of +the bracing-chains, everything was found in the same entire state in +which it had been left in the month of October. This, in the estimation +of the writer, was a matter of no small importance to the future success +of the work. He from that moment saw the practicability and propriety +of fitting up the beacon, not only as a place of refuge in case of accident +to the boats in landing, but as a residence for the artificers during +the working months.<br> +<br> +While upon the top of the beacon the writer was reminded by the landing-master +that the sea was running high, and that it would be necessary to set +off while the rock afforded anything like shelter to the boats, which +by this time had been made fast by a long line to the beacon, and rode +with much agitation, each requiring two men with boat-hooks to keep +them from striking each other, or from ranging up against the beacon. +But even under these circumstances the greatest confidence was felt +by every one, from the security afforded by this temporary erection. +For, supposing the wind had suddenly increased to a gale, and that it +had been found unadvisable to go into the boats; or, supposing they +had drifted or sprung a leak from striking upon the rocks; in any of +these possible and not at all improbable cases, those who might thus +have been left upon the rock had now something to lay hold of, and, +though occupying this dreary habitation of the sea-gull and the cormorant, +affording only bread and water, yet <i>life</i>, would be preserved, +and the mind would still be supported by the hope of being ultimately +relieved.<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 25th May]<br> +<br> +On the 25th of May the writer embarked at Arbroath, on board of the +<i>Sir Joseph Banks</i>, for the Bell Rock, accompanied by Mr. Logan +senior, foreman builder, with twelve masons and two smiths, together +with thirteen seamen, including the master, mate, and steward.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 26th May]<br> +<br> +Mr. James Wilson, now commander of the <i>Pharos</i>, floating light, +and landing-master, in the room of Mr. Sinclair, who had left the service, +came into the writer’s cabin this morning at six o’clock, +and intimated that there was a good appearance of landing on the rock. +Everything being arranged, both boats proceeded in company, and at eight +a.m. they reached the rock. The lighthouse colours were immediately +hoisted upon the flagstaff of the beacon, a compliment which was duly +returned by the tender and floating light, when three hearty cheers +were given, and a glass of rum was served out to all hands to drink +success to the operations of 1808.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 27th May]<br> +<br> +This morning the wind was at east, blowing a fresh gale, the weather +being hazy, with a considerable breach of sea setting in upon the rock. +The morning bell was therefore rung, in some doubt as to the practicability +of making a landing. After allowing the rock to get fully up, +or to be sufficiently left by the tide, that the boats might have some +shelter from the range of the sea, they proceeded at 8 a.m., and upon +the whole made a pretty good landing; and after two hours and three-quarters’ +work returned to the ship in safety.<br> +<br> +In the afternoon the wind considerably increased, and, as a pretty heavy +sea was still running, the tender rode very hard, when Mr. Taylor, the +commander, found it necessary to take in the bowsprit, and strike the +fore and main topmasts, that she might ride more easily. After +consulting about the state of the weather, it was resolved to leave +the artificers on board this evening, and carry only the smiths to the +rock, as the sharpening of the irons was rather behind, from their being +so much broken and blunted by the hard and tough nature of the rock, +which became much more compact and hard as the depth of excavation was +increased. Besides avoiding the risk of encumbering the boats +with a number of men who had not yet got the full command of the oar +in a breach of sea, the writer had another motive for leaving them behind. +He wanted to examine the site of the building without interruption, +and to take the comparative levels of the different inequalities of +its area; and as it would have been painful to have seen men standing +idle upon the Bell Rock, where all moved with activity, it was judged +better to leave them on board. The boats landed at half-past seven +p.m., and the landing-master, with the seamen, was employed during this +tide in cutting the seaweeds from the several paths leading to the landing-places, +to render walking more safe, for, from the slippery state of the surface +of the rock, many severe tumbles had taken place. In the meantime +the writer took the necessary levels, and having carefully examined +the site of the building and considered all its parts, it still appeared +to be necessary to excavate to the average depth of fourteen inches +over the whole area of the foundation.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 28th May]<br> +<br> +The wind still continued from the eastward with a heavy swell; and to-day +it was accompanied with foggy weather and occasional showers of rain. +Notwithstanding this, such was the confidence which the erection of +the beacon had inspired that the boats landed the artificers on the +rock under very unpromising circumstances, at half-past eight, and they +continued at work till half-past eleven, being a period of three hours, +which was considered a great tide’s work in the present low state +of the foundation. Three of the masons on board were so afflicted +with sea-sickness that they had not been able to take any food for almost +three days, and they were literally assisted into the boats this morning +by their companions. It was, however, not a little surprising +to see how speedily these men revived upon landing on the rock and eating +a little dulse. Two of them afterwards assisted the sailors in +collecting the chips of stone and carrying them out of the way of the +pickmen; but the third complained of a pain in his head, and was still +unable to do anything. Instead of returning to the tender with +the boats, these three men remained on the beacon all day, and had their +victuals sent to them along with the smiths’. From Mr. Dove, +the foreman smith, they had much sympathy, for he preferred remaining +on the beacon at all hazards, to be himself relieved from the malady +of sea-sickness. The wind continuing high, with a heavy sea, and +the tide falling late, it was not judged proper to land the artificers +this evening, but in the twilight the boats were sent to fetch the people +on board who had been left on the rock.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 29th May]<br> +<br> +The wind was from the S.W. to-day, and the signal-bell rung, as usual, +about an hour before the period for landing on the rock. The writer +was rather surprised, however, to hear the landing-master repeatedly +call, ‘All hands for the rock!’ and, coming on deck, he +was disappointed to find the seamen only in the boats. Upon inquiry, +it appeared that some misunderstanding had taken place about the wages +of the artificers for Sundays. They had preferred wages for seven +days statedly to the former mode of allowing a day for each tide’s +work on Sunday, as they did not like the appearance of working for double +or even treble wages on Sunday, and would rather have it understood +that their work on that day arose more from the urgency of the case +than with a view to emolument. This having been judged creditable +to their religious feelings, and readily adjusted to their wish, the +boats proceeded to the rock, and the work commenced at nine a.m.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 30th May]<br> +<br> +Mr. Francis Watt commenced, with five joiners, to fit up a temporary +platform upon the beacon, about twenty-five feet above the highest part +of the rock. This platform was to be used as the site of the smith’s +forge, after the beacon should be fitted up as a barrack; and here also +the mortar was to be mixed and prepared for the building, and it was +accordingly termed the Mortar Gallery.<br> +<br> +The landing-master’s crew completed the discharging from the <i>Smeaton</i> +of her cargo of the cast-iron rails and timber. It must not here +be omitted to notice that the <i>Smeaton</i> took in ballast from the +Bell Rock, consisting of the shivers or chips of stone produced by the +workmen in preparing the site of the building, which were now accumulating +in great quantities on the rock. These the boats loaded, after +discharging the iron. The object in carrying off these chips, +besides ballasting the vessel, was to get them permanently out of the +way, as they were apt to shift about from place to place with every +gale of wind; and it often required a considerable time to clear the +foundation a second time of this rubbish. The circumstance of +ballasting a ship at the Bell Rock afforded great entertainment, especially +to the sailors; and it was perhaps with truth remarked that the <i>Smeaton</i> +was the first vessel that had ever taken on board ballast at the Bell +Rock. Mr. Pool, the commander of this vessel, afterwards acquainted +the writer that, when the ballast was landed upon the quay at Leith, +many persons carried away specimens of it, as part of a cargo from the +Bell Rock; when he added, that such was the interest excited, from the +number of specimens carried away, that some of his friends suggested +that he should have sent the whole to the Cross of Edinburgh, where +each piece might have sold for a penny.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 31st May]<br> +<br> +In the evening the boats went to the rock, and brought the joiners and +smiths, and their sickly companions, on board of the tender. These +also brought with them two baskets full of fish, which they had caught +at high-water from the beacon, reporting, at the same time, to their +comrades, that the fish were swimming in such numbers over the rock +at high-water that it was completely hid from their sight, and nothing +seen but the movement of thousands of fish. They were almost exclusively +of the species called the podlie, or young coal-fish. This discovery, +made for the first time to-day by the workmen, was considered fortunate, +as an additional circumstance likely to produce an inclination among +the artificers to take up their residence in the beacon, when it came +to be fitted up as a barrack.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 7th June]<br> +<br> +At three o’clock in the morning the ship’s bell was rung +as the signal for landing at the rock. When the landing was to +be made before breakfast, it was customary to give each of the artificers +and seamen a dram and a biscuit, and coffee was prepared by the steward +for the cabins. Exactly at four o’clock the whole party +landed from three boats, including one of those belonging to the floating +light, with a part of that ship’s crew, which always attended +the works in moderate weather. The landing-master’s boat, +called the <i>Seaman</i>, but more commonly called the <i>Lifeboat</i>, +took the lead. The next boat, called the <i>Mason</i>, was generally +steered by the writer; while the floating light’s boat, <i>Pharos</i>, +was under the management of the boatswain of that ship.<br> +<br> +Having now so considerable a party of workmen and sailors on the rock, +it may be proper here to notice how their labours were directed. +Preparations having been made last month for the erection of a second +forge upon the beacon, the smiths commenced their operations both upon +the lower and higher platforms. They were employed in sharpening +the picks and irons for the masons, and in making bats and other apparatus +of various descriptions connected with the fitting of the railways. +The landing-master’s crew were occupied in assisting the millwrights +in laying the railways to hand. Sailors, of all other descriptions +of men, are the most accommodating in the use of their hands. +They worked freely with the boring-irons, and assisted in all the operations +of the railways, acting by turns as boatmen, seamen, and artificers. +We had no such character on the Bell Rock as the common labourer. +All the operations of this department were cheerfully undertaken by +the seamen, who, both on the rock and on shipboard, were the inseparable +companions of every work connected with the erection of the Bell Rock +Lighthouse. It will naturally be supposed that about twenty-five +masons, occupied with their picks in executing and preparing the foundation +of the lighthouse, in the course of a tide of about three hours, would +make a considerable impression upon an area even of forty-two feet in +diameter. But in proportion as the foundation was deepened, the +rock was found to be much more hard and difficult to work, while the +baling and pumping of water became much more troublesome. A joiner +was kept almost constantly employed in fitting the picks to their handles, +which, as well as the points to the irons, were very frequently broken.<br> +<br> +The Bell Rock this morning presented by far the most busy and active +appearance it had exhibited since the erection of the principal beams +of the beacon. The surface of the rock was crowded with men, the +two forges flaming, the one above the other, upon the beacon, while +the anvils thundered with the rebounding noise of their wooden supports, +and formed a curious contrast with the occasional clamour of the surges. +The wind was westerly, and the weather being extremely agreeable, as +soon after breakfast as the tide had sufficiently overflowed the rock +to float the boats over it, the smiths, with a number of the artificers, +returned to the beacon, carrying their fishing-tackle along with them. +In the course of the forenoon, the beacon exhibited a still more extraordinary +appearance than the rock had done in the morning. The sea being +smooth, it seemed to be afloat upon the water, with a number of men +supporting themselves in all the variety of attitude and position: while, +from the upper part of this wooden house, the volumes of smoke which +ascended from the forges gave the whole a very curious and fanciful +appearance.<br> +<br> +In the course of this tide it was observed that a heavy swell was setting +in from the eastward, and the appearance of the sky indicated a change +of weather, while the wind was shifting about. The barometer also +had fallen from 30 in. to 29.6. It was, therefore, judged prudent +to shift the vessel to the S.W. or more distant buoy. Her bowsprit +was also soon afterwards taken in, the topmasts struck, and everything +made <i>snug</i>, as seamen term it, for a gale. During the course +of the night the wind increased and shifted to the eastward, when the +vessel rolled very hard, and the sea often broke over her bows with +great force.<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 8th June]<br> +<br> +Although the motion of the tender was much less than that of the floating +light - at least, in regard to the rolling motion - yet she <i>sended</i>, +or pitched, much. Being also of a very handsome build, and what +seamen term very <i>clean</i> <i>aft</i>, the sea often struck the counter +with such force that the writer, who possessed the aftermost cabin, +being unaccustomed to this new vessel, could not divest himself of uneasiness; +for when her stern fell into the sea, it struck with so much violence +as to be more like the resistance of a rock than the sea. The +water, at the same time, often rushed with great force up the rudder-case, +and, forcing up the valve of the water-closet, the floor of his cabin +was at times laid under water. The gale continued to increase, +and the vessel rolled and pitched in such a manner that the hawser by +which the tender was made fast to the buoy snapped, and she went adrift. +In the act of swinging round to the wind she shipped a very heavy sea, +which greatly alarmed the artificers, who imagined that we had got upon +the rock; but this, from the direction of the wind, was impossible. +The writer, however, sprung upon deck, where he found the sailors busily +employed in rigging out the bowsprit and in setting sail. From +the easterly direction of the wind, it was considered most advisable +to steer for the Firth of Forth, and there wait a change of weather. +At two p.m. we accordingly passed the Isle of May, at six anchored in +Leith Roads, and at eight the writer landed, when he came in upon his +friends, who were not a little surprised at his unexpected appearance, +which gave an instantaneous alarm for the safety of things at the Bell +Rock.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 9th June]<br> +<br> +The wind still continued to blow very hard at E. by N., and the <i>Sir +Joseph Banks</i> rode heavily, and even drifted with both anchors ahead, +in Leith Roads. The artificers did not attempt to leave the ship +last night; but there being upwards of fifty people on board, and the +decks greatly lumbered with the two large boats, they were in a very +crowded and impatient state on board. But to-day they got ashore, +and amused themselves by walking about the streets of Edinburgh, some +in very humble apparel, from having only the worst of their jackets +with them, which, though quite suitable for their work, were hardly +fit for public inspection, being not only tattered, but greatly stained +with the red colour of the rock.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 10th June]<br> +<br> +To-day the wind was at S.E., with light breezes and foggy weather. +At six a.m. the writer again embarked for the Bell Rock, when the vessel +immediately sailed. At eleven p.m., there being no wind, the kedge-anchor +was <i>let go</i> off Anstruther, one of the numerous towns on the coast +of Fife, where we waited the return of the tide.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 11th June]<br> +<br> +At six a.m. the <i>Sir Joseph</i> got under weigh, and at eleven was +again made fast to the southern buoy at the Bell Rock. Though +it was now late in the tide, the writer, being anxious to ascertain +the state of things after the gale, landed with the artificers to the +number of forty-four. Everything was found in an entire state; +but, as the tide was nearly gone, only half an hour’s work had +been got when the site of the building was overflowed. In the +evening the boats again landed at nine, and after a good tide’s +work of three hours with torchlight, the work was left off at midnight. +To the distant shipping the appearance of things under night on the +Bell Rock, when the work was going forward, must have been very remarkable, +especially to those who were strangers to the operations. Mr. +John Reid, principal lightkeeper, who also acted as master of the floating +light during the working months at the rock, described the appearance +of numerous lights situated so low in the water, when seen at the distance +of two or three miles, as putting him in mind of Milton’s description +of the fiends in the lower regions, adding, ‘for it seems greatly +to surpass Will-o’-the-Wisp, or any of those earthly spectres +of which we have so often heard.’<br> +<br> +[Monday, 13th June]<br> +<br> +From the difficulties attending the landing on the rock, owing to the +breach of sea which had for days past been around it, the artificers +showed some backwardness at getting into the boats this morning; but +after a little explanation this was got over. It was always observable +that for some time after anything like danger had occurred at the rock, +the workmen became much more cautious, and on some occasions their timidity +was rather troublesome. It fortunately happened, however, that +along with the writer’s assistants and the sailors there were +also some of the artificers themselves who felt no such scruples, and +in this way these difficulties were the more easily surmounted. +In matters where life is in danger it becomes necessary to treat even +unfounded prejudices with tenderness, as an accident, under certain +circumstances, would not only have been particularly painful to those +giving directions, but have proved highly detrimental to the work, especially +in the early stages of its advancement.<br> +<br> +At four o’clock fifty-eight persons landed; but the tides being +extremely languid, the water only left the higher parts of the rock, +and no work could be done at the site of the building. A third +forge was, however, put in operation during a short time, for the greater +conveniency of sharpening the picks and irons, and for purposes connected +with the preparations for fixing the railways on the rock. The +weather towards the evening became thick and foggy, and there was hardly +a breath of wind to ruffle the surface of the water. Had it not, +therefore, been for the noise from the anvils of the smiths who had +been left on the beacon throughout the day, which afforded a guide for +the boats, a landing could not have been attempted this evening, especially +with such a company of artificers. This circumstance confirmed +the writer’s opinion with regard to the propriety of connecting +large bells to be rung with machinery in the lighthouse, to be tolled +day and night during the continuance of foggy weather.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 23rd June]<br> +<br> +The boats landed this evening, when the artificers had again two hours’ +work. The weather still continuing very thick and foggy, more +difficulty was experienced in getting on board of the vessels to-night +than had occurred on any previous occasion, owing to a light breeze +of wind which carried the sound of the bell, and the other signals made +on board of the vessels, away from the rock. Having fortunately +made out the position of the sloop <i>Smeaton</i> at the N.E. buoy - +to which we were much assisted by the barking of the ship’s dog, +- we parted with the <i>Smeaton’s</i> boat, when the boats of +the tender took a fresh departure for that vessel, which lay about half +a mile to the south-westward. Yet such is the very deceiving state +of the tides, that, although there was a small binnacle and compass +in the landing-master’s boat, we had, nevertheless, passed the +<i>Sir Joseph</i> a good way, when, fortunately, one of the sailors +catched the sound of a blowing-horn. The only fire-arms on board +were a pair of swivels of one-inch calibre; but it is quite surprising +how much the sound is lost in foggy weather, as the report was heard +but at a very short distance. The sound from the explosion of +gunpowder is so instantaneous that the effect of the small guns was +not so good as either the blowing of a horn or the tolling of a bell, +which afforded a more constant and steady direction for the pilot.<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 6th July]<br> +<br> +Landed on the rock with the three boats belonging to the tender at five +p.m., and began immediately to bale the water out of the foundation-pit +with a number of buckets, while the pumps were also kept in action with +relays of artificers and seamen. The work commenced upon the higher +parts of the foundation as the water left them, but it was now pretty +generally reduced to a level. About twenty men could be conveniently +employed at each pump, and it is quite astonishing in how short a time +so great a body of water could be drawn off. The water in the +foundation-pit at this time measured about two feet in depth, on an +area of forty-two feet in diameter, and yet it was drawn off in the +course of about half an hour. After this the artificers commenced +with their picks and continued at work for two hours and a half, some +of the sailors being at the same time busily employed in clearing the +foundation of chips and in conveying the irons to and from the smiths +on the beacon, where they were sharped. At eight o’clock +the sea broke in upon us and overflowed the foundation-pit, when the +boats returned to the tender.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 7th July]<br> +<br> +The landing-master’s bell rung this morning about four o’clock, +and at half-past five, the foundation being cleared, the work commenced +on the site of the building. But from the moment of landing, the +squad of joiners and millwrights was at work upon the higher parts of +the rock in laying the railways, while the anvils of the smith resounded +on the beacon, and such columns of smoke ascended from the forges that +they were often mistaken by strangers at a distance for a ship on fire. +After continuing three hours at work the foundation of the building +was again overflowed, and the boats returned to the ship at half-past +eight o’clock. the masons and pickmen had, at this period, a pretty +long day on board of the tender, but the smiths and joiners were kept +constantly at work upon the beacon, the stability and great conveniency +of which had now been so fully shown that no doubt remained as to the +propriety of fitting it up as a barrack. The workmen were accordingly +employed, during the period of high-water, in making preparations for +this purpose.<br> +<br> +The foundation-pit now assumed the appearance of a great platform, and +the late tides had been so favourable that it became apparent that the +first course, consisting of a few irregular and detached stones for +making up certain inequalities in the interior parts of the site of +the building, might be laid in the course of the present spring-tides. +Having been enabled to-day to get the dimensions of the foundation, +or first stone, accurately taken, a mould was made of its figure, when +the writer left the rock, after the tide’s work of this morning, +in a fast rowing-boat for Arbroath; and, upon landing, two men were +immediately set to work upon one of the blocks from Mylnefield quarry, +which was prepared in the course of the following day, as the stone-cutters +relieved each other, and worked both night and day, so that it was sent +off in one of the stone-lighters without delay.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 9th July]<br> +<br> +The site of the foundation-stone was very difficult to work, from its +depth in the rock; but being now nearly prepared, it formed a very agreeable +kind of pastime at high-water for all hands to land the stone itself +upon the rock. The landing-master’s crew and artificers +accordingly entered with great spirit into this operation. The +stone was placed upon the deck of the <i>Hedderwick</i> praam-boat, +which had just been brought from Leith, and was decorated with colours +for the occasion. Flags were also displayed from the shipping +in the offing, and upon the beacon. Here the writer took his station +with the greater part of the artificers, who supported themselves in +every possible position while the boats towed the praam from her moorings +and brought her immediately over the site of the building, where her +grappling anchors were let go. The stone was then lifted off the +deck by a tackle hooked into a Lewis bat inserted into it, when it was +gently lowered into the water and grounded on the site of the building, +amidst the cheering acclamations of about sixty persons.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 10th July]<br> +<br> +At eleven o’clock the foundation-stone was laid to hand. +It was of a square form, containing about twenty cubic feet, and had +the figures, or date, of 1808 simply cut upon it with a chisel. +A derrick, or spar of timber, having been erected at the edge of the +hole and guyed with ropes, the stone was then hooked to the tackle and +lowered into its place, when the writer, attended by his assistants +- Mr. Peter Logan, Mr. Francis Watt, and Mr. James Wilson, - applied +the square, the level, and the mallet, and pronounced the following +benediction: ‘May the great Architect of the Universe complete +and bless this building,’ on which three hearty cheers were given, +and success to the future operations was drunk with the greatest enthusiasm.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 26th July]<br> +<br> +The wind being at S.E. this evening, we had a pretty heavy swell of +sea upon the rock, and some difficulty attended our getting off in safety, +as the boats got aground in the creek and were in danger of being upset. +Upon extinguishing the torchlights, about twelve in number, the darkness +of the night seemed quite horrible; the water being also much charged +with the phosphorescent appearance which is familiar to every one on +shipboard, the waves, as they dashed upon the rock, were in some degree +like so much liquid flame. The scene, upon the whole, was truly +awful!<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 27th July]<br> +<br> +In leaving the rock this evening everything, after the torches were +extinguished, had the same dismal appearance as last night, but so perfectly +acquainted were the landing-master and his crew with the position of +things at the rock, that comparatively little inconveniency was experienced +on these occasions when the weather was moderate; such is the effect +of habit, even in the most unpleasant situations. If, for example, +it had been proposed to a person accustomed to a city life, at once +to take up his quarters off a sunken reef and land upon it in boats +at all hours of the night, the proposition must have appeared quite +impracticable and extravagant; but this practice coming progressively +upon the artificers, it was ultimately undertaken with the greatest +alacrity. Notwithstanding this, however, it must be acknowledged +that it was not till after much labour and peril, and many an anxious +hour, that the writer is enabled to state that the site of the Bell +Rock Lighthouse is fully prepared for the first entire course of the +building.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 12th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The artificers landed this morning at half-past ten, and after an hour +and a half’s work eight stones were laid, which completed the +first entire course of the building, consisting of 123 blocks, the last +of which was laid with three hearty cheers.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 10th Sept.]<br> +<br> +Landed at nine a.m., and by a quarter-past twelve noon twenty-three +stones had been laid. The works being now somewhat elevated by +the lower courses, we got quit of the very serious inconvenience of +pumping water to clear the foundation-pit. This gave much facility +to the operations, and was noticed with expressions of as much happiness +by the artificers as the seamen had shown when relieved of the continual +trouble of carrying the smith’s bellows off the rock prior to +the erection of the beacon.<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 21st Sept.]<br> +<br> +Mr. Thomas Macurich, mate of the <i>Smeaton</i>, and James Scott, one +of the crew, a young man about eighteen years of age, immediately went +into their boat to make fast a hawser to the ring in the top of the +floating buoy of the moorings, and were forthwith to proceed to land +their cargo, so much wanted, at the rock. The tides at this period +were very strong, and the mooring-chain, when sweeping the ground, had +caught hold of a rock or piece of wreck by which the chain was so shortened +that when the tide flowed the buoy got almost under water, and little +more than the ring appeared at the surface. When Macurich and +Scott were in the act of making the hawser fast to the ring, the chain +got suddenly disentangled at the bottom, and this large buoy, measuring +about seven feet in height and three feet in diameter at the middle, +tapering to both ends, being what seamen term a <i>Nun</i>-<i>buoy</i>, +vaulted or sprung up with such force that it upset the boat, which instantly +filled with water. Mr. Macurich, with much exertion, succeeded +in getting hold of the boat’s gunwale, still above the surface +of the water, and by this means was saved; but the young man Scott was +unfortunately drowned. He had in all probability been struck about +the head by the ring of the buoy, for although surrounded with the oars +and the thwarts of the boat which floated near him, yet he seemed entirely +to want the power of availing himself of such assistance, and appeared +to be quite insensible, while Pool, the master of the <i>Smeaton</i>, +called loudly to him; and before assistance could be got from the tender, +he was carried away by the strength of the current and disappeared.<br> +<br> +The young man Scott was a great favourite in the service, having had +something uncommonly mild and complaisant in his manner; and his loss +was therefore universally regretted. The circumstances of his +case were also peculiarly distressing to his mother, as her husband, +who was a seaman, had for three years past been confined to a French +prison, and the deceased was the chief support of the family. +In order in some measure to make up the loss to the poor woman for the +monthly aliment regularly allowed her by her late son, it was suggested +that a younger boy, a brother of the deceased, might be taken into the +service. This appeared to be rather a delicate proposition, but +it was left to the landing-master to arrange according to circumstances; +such was the resignation, and at the same time the spirit, of the poor +woman, that she readily accepted the proposal, and in a few days the +younger Scott was actually afloat in the place of his brother. +On representing this distressing case to the Board, the Commissioners +were pleased to grant an annuity of £5 to Scott’s mother.<br> +<br> +The <i>Smeaton</i>, not having been made fast to the buoy, had, with +the ebb-tide, drifted to leeward a considerable way eastward of the +rock, and could not, till the return of the flood-tide, be worked up +to her moorings, so that the present tide was lost, notwithstanding +all exertions which had been made both ashore and afloat with this cargo. +The artificers landed at six a.m.; but, as no materials could be got +upon the rock this morning, they were employed in boring trenail holes +and in various other operations, and after four hours’ work they +returned on board the tender. When the <i>Smeaton</i> got up to +her moorings, the landing-master’s crew immediately began to unload +her. There being too much wind for towing the praams in the usual +way, they were warped to the rock in the most laborious manner by their +windlasses, with successive grapplings and hawsers laid out for this +purpose. At six p.m. the artificers landed, and continued at work +till half-past ten, when the remaining seventeen stones were laid which +completed the third entire course, or fourth of the lighthouse, with +which the building operations were closed for the season.<br> +<br> +<br> +III - OPERATIONS OF 1809<br> +<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 24th May]<br> +<br> +The last night was the first that the writer, had passed in his old +quarters on board of the floating light for about twelve months, when +the weather was so fine and the sea so smooth that even here he felt +but little or no motion, excepting at the turn of the tide, when the +vessel gets into what the seamen term the <i>trough</i> <i>of the sea</i>. +At six a.m. Mr. Watt, who conducted the operations of the railways and +beacon-house, had landed with nine artificers. At half-past one +p.m. Mr. Peter Logan had also landed with fifteen masons, and immediately +proceeded to set up the crane. The sheer-crane or apparatus for +lifting the stones out of the praam-boats at the eastern creek had been +already erected, and the railways now formed about two-thirds of an +entire circle round the building: some progress had likewise been made +with the reach towards the western landing-place. The floors being +laid, the beacon now assumed the appearance of a habitation. The +<i>Smeaton</i> was at her moorings, with the <i>Fernie</i> praam-boat +astern, for which she was laying down moorings, and the tender being +also at her station, the Bell Rock had again put on its former busy +aspect.<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 31st May]<br> +<br> +The landing-master’s bell, often no very favourite sound, rung +at six this morning; but on this occasion, it is believed, it was gladly +received by all on board, as the welcome signal of the return of better +weather. The masons laid thirteen stones to-day, which the seamen +had landed, together with other building materials. During these +twenty-four hours the wind was from the south, blowing fresh breezes, +accompanied with showers of snow. In the morning the snow showers +were so thick that it was with difficulty the landing-master, who always +steered the leading boat, could make his way to the rock through the +drift. But at the Bell Rock neither snow nor rain, nor fog nor +wind, retarded the progress of the work, if unaccompanied by a heavy +swell or breach of the sea.<br> +<br> +The weather during the months of April and May had been uncommonly boisterous, +and so cold that the thermometer seldom exceeded 40°, while the +barometer was generally about 29.50. We had not only hail and +sleet, but the snow on the last day of May lay on the decks and rigging +of the ship to the depth of about three inches; and, although now entering +upon the month of June, the length of the day was the chief indication +of summer. Yet such is the effect of habit, and such was the expertness +of the landing-master’s crew, that, even in this description of +weather, seldom a tide’s work was lost. Such was the ardour +and zeal of the heads of the several departments at the rock, including +Mr. Peter Logan, foreman builder, Mr. Francis Watt, foreman millwright, +and Captain Wilson, landing-master, that it was on no occasion necessary +to address them, excepting in the way of precaution or restraint. +Under these circumstances, however, the writer not unfrequently felt +considerable anxiety, of which this day’s experience will afford +an example.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 1st June]<br> +<br> +This morning, at a quarter-past eight, the artificers were landed as +usual, and, after three hours and three-quarters’ work, five stones +were laid, the greater part of this tide having been taken up in completing +the boring and trenailing of the stones formerly laid. At noon +the writer, with the seamen and artificers, proceeded to the tender, +leaving on the beacon the joiners, and several of those who were troubled +with sea-sickness - among whom was Mr. Logan, who remained with Mr. +Watt - counting altogether eleven persons. During the first and +middle parts of these twenty-four hours the wind was from the east, +blowing what the seamen term ‘fresh breezes’; but in the +afternoon it shifted to E.N.E., accompanied with so heavy a swell of +sea that the <i>Smeaton</i> and tender struck their topmasts, launched +in their bolt-sprits, and ‘made all snug’ for a gale. +At four p.m. the <i>Smeaton</i> was obliged to slip her moorings, and +passed the tender, drifting before the wind, with only the foresail +set. In passing, Mr. Pool hailed that he must run for the Firth +of Forth to prevent the vessel from ‘riding under.’<br> +<br> +On board of the tender the writer’s chief concern was about the +eleven men left upon the beacon. Directions were accordingly given +that everything about the vessel should be put in the best possible +state, to present as little resistance to the wind as possible, that +she might have the better chance of riding out the gale. Among +these preparations the best bower cable was bent, so as to have a second +anchor in readiness in case the mooring-hawser should give way, that +every means might be used for keeping the vessel within sight of the +prisoners on the beacon, and thereby keep them in as good spirits as +possible. From the same motive the boats were kept afloat that +they might be less in fear of the vessel leaving her station. +The landing-master had, however, repeatedly expressed his anxiety for +the safety of the boats, and wished much to have them hoisted on board. +At seven p.m. one of the boats, as he feared, was unluckily filled with +sea from a wave breaking into her, and it was with great difficulty +that she could be baled out and got on board, with the loss of her oars, +rudder, and loose thwarts. Such was the motion of the ship that +in taking this boat on board her gunwale was stove in, and she otherwise +received considerable damage. Night approached, but it was still +found quite impossible to go near the rock. Consulting, therefore, +the safety of the second boat, she also was hoisted on board of the +tender.<br> +<br> +At this time the cabins of the beacon were only partially covered, and +had neither been provided with bedding nor a proper fireplace, while +the stock of provisions was but slender. In these uncomfortable +circumstances the people on the beacon were left for the night, nor +was the situation of those on board of the tender much better. +The rolling and pitching motion of the ship was excessive; and, excepting +to those who had been accustomed to a residence in the floating light, +it seemed quite intolerable. Nothing was heard but the hissing +of the winds and the creaking of the bulkheads or partitions of the +ship; the night was, therefore, spent in the most unpleasant reflections +upon the condition of the people on the beacon, especially in the prospect +of the tender being driven from her moorings. But, even in such +a case, it afforded some consolation that the stability of the fabric +was never doubted, and that the boats of the floating light were at +no great distance, and ready to render the people on the rock the earliest +assistance which the weather would permit. The writer’s +cabin being in the sternmost part of the ship, which had what sailors +term a good entry, or was sharp built, the sea, as before noticed, struck +her counter with so much violence that the water, with a rushing noise, +continually forced its way up the rudder-case, lifted the valve of the +water-closet, and overran the cabin floor. In these circumstances +daylight was eagerly looked for, and hailed with delight, as well by +those afloat as by the artificers upon the rock.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 2nd June]<br> +<br> +In the course of the night the writer held repeated conversations with +the officer on watch, who reported that the weather continued much in +the same state, and that the barometer still indicated 29.20 inches. +At six a.m. the landing-master considered the weather to have somewhat +moderated; and, from certain appearances of the sky, he was of opinion +that a change for the better would soon take place. He accordingly +proposed to attempt a landing at low-water, and either get the people +off the rock, or at least ascertain what state they were in. At +nine a.m. he left the vessel with a boat well manned, carrying with +him a supply of cooked provisions and a tea-kettle full of mulled port +wine for the people on the beacon, who had not had any regular diet +for about thirty hours, while they were exposed during that period, +in a great measure, both to the winds and the sprays of the sea. +The boat having succeeded in landing, she returned at eleven a.m. with +the artificers, who had got off with considerable difficulty, and who +were heartily welcomed by all on board.<br> +<br> +Upon inquiry it appeared that three of the stones last laid upon the +building had been partially lifted from their beds by the force of the +sea, and were now held only by the trenails, and that the cast-iron +sheer-crane had again been thrown down and completely broken. +With regard to the beacon, the sea at high-water had lifted part of +the mortar gallery or lowest floor, and washed away all the lime-casks +and other movable articles from it; but the principal parts of this +fabric had sustained no damage. On pressing Messrs. Logan and +Watt on the situation of things in the course of the night, Mr. Logan +emphatically said: ‘That the beacon had an <i>ill-faured</i> <a name="citation171a"></a><a href="#footnote171a">{171a}</a> +<i>twist</i> when the sea broke upon it at high-water, but that they +were not very apprehensive of danger.’ On inquiring as to +how they spent the night, it appeared that they had made shift to keep +a small fire burning, and by means of some old sails defended themselves +pretty well from the sea sprays.<br> +<br> +It was particularly mentioned that by the exertions of James Glen, one +of the joiners, a number of articles were saved from being washed off +the mortar gallery. Glen was also very useful in keeping up the +spirits of the forlorn party. In the early part of life he had +undergone many curious adventures at sea, which he now recounted somewhat +after the manner of the tales of the <i>Arabian Nights</i>. When +one observed that the beacon was a most comfortless lodging, Glen would +presently introduce some of his exploits and hardships, in comparison +with which the state of things at the beacon bore an aspect of comfort +and happiness. Looking to their slender stock of provisions, and +their perilous and uncertain chance of speedy relief, he would launch +out into an account of one of his expeditions in the North Sea, when +the vessel, being much disabled in a storm, was driven before the wind +with the loss of almost all their provisions; and the ship being much +infested with rats, the crew hunted these vermin with great eagerness +to help their scanty allowance. By such means Glen had the address +to make his companions, in some measure, satisfied, or at least passive, +with regard to their miserable prospects upon this half-tide rock in +the middle of the ocean. This incident is noticed, more particularly, +to show the effects of such a happy turn of mind, even under the most +distressing and ill-fated circumstances.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 17th June]<br> +<br> +At eight a.m. the artificers and sailors, forty-five in number, landed +on the rock, and after four hours’ work seven stones were laid. +The remainder of this tide, from the threatening appearance of the weather, +was occupied in trenailing and making all things as secure as possible. +At twelve noon the rock and building were again overflowed, when the +masons and seamen went on board of the tender, but Mr. Watt, with his +squad of ten men, remained on the beacon throughout the day. As +it blew fresh from the N.W. in the evening, it was found impracticable +either to land the building artificers or to take the artificers off +the beacon, and they were accordingly left there all night, but in circumstances +very different from those of the 1st of this month. The house, +being now in a more complete state, was provided with bedding, and they +spent the night pretty well, though they complained of having been much +disturbed at the time of high-water by the shaking and tremulous motion +of their house and by the plashing noise of the sea upon mortar gallery. +Here James Glen’s versatile powers were again at work in cheering +up those who seemed to be alarmed, and in securing everything as far +as possible. On this occasion he had only to recall to the recollections +of some of them the former night which they had spent on the beacon, +the wind and sea being then much higher, and their habitation in a far +less comfortable state.<br> +<br> +The wind still continuing to blow fresh from the N.W., at five p.m. +the writer caused a signal to be made from the tender for the <i>Smeaton +and Patriot</i> to slip their moorings, when they ran for Lunan Bay, +an anchorage on the east side of the Redhead. Those on board of +the tender spent but a very rough night, and perhaps slept less soundly +than their companions on the beacon, especially as the wind was at N.W., +which caused the vessel to ride with her stern towards the Bell Rock; +so that, in the event of anything giving way, she could hardly have +escaped being stranded upon it.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 18th June]<br> +<br> +The weather having moderated to-day, the wind shifted to the westward. +At a quarter-past nine a.m. the artificers landed from the tender and +had the pleasure to find their friends who had been left on the rock +quite hearty, alleging that the beacon was the preferable quarters of +the two.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 24th June]<br> +<br> +Mr. Peter Logan, the foreman builder, and his squad, twenty-one in number, +landed this morning at three o’clock, and continued at work four +hours and a quarter, and after laying seventeen stones returned to the +tender. At six a.m. Mr. Francis Watt and his squad of twelve men +landed, and proceeded with their respective operations at the beacon +and railways, and were left on the rock during the whole day without +the necessity of having any communication with the tender, the kitchen +of the beacon-house being now fitted up. It was to-day, also, +that Peter Fortune - a most obliging and well-known character in the +Lighthouse service - was removed from the tender to the beacon as cook +and steward, with a stock of provisions as ample as his limited store-room +would admit.<br> +<br> +When as many stones were built as comprised this day’s work, the +demand for mortar was proportionally increased, and the task of the +mortar-makers on these occasions was both laborious and severe. +This operation was chiefly performed by John Watt - a strong, active +quarrier by profession, - who was a perfect character in his way, and +extremely zealous in his department. While the operations of the +mortar-makers continued, the forge upon the gallery was not generally +in use; but, as the working hours of the builders extended with the +height of the building, the forge could not be so long wanted, and then +a sad confusion often ensued upon the circumscribed floor of the mortar +gallery, as the operations of Watt and his assistants trenched greatly +upon those of the smiths. Under these circumstances the boundary +of the smiths was much circumscribed, and they were personally annoyed, +especially in blowy weather, with the dust of the lime in its powdered +state. The mortar-makers, on the other hand, were often not a +little distressed with the heat of the fire and the sparks elicited +on the anvil, and not unaptly complained that they were placed between +the ‘devil and the deep sea.’<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 25th June]<br> +<br> +The work being now about ten feet in height, admitted of a rope-ladder +being distended <a name="citation174a"></a><a href="#footnote174a">{174a}</a> +between the beacon and the building. By this ‘Jacob’s +Ladder,’ as the seamen termed it, a communication was kept up +with the beacon while the rock was considerably under water. One +end of it being furnished with tackle-blocks, was fixed to the beams +of the beacon, at the level of the mortar gallery, while the further +end was connected with the upper course of the building by means of +two Lewis bats which were lifted from course to course as the work advanced. +In the same manner a rope furnished with a travelling pulley was distended +for the purpose of transporting the mortar-buckets, and other light +articles between the beacon and the building, which also proved a great +conveniency to the work. At this period the rope-ladder and tackle +for the mortar had a descent from the beacon to the building; by and +by they were on a level, and towards the end of the season, when the +solid part had attained its full height, the ascent was from the mortar +gallery to the building.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 30th June]<br> +<br> +The artificers landed on the rock this morning at a quarter-past six, +and remained at work five hours. The cooking apparatus being now +in full operation, all hands had breakfast on the beacon at the usual +hour, and remained there throughout the day. The crane upon the +building had to be raised to-day from the eighth to the ninth course, +an operation which now required all the strength that could be mustered +for working the guy-tackles; for as the top of the crane was at this +time about thirty-five feet above the rock, it became much more unmanageable. +While the beam was in the act of swinging round from one guy to another, +a great strain was suddenly brought upon the opposite tackle, with the +end of which the artificers had very improperly neglected to take a +turn round some stationary object, which would have given them the complete +command of the tackle. Owing to this simple omission, the crane +got a preponderancy to one side, and fell upon the building with a terrible +crash. The surrounding artificers immediately flew in every direction +to get out of its way; but Michael Wishart, the principal builder, having +unluckily stumbled upon one of the uncut trenails, fell upon his back. +His body fortunately got between the movable beam and the upright shaft +of the crane, and was thus saved; but his feet got entangled with the +wheels of the crane and were severely injured. Wishart, being +a robust young man, endured his misfortune with wonderful firmness; +he was laid upon one of the narrow framed beds of the beacon and despatched +in a boat to the tender, where the writer was when this accident happened, +not a little alarmed on missing the crane from the top of the building, +and at the same time seeing a boat rowing towards the vessel with great +speed. When the boat came alongside with poor Wishart, stretched +upon a bed covered with blankets, a moment of great anxiety followed, +which was, however, much relieved when, on stepping into the boat, he +was accosted by Wishart, though in a feeble voice, and with an aspect +pale as death from excessive bleeding. Directions having been +immediately given to the coxswain to apply to Mr. Kennedy at the workyard +to procure the best surgical aid, the boat was sent off without delay +to Arbroath. The writer then landed at the rock, when the crane +was in a very short time got into its place and again put in a working +state.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 3rd July]<br> +<br> +The writer having come to Arbroath with the yacht, had an opportunity +of visiting Michael Wishart, the artificer who had met with so severe +an accident at the rock on the 30th ult., and had the pleasure to find +him in a state of recovery. From Dr. Stevenson’s account, +under whose charge he had been placed, hopes were entertained that amputation +would not be necessary, as his patient still kept free of fever or any +appearance of mortification; and Wishart expressed a hope that he might, +at least, be ultimately capable of keeping the light at the Bell Rock, +as it was not now likely that he would assist further in building the +house.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 8th July]<br> +<br> +It was remarked to-day, with no small demonstration of joy, that the +tide, being neap, did not, for the first time, overflow the building +at high-water. Flags were accordingly hoisted on the beacon-house, +and crane on the top of the building, which were repeated from the floating +light, Lighthouse yacht, tender, <i>Smeaton, Patriot</i>, and the two +praams. A salute of three guns was also fired from the yacht at +high-water, when, all the artificers being collected on the top of the +building, three cheers were given in testimony of this important circumstance. +A glass of rum was then served out to all hands on the rock and on board +of the respective ships.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 16th July]<br> +<br> +Besides laying, boring, trenailing, wedging, and grouting thirty-two +stones, several other operations were proceeded with on the rock at +low-water, when some of the artificers were employed at the railways, +and at high-water at the beacon-house. The seamen having prepared +a quantity of tarpaulin, or cloth laid over with successive coats of +hot tar, the joiners had just completed the covering of the roof with +it. This sort of covering was lighter and more easily managed +than sheet-lead in such a situation. As a further defence against +the weather the whole exterior of this temporary residence was painted +with three coats of white-lead paint. Between the timber framing +of the habitable part of the beacon the interstices were to be stuffed +with moss, as a light substance that would resist dampness and check +sifting winds; the whole interior was then to be lined with green baize +cloth, so that both without and within the cabins were to have a very +comfortable appearance.<br> +<br> +Although the building artificers generally remained on the rock throughout +the day, and the millwrights, joiners, and smiths, while their number +was considerable, remained also during the night, yet the tender had +hitherto been considered as their night quarters. But the wind +having in the course of the day shifted to the N.W., and as the passage +to the tender, in the boats, was likely to be attended with difficulty, +the whole of the artificers, with Mr. Logan, the foreman, preferred +remaining all night on the beacon, which had of late become the solitary +abode of George-Forsyth, a jobbing upholsterer, who had been employed +in lining the beacon-house with cloth and in fitting up the bedding. +Forsyth was a tall, thin, and rather loose-made man, who had an utter +aversion at climbing upon the trap-ladders of the beacon, but especially +at the process of boating, and the motion of the ship, which he said +‘was death itself.’ He therefore pertinaciously insisted +with the landing-master in being left upon the beacon, with a small +black dog as his only companion. The writer, however, felt some +delicacy in leaving a single individual upon the rock, who must have +been so very helpless in case of accident. This fabric had, from +the beginning, been rather intended by the writer to guard against accident +from the loss or damage of a boat, and as a place for making mortar, +a smith’s shop, and a store for tools during the working months, +than as permanent quarters; nor was it at all meant to be possessed +until tile joiner-work was completely finished, and his own cabin, and +that for the foreman, in readiness, when it was still to be left to +the choice of the artificers to occupy the tender or the beacon. +He, however, considered Forsyth’s partiality and confidence in +the latter as rather a fortunate occurrence.<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 19th July]<br> +<br> +The whole of the artificers, twenty-three in number, now removed of +their own accord from the tender, to lodge in the beacon, together with +Peter Fortune, a person singularly adapted for a residence of this kind, +both from the urbanity of his manners and the versatility of his talents. +Fortune, in his person, was of small stature, and rather corpulent. +Besides being a good Scots cook, he had acted both as groom and house-servant; +he had been a soldier, a sutler, a writer’s clerk, and an apothecary, +from which he possessed the art of writing and suggesting recipes, and +had hence, also, perhaps, acquired a turn for making collections in +natural history. But in his practice in surgery on the Bell Rock, +for which he received an annual fee of three guineas, he is supposed +to have been rather partial to the use of the lancet. In short, +Peter was the <i>factotum</i> of the beacon-house, where he ostensibly +acted in the several capacities of cook, steward, surgeon, and barber, +and kept a statement of the rations or expenditure of the provisions +with the strictest integrity.<br> +<br> +In the present important state of the building, when it had just attained +the height of sixteen feet, and the upper courses, and especially the +imperfect one, were in the wash of the heaviest seas, an express boat +arrived at the rock with a letter from Mr. Kennedy, of the workyard, +stating that in consequence of the intended expedition to Walcheren, +an embargo had been laid on shipping at all the ports of Great Britain: +that both the <i>Smeaton</i> and <i>Patriot</i> were detained at Arbroath, +and that but for the proper view which Mr. Ramsey, the port officer, +had taken of his orders, neither the express boat nor one which had +been sent with provisions and necessaries for the floating light would +have been permitted to leave the harbour. The writer set off without +delay for Arbroath, and on landing used every possible means with the +official people, but their orders were deemed so peremptory that even +boats were not permitted to sail from any port upon the coast. +In the meantime, the collector of the Customs at Montrose applied to +the Board at Edinburgh, but could, of himself, grant no relief to the +Bell Rock shipping.<br> +<br> +At this critical period Mr. Adam Duff, then Sheriff of Forfarshire, +now of the county of Edinburgh, and <i>ex officio</i> one of the Commissioners +of the Northern Lighthouses, happened to be at Arbroath. Mr. Duff +took an immediate interest in representing the circumstances of the +case to the Board of Customs at Edinburgh. But such were the doubts +entertained on the subject that, on having previously received the appeal +from the collector at Montrose, the case had been submitted to the consideration +of the Lords of the Treasury, whose decision was now waited for.<br> +<br> +In this state of things the writer felt particularly desirous to get +the thirteenth course finished, that the building might be in a more +secure state in the event of bad weather. An opportunity was therefore +embraced on the 25th, in sailing with provisions for the floating light, +to carry the necessary stones to the rock for this purpose, which were +landed and built on the 26th and 27th. But so closely was the +watch kept up that a Custom-house officer was always placed on board +of the <i>Smeaton</i> and <i>Patriot</i> while they were afloat, till +the embargo was especially removed from the lighthouse vessels. +The artificers at the Bell Rock had been reduced to fifteen, who were +regularly supplied with provisions, along with the crew of the floating +light, mainly through the port officer’s liberal interpretation +of his orders.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 1st Aug.]<br> +<br> +There being a considerable swell and breach of sea upon the rock yesterday, +the stones could not be got landed till the day following, when the +wind shifted to the southward and the weather improved. But to-day +no less than seventy-eight blocks of stone were landed, of which forty +were built, which completed the fourteenth and part of the fifteenth +courses. The number of workmen now resident in the beacon-house +was augmented to twenty-four, including the landing-master’s crew +from the tender and the boat’s crew from the floating light, who +assisted at landing the stones. Those daily at work upon the rock +at this period amounted to forty-six. A cabin had been laid out +for the writer on the beacon, but his apartment had been the last which +was finished, and he had not yet taken possession of it; for though +he generally spent the greater part of the day, at this time, upon the +rock, yet he always slept on board of the tender.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 11th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The wind was at S. E. on the 11th, and there was so very heavy a swell +of sea upon the rock that no boat could approach it.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 12th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The gale still continuing from the S.E., the sea broke with great violence +both upon the building and the beacon. The former being twenty-three +feet in height, the upper part of the crane erected on it having been +lifted from course to course as the building advanced, was now about +thirty-six feet above the rock. From observations made on the +rise of the sea by this crane, the artificers were enabled to estimate +its height to be about fifty feet above the rock, while the sprays fell +with a most alarming noise upon their cabins. At low-water, in +the evening, a signal was made from the beacon, at the earnest desire +of some of the artificers, for the boats to come to the rock; and although +this could not be effected without considerable hazard, it was, however, +accomplished, when twelve of their number, being much afraid, applied +to the foreman to be relieved, and went on board of the tender. +But the remaining fourteen continued on the rock, with Mr. Peter Logan, +the foreman builder. Although this rule of allowing an option +to every man either to remain on the rock or return to the tender was +strictly adhered to, yet, as it would have been extremely inconvenient +to have the men parcelled out in this manner, it became necessary to +embrace the first opportunity of sending those who had left the beacon +to the workyard, with as little appearance of intention as possible, +lest it should hurt their feelings, or prevent others from acting according +to their wishes, either in landing on the rock or remaining on the beacon.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 15th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The wind had fortunately shifted to the S.W. this morning, and though +a considerable breach was still upon the rock, yet the landing-master’s +crew were enabled to get one praam-boat, lightly loaded with five stones, +brought in safety to the western creek; these stones were immediately +laid by the artificers, who gladly embraced the return of good weather +to proceed with their operations. The writer had this day taken +possession of his cabin in the beacon-house. It was small, but +commodious, and was found particularly convenient in coarse and blowing +weather, instead of being obliged to make a passage to the tender in +an open boat at all times, both during the day and the night, which +was often attended with much difficulty and danger.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 19th Aug.]<br> +<br> +For some days past the weather had been occasionally so thick and foggy +that no small difficulty was experienced in going even between the rock +and the tender, though quite at hand. But the floating light’s +boat lost her way so far in returning on board that the first land she +made, after rowing all night, was Fifeness, a distance of about fourteen +miles. The weather having cleared in the morning, the crew stood +off again for the floating light, and got on board in a half-famished +and much exhausted state, having been constantly rowing for about sixteen +hours.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 20th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The weather being very favourable to-day, fifty-three stones were landed, +and the builders were not a little gratified in having built the twenty-second +course, consisting of fifty-one stones, being the first course which +had been completed in one day. This, as a matter of course, produced +three hearty cheers. At twelve noon prayers were read for the +first time on the Bell Rock; those present, counting thirty, were crowded +into the upper apartment of the beacon, where the writer took a central +position, while two of the artificers, joining hands, supported the +Bible.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 25th Aug.]<br> +<br> +To-day the artificers laid forty-five stones, which completed the twenty-fourth +course, reckoning above the first entire one, and the twenty-sixth above +the rock. This finished the solid part of the building, and terminated +the height of the outward casing of granite, which is thirty-one feet +six inches above the rock or site of the foundation-stone, and about +seventeen feet above high-water of spring-tides. Being a particular +crisis in the progress of the lighthouse, the landing and laying of +the last stone for the season was observed with the usual ceremonies.<br> +<br> +From observations often made by the writer, in so far as such can be +ascertained, it appears that no wave in the open seas, in an unbroken +state, rises more than from seven to nine feet above the general surface +of the ocean. The Bell Rock Lighthouse may therefore now be considered +at from eight to ten feet above the height of the waves; and, although +the sprays and heavy seas have often been observed, in the present state +of the building, to rise to the height of fifty feet, and fall with +a tremendous noise on the beacon-house, yet such seas were not likely +to make any impression on a mass of solid masonry, containing about +1400 tons,<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 30th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The whole of the artificers left the rock at mid-day, when the tender +made sail for Arbroath, which she reached about six p.m. The vessel +being decorated with colours, and having fired a salute of three guns +on approaching the harbour, the workyard artificers, with a multitude +of people, assembled at the harbour, when mutual cheering and congratulations +took place between those afloat and those on the quays. The tender +had now, with little exception, been six months on the station at the +Bell Rock, and during the last four months few of the squad of builders +had been ashore. In particular, Mr. Peter Logan, the foreman, +and Mr. Robert Selkirk, principal builder, had never once left the rock. +The artificers, having made good wages during their stay, like seamen +upon a return voyage, were extremely happy, and spent the evening with +much innocent mirth and jollity.<br> +<br> +In reflecting upon the state of the matters at the Bell Rock during +the working months, when the writer was much with the artificers, nothing +can equal the happy manner in which these excellent workmen spent their +time. They always went from Arbroath to their arduous task cheering +and they generally returned in the same hearty state. While at +the rock, between the tides, they amused themselves in reading, fishing, +music, playing cards, draughts, etc., or in sporting with one another. +In the workyard at Arbroath the young men were almost, without exception, +employed in the evening at school, in writing and arithmetic, and not +a few were learning architectural drawing, for which they had every +convenience and facility, and were, in a very obliging manner, assisted +in their studies by Mr. David Logan, clerk of the works. It therefore +affords the most pleasing reflections to look back upon the pursuits +of about sixty individuals who for years conducted themselves, on all +occasions, in a sober and rational manner.<br> +<br> +<br> +IV - OPERATIONS OF 1810<br> +<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 10th May]<br> +<br> +The wind had shifted to-day to W.N.W., when the writer, with considerable +difficulty, was enabled to land upon the rock for the first time this +season, at ten a.m. Upon examining the state of the building, +and apparatus in general, he had the satisfaction to find everything +in good order. The mortar in all the joints was perfectly entire. +The building, now thirty feet in height, was thickly coated with <i>fuci</i> +to the height of about fifteen feet, calculating from the rock: on the +eastern side, indeed, the growth of seaweed was observable to the full +height of thirty feet, and even on the top or upper bed of the last-laid +course, especially towards the eastern side, it had germinated, so as +to render walking upon it somewhat difficult.<br> +<br> +The beacon-house was in a perfectly sound state, and apparently just +as it had been left in the month of November. But the tides being +neap, the lower parts, particularly where the beams rested on the rock, +could not now be seen. The floor of the mortar gallery having +been already laid down by Mr. Watt and his men on a former visit, was +merely soaked with the sprays; but the joisting-beams which supported +it had, in the course of the winter, been covered with a fine downy +conferva produced by the range of the sea. They were also a good +deal whitened with the mute of the cormorant and other sea-fowls, which +had roosted upon the beacon in winter. Upon ascending to the apartments, +it was found that the motion of the sea had thrown open the door of +the cook-house: this was only shut with a single latch, that in case +of shipwreck at the Bell Rock the mariner might find ready access to +the shelter of this forlorn habitation, where a supply of provisions +was kept; and being within two miles and a half of the floating light, +a signal could readily be observed, when a boat might be sent to his +relief as the weather permitted. An arrangement for this purpose +formed one of the instructions on board of the floating light, but happily +no instance occurred for putting it in practice. The hearth or +fireplace of the cook-house was built of brick in as secure a manner +as possible, to prevent accident from fire; but some of the plaster-work +had shaken loose, from its damp state and the tremulous motion of the +beacon in stormy weather. The writer next ascended to the floor +which was occupied by the cabins of himself and his assistants, which +were in tolerably good order, having only a damp and musty smell. +The barrack for the artificers, over all, was next visited; it had now +a very dreary and deserted appearance when its former thronged state +was recollected. In some parts the water had come through the +boarding, and had discoloured the lining of green cloth, but it was, +nevertheless, in a good habitable condition. While the seamen +were employed in landing a stock of provisions, a few of the artificers +set to work with great eagerness to sweep and clean the several apartments. +The exterior of the beacon was, in the meantime, examined, and found +in perfect order. The painting, though it had a somewhat blanched +appearance, adhered firmly both on the sides and roof, and only two +or three panes of glass were broken in the cupola, which had either +been blown out by the force of the wind, or perhaps broken by sea-fowl.<br> +<br> +Having on this occasion continued upon the building and beacon a considerable +time after the tide had begun to flow, the artificers were occupied +in removing the forge from the top of the building, to which the gangway +or wooden bridge gave great facility; and, although it stretched or +had a span of forty-two feet, its construction was extremely simple, +while the road-way was perfectly firm and steady. In returning +from this visit to the rock every one was pretty well soused in spray +before reaching the tender at two o’clock p.m., where things awaited +the landing party in as comfortable a way as such a situation would +admit.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 11th May]<br> +<br> +The wind was still easterly, accompanied with rather a heavy swell of +sea for the operations in hand. A landing was, however, made this +morning, when the artificers were immediately employed in scraping the +seaweed off the upper course of the building, in order to apply the +moulds of the first course of the staircase, that the joggle-holes might +be marked off in the upper course of the solid. This was also +necessary previously to the writer’s fixing the position of the +entrance door, which was regulated chiefly by the appearance of the +growth of the seaweed on the building, indicating the direction of the +heaviest seas, on the opposite side of which the door was placed. +The landing-master’s crew succeeded in towing into the creek on +the western side of the rock the praam-boat with the balance-crane, +which had now been on board of the praam for five days. The several +pieces of this machine, having been conveyed along the railways upon +the waggons to a position immediately under the bridge, were elevated +to its level, or thirty feet above the rock, in the following manner. +A chain-tackle was suspended over a pulley from the cross-beam connecting +the tops of the kingposts of the bridge, which was worked by a winch-machine +with wheel, pinion, and barrel, round which last the chain was wound. +This apparatus was placed on the beacon side of the bridge, at the distance +of about twelve feet from the cross-beam and pulley in the middle of +the bridge. Immediately under the cross-beam a hatch was formed +in the roadway of the bridge, measuring seven feet in length and five +feet in breadth, made to shut with folding boards like a double door, +through which stones and other articles were raised; the folding doors +were then let down, and the stone or load was gently lowered upon a +waggon which was wheeled on railway trucks towards the lighthouse. +In this manner the several castings of the balance-crane were got up +to the top of the solid of the building.<br> +<br> +The several apartments of the beacon-house having been cleaned out and +supplied with bedding, a sufficient stock of provisions was put into +the store, when Peter Fortune, formerly noticed, lighted his fire in +the beacon for the first time this season. Sixteen artificers +at the same time mounted to their barrack-room, and all the foremen +of the works also took possession of their cabin, all heartily rejoiced +at getting rid of the trouble of boating and the sickly motion of the +tender.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 12th May]<br> +<br> +The wind was at E.N.E., blowing so fresh, and accompanied with so much +sea, that no stones could be landed to-day. The people on the +rock, however, were busily employed in screwing together the balance-crane, +cutting out the joggle-holes in the upper course, and preparing all +things for commencing the building operations.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 13th May]<br> +<br> +The weather still continues boisterous, although the barometer has all +the while stood at about 30 inches. Towards evening the wind blew +so fresh at E. by S. that the boats both of the <i>Smeaton</i> and tender +were obliged to be hoisted in, and it was feared that the <i>Smeaton</i> +would have to slip her moorings. The people on the rock were seen +busily employed, and had the balance-crane apparently ready for use, +but no communication could be had with them to-day.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 14th May]<br> +<br> +The wind continued to blow so fresh, and the <i>Smeaton</i> rode so +heavily with her cargo, that at noon a signal was made for her getting +under weigh, when she stood towards Arbroath; and on board of the tender +we are still without any communication with the people on the rock, +where the sea was seen breaking over the top of the building in great +sprays, and raging with much agitation among the beams of the beacon.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 17th May]<br> +<br> +The wind, in the course of the day, had shifted from north to west; +the sea being also considerably less, a boat landed on the rock at six +p.m., for the first time since the 11th, with the provisions and water +brought off by the <i>Patriot</i>. The inhabitants of the beacon +were all well, but tired above measure for want of employment, as the +balance-crane and apparatus was all in readiness. Under these +circumstances they felt no less desirous of the return of good weather +than those afloat, who were continually tossed with the agitation of +the sea. The writer, in particular, felt himself almost as much +fatigued and worn-out as he had been at any period since the commencement +of the work. The very backward state of the weather at so advanced +a period of the season unavoidably created some alarm, lest he should +be overtaken with bad weather at a late period of the season, with the +building operations in an unfinished state. These apprehensions +were, no doubt, rather increased by the inconveniences of his situation +afloat, as the tender rolled and pitched excessively at times. +This being also his first off-set for the season, every bone of his +body felt sore with preserving a sitting posture while he endeavoured +to pass away the time in reading; as for writing, it was wholly impracticable. +He had several times entertained thoughts of leaving the station for +a few days and going into Arbroath with the tender till the weather +should improve; but as the artificers had been landed on the rock he +was averse to this at the commencement of the season, knowing also that +he would be equally uneasy in every situation till the first cargo was +landed: and he therefore resolved to continue at his post until this +should be effected.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 18th May]<br> +<br> +The wind being now N.W., the sea was considerably run down, and this +morning at five o’clock the landing-master’s crew, thirteen +in number, left the tender; and having now no detention with the landing +of artificers, they proceeded to unmoor the <i>Hedderwick</i> praam-boat, +and towed her alongside of the <i>Smeaton</i>: and in the course of +the day twenty-three blocks of stone, three casks of pozzolano, three +of sand, three of lime, and one of Roman cement, together with three +bundles of trenails and three of wedges, were all landed on the rock +and raised the top of the building by means of the tackle suspended +from the cross-beam on the middle of the bridge. The stones were +then moved along the bridge on the waggon to the building within reach +of the balance-crane, with which they were laid in their respective +places on the building. The masons immediately thereafter proceeded +to bore the trenail-holes into the course below, and otherwise to complete +the one in hand. When the first stone was to be suspended by the +balance-crane, the bell on the beacon was rung, and all the artificers +and seamen were collected on the building. Three hearty cheers +were given while it was lowered into its place, and the steward served +round a glass of rum, when success was drunk to the further progress +of the building.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 20th May]<br> +<br> +The wind was southerly to-day, but there was much less sea than yesterday, +and the landing-master’s crew were enabled to discharge and land +twenty-three pieces of stone and other articles for the work. +The artificers had completed the laying of the twenty-seventh or first +course of the staircase this morning, and in the evening they finished +the boring, trenailing, wedging, and grouting it with mortar. +At twelve o’clock noon the beacon-house bell was rung, and all +hands were collected on the top of the building, where prayers were +read for the first time on the lighthouse, which forcibly struck every +one, and had, upon the whole, a very impressive effect.<br> +<br> +From the hazardous situation of the beacon-house with regard to fire, +being composed wholly of timber, there was no small risk from accident: +and on this account one of the most steady of the artificers was appointed +to see that the fire of the cooking-house, and the lights in general, +were carefully extinguished at stated hours.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 4th June]<br> +<br> +This being the birthday of our much-revered Sovereign King George III, +now in the fiftieth year of his reign, the shipping of the Lighthouse +service were this morning decorated with colours according to the taste +of their respective captains. Flags were also hoisted upon the +beacon-house and balance-crane on the top of the building. At +twelve noon a salute was fired from the tender, when the King’s +health was drunk, with all the honours, both on the rock and on board +of the shipping.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 5th June]<br> +<br> +As the lighthouse advanced in height, the cubical contents of the stones +were less, but they had to be raised to a greater height; and the walls, +being thinner, were less commodious for the necessary machinery and +the artificers employed, which considerably retarded the work. +Inconvenience was also occasionally experienced from the men dropping +their coats, hats, mallets, and other tools, at high-water, which were +carried away by the tide; and the danger to the people themselves was +now greatly increased. Had any of them fallen from the beacon +or building at high-water, while the landing-master’s crew were +generally engaged with the craft at a distance, it must have rendered +the accident doubly painful to those on the rock, who at this time had +no boat, and consequently no means of rendering immediate and prompt +assistance. In such cases it would have been too late to have +got a boat by signal from the tender. A small boat, which could +be lowered at pleasure, was therefore suspended by a pair of davits +projected from the cook-house, the keel being about thirty feet from +the rock. This boat, with its tackle was put under the charge +of James Glen, of whose exertions on the beacon mention has already +been made, and who, having in early life been a seaman, was also very +expert in the management of a boat. A life-buoy was likewise suspended +from the bridge, to which a coil of line two hundred fathoms in length +was attached, which could be let out to a person falling into the water, +or to the people in the boat, should they not be able to work her with +the oars.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 7th June]<br> +<br> +To-day twelve stones were landed on the rock, being the remainder of +the <i>Patriot’s</i> cargo; and the artificers built the thirty-ninth +course, consisting of fourteen stones. The Bell Rock works had +now a very busy appearance, as the lighthouse was daily getting more +into form. Besides the artificers and their cook, the writer and +his servant were also lodged on the beacon, counting in all twenty-nine; +and at low-water the landing-master’s crew, consisting of from +twelve to fifteen seamen, were employed in transporting the building +materials, working the landing apparatus on the rock, and dragging the +stone waggons along the railways.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 8th June]<br> +<br> +In the course of this day the weather varied much. In the morning +it was calm, in the middle part of the day there were light airs of +wind from the south, and in the evening fresh breezes from the east. +The barometer in the writer’s cabin in the beacon-house oscillated +from 30 inches to 30.42, and the weather was extremely pleasant. +This, in any situation, forms one of the chief comforts of life; but, +as may easily be conceived, it was doubly so to people stuck, as it +were, upon a pinnacle in the middle of the ocean.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 10th June]<br> +<br> +One of the praam-boats had been brought to the rock with eleven stones, +notwithstanding the perplexity which attended the getting of those formerly +landed taken up to the building. Mr. Peter Logan, the foreman +builder, interposed, and prevented this cargo from being delivered; +but the landing-master’s crew were exceedingly averse to this +arrangement, from an idea that “ill luck” would in future +attend the praam, her cargo, and those who navigated her, from thus +reversing her voyage. It may be noticed that this was the first +instance of a praam-boat having been sent from the Bell Rock with any +part of her cargo on board, and was considered so uncommon an occurrence +that it became a topic of conversation among the seamen and artificers.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 12th June]<br> +<br> +To-day the stones formerly sent from the rock were safely landed, notwithstanding +the augury of the seamen in consequence of their being sent away two +days before.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 14th June]<br> +<br> +To-day twenty-seven stones and eleven joggle-pieces were landed, part +of which consisted of the forty-seventh course, forming the storeroom +floor. The builders were at work this morning by four o’clock, +in the hopes of being able to accomplish the laying of the eighteen +stones of this course. But at eight o’clock in the evening +they had still two to lay, and as the stones of this course were very +unwieldy, being six feet in length, they required much precaution and +care both in lifting and laying them. It was only on the writer’s +suggestion to Mr. Logan that the artificers were induced to leave off, +as they had intended to complete this floor before going to bed. +The two remaining stones were, however, laid in their places without +mortar when the bell on the beacon was rung, and, all hands being collected +on the top of the building, three hearty cheers were given on covering +the first apartment. The steward then served out a dram to each, +when the whole retired to their barrack much fatigued, but with the +anticipation of the most perfect repose even in the “hurricane-house,” +amidst the dashing seas on the Bell Rock.<br> +<br> +While the workmen were at breakfast and dinner it was the writer’s +usual practice to spend his time on the walls of the building, which, +notwithstanding the narrowness of the track, nevertheless formed his +principal walk when the rock was under water. But this afternoon +he had his writing-desk set upon the storeroom floor, when he wrote +to Mrs. Stevenson - certainly the first letter dated from the Bell Rock +<i>Lighthouse</i> - giving a detail of the fortunate progress of the +work with an assurance that the lighthouse would soon be completed at +the rate at which it now proceeded; and, the <i>Patriot</i> having sailed +for Arbroath in the evening, he felt no small degree of pleasure in +despatching this communication to his family.<br> +<br> +The weather still continuing favourable for the operations at the rock, +the work proceeded with much energy, through the exertions both of the +seamen and artificers. For the more speedy and effectual working +of the several tackles in raising the materials as the building advanced +in height, and there being a great extent of railway to attend to, which +required constant repairs, two additional millwrights were added to +the complement on the rock, which, including the writer, now counted +thirty-one in all. So crowded was the men’s barrack that +the beds were ranged five tier in height, allowing only about one foot +eight inches for each bed. The artificers commenced this morning +at five o’clock, and, in the course of the day, they laid the +forty-eighth and forty-ninth courses, consisting each of sixteen blocks. +From the favourable state of the weather, and the regular manner in +which the work now proceeded, the artificers had generally from four +to seven extra hours’ work, which, including their stated wages +of 3s. 4d., yielded them from 5s. 4d. to about 6s. 10d. per day besides +their board; even the postage of their letters was paid while they were +at the Bell Rock. In these advantages the foremen also shared, +having about double the pay and amount of premiums of the artificers. +The seamen being less out of their element in the Bell Rock operations +than the landsmen, their premiums consisted in a slump sum payable at +the end of the season, which extended from three to ten guineas.<br> +<br> +As the laying of the floors was somewhat tedious, the landing-master +and his crew had got considerably beforehand with the building artificers +in bringing materials faster to the rock than they could be built. +The seamen having, therefore, some spare time, were occasionally employed +during fine weather in dredging or grappling for the several mushroom +anchors and mooring-chains which had been lost in the vicinity of the +Bell Rock during the progress of the work by the breaking loose and +drifting of the floating buoys. To encourage their exertions in +this search, five guineas were offered as a premium for each set they +should find; and, after much patient application, they succeeded to-day +in hooking one of these lost anchors with its chain.<br> +<br> +It was a general remark at the Bell Rock, as before noticed, that fish +were never plenty in its neighbourhood excepting in good weather. +Indeed, the seamen used to speculate about the state of the weather +from their success in fishing. When the fish disappeared at the +rock, it was considered a sure indication that a gale was not far off, +as the fish seemed to seek shelter in deeper water from the roughness +of the sea during these changes in the weather. At this time the +rock, at high-water, was completely covered with podlies, or the fry +of the coal-fish, about six or eight inches in length. The artificers +sometimes occupied half an hour after breakfast and dinner in catching +these little fishes, but were more frequently supplied from the boats +of the tender.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 16th June]<br> +<br> +The landing-master having this day discharged the <i>Smeaton</i> and +loaded the <i>Hedderwick and Dickie</i> praam-boats with nineteen stones, +they were towed to their respective moorings, when Captain Wilson, in +consequence of the heavy swell of sea, came in his boat to the beacon-house +to consult with the writer as to the propriety of venturing the loaded +praam-boats with their cargoes to the rock while so much sea was running. +After some dubiety expressed on the subject, in which the ardent mind +of the landing-master suggested many arguments in favour of his being +able to convey the praams in perfect safety, it was acceded to. +In bad weather, and especially on occasions of difficulty like the present, +Mr. Wilson, who was an extremely active seaman, measuring about five +feet three inches in height, of a robust habit, generally dressed himself +in what he called a <i>monkey jacket</i>, made of thick duffle cloth, +with a pair of Dutchman’s petticoat trousers, reaching only to +his knees, where they were met with a pair of long water-tight boots; +with this dress, his glazed hat, and his small brass speaking trumpet +in his hand, he bade defiance to the weather. When he made his +appearance in this most suitable attire for the service his crew seemed +to possess additional life, never failing to use their utmost exertions +when the captain put on his <i>storm rigging</i>. They had this +morning commenced loading the praam-boats at four o’clock, and +proceeded to tow them into the eastern landing-place, which was accomplished +with much dexterity, though not without the risk of being thrown, by +the force of the sea, on certain projecting ledges of the rock. +In such a case the loss even of a single stone would have greatly retarded +the work. For the greater safety in entering the creek it was +necessary to put out several warps and guy-ropes to guide the boats +into its narrow and intricate entrance; and it frequently happened that +the sea made a clean breach over the praams, which not only washed their +decks, but completely drenched the crew in water.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 17th June]<br> +<br> +It was fortunate, in the present state of the weather, that the fiftieth +course was in a sheltered spot, within the reach of the tackle of the +winch-machine upon the bridge; a few stones were stowed upon the bridge +itself, and the remainder upon the building, which kept the artificers +at work. The stowing of the materials upon the rock was the department +of Alexander Brebner, mason, who spared no pains in attending to the +safety of the stones, and who, in the present state of the work, when +the stones were landed faster than could be built, generally worked +till the water rose to his middle. At one o’clock to-day +the bell rung for prayers, and all hands were collected into the upper +barrack-room of the beacon-house, when the usual service was performed.<br> +<br> +The wind blew very hard in the course of last night from N.E., and to-day +the sea ran so high that no boat could approach the rock. During +the dinner-hour, when the writer was going to the top of the building +as usual, but just as he had entered the door and was about to ascend +the ladder, a great noise was heard overhead, and in an instant he was +soused in water from a sea which had most unexpectedly come over the +walls, though now about fifty-eight feet in height. On making +his retreat he found himself completely whitened by the lime, which +had mixed with the water while dashing down through the different floors; +and, as nearly as he could guess, a quantity equal to about a hogshead +had come over the walls, and now streamed out at the door. After +having shifted himself, he again sat down in his cabin, the sea continuing +to run so high that the builders did not resume their operations on +the walls this afternoon. The incident just noticed did not create +more surprise in the mind of the writer than the sublime appearance +of the waves as they rolled majestically over the rock. This scene +he greatly enjoyed while sitting at his cabin window; each wave approached +the beacon like a vast scroll unfolding; and in passing discharged a +quantity of air, which he not only distinctly felt, but was even sufficient +to lift the leaves of a book which lay before him. These waves +might be ten or twelve feet in height, and about 250 feet in length, +their smaller end being towards the north, where the water was deep, +and they were opened or cut through by the interposition of the building +and beacon. The gradual manner in which the sea, upon these occasions, +is observed to become calm or to subside, is a very remarkable feature +of this phenomenon. For example, when a gale is succeeded by a +calm, every third or fourth wave forms one of these great seas, which +occur in spaces of from three to five minutes, as noted by the writer’s +watch; but in the course of the next tide they become less frequent, +and take off so as to occur only in ten or fifteen minutes; and, singular +enough, at the third tide after such gales, the writer has remarked +that only one or two of these great waves appear in the course of the +whole tide.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 19th June]<br> +<br> +The 19th was a very unpleasant and disagreeable day, both for the seamen +and artificers, as it rained throughout with little intermission from +four a.m. till eleven p.m., accompanied with thunder and lightning, +during which period the work nevertheless continued unremittingly, and +the builders laid the fifty-first and fifty-second courses. This +state of weather was no less severe upon the mortar-makers, who required +to temper or prepare the mortar of a thicker or thinner consistency, +in some measure, according to the state of the weather. From the +elevated position of the building, the mortar gallery on the beacon +was now much lower, and the lime-buckets were made to traverse upon +a rope distended between it and the building. On occasions like +the present, however, there was often a difference of opinion between +the builders and the mortar-makers. John Watt, who had the principal +charge of the mortar, was a most active worker, but, being somewhat +of an irascible temper, the builders occasionally amused themselves +at his expense; for while he was eagerly at work with his large iron-shod +pestle in the mortar-tub, they often sent down contradictory orders, +some crying, ‘Make it a little stiffer, or thicker, John,’ +while others called out to make it ‘thinner,’ to which he +generally returned very speedy and sharp replies, so that these conversations +at times were rather amusing.<br> +<br> +During wet weather the situation of the artificers on the top of the +building was extremely disagreeable; for although their work did not +require great exertion, yet, as each man had his particular part to +perform, either in working the crane or in laying the stones, it required +the closest application and attention, not only on the part of Mr. Peter +Logan, the foreman, who was constantly on the walls, but also of the +chief workmen. Robert Selkirk, the principal builder, for example, +had every stone to lay in its place. David Cumming, a mason, had +the charge of working the tackle of the balance-weight, and James Scott, +also a mason, took charge of the purchase with which the stones were +laid; while the pointing the joints of the walls with cement was intrusted +to William Reid and William Kennedy, who stood upon a scaffold suspended +over the walls in rather a frightful manner. The least act of +carelessness or inattention on the part of any of these men might have +been fatal, not only to themselves, but also to the surrounding workmen, +especially if any accident had happened to the crane itself, while the +material damage or loss of a single stone would have put an entire stop +to the operations until another could have been brought from Arbroath. +The artificers, having wrought seven and a half hours of extra time +to-day, had 3s. 9d. of extra pay, while the foremen had 7s. 6d. over +and above their stated pay and board. Although, therefore, the +work was both hazardous and fatiguing, yet, the encouragement being +considerable, they were always very cheerful, and perfectly reconciled +to the confinement and other disadvantages of the place.<br> +<br> +During fine weather, and while the nights were short, the duty on board +of the floating light was literally nothing but a waiting on, and therefore +one of her boats, with a crew of five men, daily attended the rock, +but always returned to the vessel at night. The carpenter, however, +was one of those who was left on board of the ship, as he also acted +in the capacity of assistant lightkeeper, being, besides, a person who +was apt to feel discontent and to be averse to changing his quarters, +especially to work with the millwrights and joiners at the rock, who +often, for hours together, wrought knee-deep, and not unfrequently up +to the middle, in water. Mr. Watt having about this time made +a requisition for another hand, the carpenter was ordered to attend +the rock in the floating light’s boat. This he did with +great reluctance, and found so much fault that he soon got into discredit +with his messmates. On this occasion he left the Lighthouse service, +and went as a sailor in a vessel bound for America - a step which, it +is believed, he soon regretted, as, in the course of things, he would, +in all probability, have accompanied Mr. John Reid, the principal lightkeeper +of the floating light, to the Bell Rock Lighthouse as his principal +assistant. The writer had a wish to be of service to this man, +as he was one of those who came off to the floating light in the month +of September 1807, while she was riding at single anchor after the severe +gale of the 7th, at a time when it was hardly possible to make up this +vessel’s crew; but the crossness of his manner prevented his reaping +the benefit of such intentions.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 22nd June]<br> +<br> +The building operations had for some time proceeded more slowly, from +the higher parts of the lighthouse requiring much longer time than an +equal tonnage of the lower courses. The duty of the landing-master’s +crew had, upon the whole, been easy of late; for though the work was +occasionally irregular, yet the stones being lighter, they were more +speedily lifted from the hold of the stone vessel to the deck of the +praam-boat, and again to the waggons on the railway, after which they +came properly under the charge of the foreman builder. It is, +however, a strange, though not an uncommon, feature in the human character, +that, when people have least to complain of, they are most apt to become +dissatisfied, as was now the case with the seamen employed in the Bell +Rock service about their rations of beer. Indeed, ever since the +carpenter of the floating light, formerly noticed, had been brought +to the rock, expressions of discontent had been manifested upon various +occasions. This being represented to the writer, he sent for Captain +Wilson, the landing-master, and Mr. Taylor, commander of the tender, +with whom he talked over the subject. They stated that they considered +the daily allowance of the seamen in every respect ample, and that, +the work being now much lighter than formerly, they had no just ground +for complaint; Mr. Taylor adding that, if those who now complained ‘were +even to be fed upon soft bread and turkeys, they would not think themselves +right.’ At twelve noon the work of the landing-master’s +crew was completed for the day; but at four o’clock, while the +rock was under water, those on the beacon were surprised by the arrival +of a boat from the tender without any signal having been made from the +beacon. It brought the following note to the writer from the landing-master’s +crew:-<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>‘Sir Joseph Banks Tender.<br> +<br> +</i>‘SIR, - We are informed by our masters that our allowance +is to be as before, and it is not sufficient to serve us, for we have +been at work since four o’clock this morning, and we have come +on board to dinner, and there is no beer for us before to-morrow morning, +to which a sufficient answer is required before we go from the beacon; +and we are, Sir, your most obedient servants.’<br> +<br> +<br> +On reading this, the writer returned a verbal message, intimating that +an answer would be sent on board of the tender, at the same time ordering +the boat instantly to quit the beacon. He then addressed the following +note to the landing-master:-<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>‘Beacon-house, 22nd June</i> 1810<i>,<br> +Five o’clock p.m.<br> +<br> +</i>‘SIR, - I have just now received a letter purporting to be +from the landing-master’s crew and seamen on board of the <i>Sir +Joseph Banks</i>, though without either date or signature; in answer +to which I enclose a statement of the daily allowance of provisions +for the seamen in this service, which you will post up in the ship’s +galley, and at seven o’clock this evening I will come on board +to inquire into this unexpected and most unnecessary demand for an additional +allowance of beer. In the enclosed you will not find any alteration +from the original statement, fixed in the galley at the beginning of +the season. I have, however, judged this mode of giving your people +an answer preferable to that of conversing with them on the beacon. +- I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, ROBERT STEVENSON.<br> +<br> +‘To CAPTAIN WILSON.’<br> +<br> +<i>‘Beacon House, 22nd June</i> 1810. - Schedule of the daily +allowance of provisions to be served out on board of the <i>Sir Joseph +Banks</i> tender: “1½ lb. beef; 1 lb. bread; 8 oz. oatmeal; +2 oz. barley; 2 oz. butter; 3 quarts beer; vegetables and salt no stated +allowance. When the seamen are employed in unloading the <i>Smeaton</i> +and <i>Patriot</i>, a draught of beer is, as formerly, to be allowed +from the stock of these vessels. Further, in wet and stormy weather, +or when the work commences very early in the morning, or continues till +a late hour at night, a glass of spirits will also be served out to +the crew as heretofore, on the requisition of the landing-master.” +ROBERT STEVENSON.’<br> +<br> +<br> +On writing this letter and schedule, a signal was made on the beacon +for the landing-master’s boat, which immediately came to the rock, +and the schedule was afterwards stuck up in the tender’s galley. +When sufficient time had been allowed to the crew to consider of their +conduct, a second signal was made for a boat, and at seven o’clock +the writer left the Bell Rock, after a residence of four successive +weeks in the beacon-house. The first thing which occupied his +attention on board of the tender was to look round upon the lighthouse, +which he saw, with some degree of emotion and surprise, now vying in +height with the beacon-house; for although he had often viewed it from +the extremity of the western railway on the rock, yet the scene, upon +the whole, seemed far more interesting from the tender’s moorings +at the distance of about half a mile.<br> +<br> +The <i>Smeaton</i> having just arrived at her moorings with a cargo, +a signal was made for Captain Pool to come on board of the tender, that +he might be at hand to remove from the service any of those who might +persist in their discontented conduct. One of the two principal +leaders in this affair, the master of one of the praam-boats, who had +also steered the boat which brought the letter to the beacon, was first +called upon deck, and asked if he had read the statement fixed up in +the galley this afternoon, and whether he was satisfied with it. +He replied that he had read the paper, but was not satisfied, as it +held out no alteration in the allowance, on which he was immediately +ordered into the <i>Smeaton’s</i> boat. The next man called +had but lately entered the service, and, being also interrogated as +to his resolution, he declared himself to be of the same mind with the +praam-master, and was also forthwith ordered into the boat. The +writer, without calling any more of the seamen, went forward to the +gangway, where they were collected and listening to what was passing +upon deck. He addressed them at the hatchway, and stated that +two of their companions had just been dismissed the service and sent +on board of the <i>Smeaton</i> to be conveyed to Arbroath. He +therefore wished each man to consider for himself how far it would be +proper, by any unreasonableness of conduct, to place themselves in a +similar situation, especially as they were aware that it was optional +in him either to dismiss them or send them on board a man-of-war. +It might appear that much inconveniency would be felt at the rock by +a change of hands at this critical period, by checking for a time the +progress of a building so intimately connected with the best interests +of navigation; yet this would be but of a temporary nature, while the +injury to themselves might be irreparable. It was now therefore, +required of any man who, in this disgraceful manner, chose to leave +the service, that he should instantly make his appearance on deck while +the <i>Smeaton’s</i> boat was alongside. But those below +having expressed themselves satisfied with their situation-viz., William +Brown, George Gibb, Alexander Scott, John Dick, Robert Couper, Alexander +Shephard, James Grieve, David Carey, William Pearson, Stuart Eaton, +Alexander Lawrence, and John Spink - were accordingly considered as +having returned to their duty. This disposition to mutiny, which +had so strongly manifested itself, being now happily suppressed, Captain +Pool got orders to proceed for Arbroath Bay, and land the two men he +had on board, and to deliver the following letter at the office of the +workyard:-<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>‘On board of the Tender off the Bell Rock,<br> +22nd June</i> 1810<i>, eight o’clock p.m.<br> +<br> +</i>‘DEAR SIR, - A discontented and mutinous spirit having manifested +itself of late among the landing-master’s crew, they struck work +to-day and demanded an additional allowance of beer, and I have found +it necessary to dismiss D-d and M-e, who are now sent on shore with +the <i>Smeaton</i>. You will therefore be so good as to pay them +their wages, including this day only. Nothing can be more unreasonable +than the conduct of the seamen on this occasion, as the landing-master’s +crew not only had their allowance on board of the tender, but, in the +course of this day, they had drawn no fewer than twenty-four quart pots +of beer from the stock of the <i>Patriot</i> while unloading her. +- I remain, yours truly, ROBERT STEVENSON.<br> +<br> +‘To Mr. LACHLAN KENNEDY,<br> +Bell Rock Office, Arbroath.’<br> +<br> +<br> +On despatching this letter to Mr. Kennedy, the writer returned to the +beacon about nine o’clock, where this afternoon’s business +had produced many conjectures, especially when the <i>Smeaton</i> got +under weigh, instead of proceeding to land her cargo. The bell +on the beacon being rung, the artificers were assembled on the bridge, +when the affair was explained to them. He, at the same time, congratulated +them upon the first appearance of mutiny being happily set at rest by +the dismissal of its two principal abettors.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 24th June]<br> +<br> +At the rock the landing of the materials and the building operations +of the light-room store went on successfully, and in a way similar to +those of the provision store. To-day it blew fresh breezes; but +the seamen nevertheless landed twenty-eight stones, and the artificers +built the fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth courses. The works were +visited by Mr. Murdoch, junior, from Messrs. Boulton and Watt’s +works of Soho. He landed just as the bell rung for prayers, after +which the writer enjoyed much pleasure from his very intelligent conversation; +and, having been almost the only stranger he had seen for some weeks, +he parted with him, after a short interview, with much regret.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 28th June]<br> +<br> +Last night the wind had shifted to north-east, and, blowing fresh, was +accompanied with a heavy surf upon the rock. Towards high-water +it had a very grand and wonderful appearance. Waves of considerable +magnitude rose as high as the solid or level of the entrance-door, which, +being open to the south-west, was fortunately to the leeward; but on +the windward side the sprays flew like lightning up the sloping sides +of the building; and although the walls were now elevated sixty-four +feet above the rock, and about fifty-two feet from high-water mark, +yet the artificers were nevertheless wetted, and occasionally interrupted, +in their operations on the top of the walls. These appearances +were, in a great measure, new at the Bell Rock, there having till of +late been no building to conduct the seas, or object to compare with +them. Although, from the description of the Eddystone Lighthouse, +the mind was prepared for such effects, yet they were not expected to +the present extent in the summer season; the sea being most awful to-day, +whether observed from the beacon or the building. To windward, +the sprays fell from the height above noticed in the most wonderful +cascades, and streamed down the walls of the building in froth as white +as snow. To leeward of the lighthouse the collision or meeting +of the waves produced a pure white kind of <i>drift</i>; it rose about +thirty feet in height, like a fine downy mist, which, in its fall, fell +upon the face and hands more like a dry powder than a liquid substance. +The effect of these seas, as they raged among the beams and dashed upon +the higher parts of the beacon, produced a temporary tremulous motion +throughout the whole fabric, which to a stranger must have been frightful.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 1st July]<br> +<br> +The writer had now been at the Bell Rock since the latter end of May, +or about six weeks, during four of which he had been a constant inhabitant +of the beacon without having been once off the rock. After witnessing +the laying of the sixty-seventh or second course of the bedroom apartment, +he left the rock with the tender and went ashore, as some arrangements +were to be made for the future conduct of the works at Arbroath, which +were soon to be brought to a close; the landing-master’s crew +having, in the meantime, shifted on board of the <i>Patriot</i>. +In leaving the rock, the writer kept his eyes fixed upon the lighthouse, +which had recently got into the form of a house, having several tiers +or stories of windows. Nor was he unmindful of his habitation +in the beacon - now far overtopped by the masonry, - where he had spent +several weeks in a kind of active retirement, making practical experiment +of the fewness of the positive wants of man. His cabin measured +not more than four feet three inches in breadth on the floor; and though, +from the oblique direction of the beams of the beacon, it widened towards +the top, yet it did not admit of the full extension of his arms when +he stood on the floor; while its length was little more than sufficient +for suspending a cot-bed during the night, calculated for being triced +up to the roof through the day, which left free room for the admission +of occasional visitants. His folding table was attached with hinges, +immediately under the small window of the apartment, and his books, +barometer, thermometer, portmanteau, and two or three camp-stools, formed +the bulk of his movables. His diet being plain, the paraphernalia +of the table were proportionally simple; though everything had the appearance +of comfort, and even of neatness, the walls being covered with green +cloth formed into panels with red tape, and his bed festooned with curtains +of yellow cotton-stuff. If, in speculating upon the abstract wants +of man in such a state of exclusion, one were reduced to a single book, +the Sacred Volume - whether considered for the striking diversity of +its story, the morality of its doctrine, or the important truths of +its gospel - would have proved by far the greatest treasure.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 2nd July]<br> +<br> +In walking over the workyard at Arbroath this morning, the writer found +that the stones of the course immediately under the cornice were all +in hand, and that a week’s work would now finish the whole, while +the intermediate courses lay ready numbered and marked for shipping +to the rock. Among other subjects which had occupied his attention +to-day was a visit from some of the relations of George Dall, a young +man who had been impressed near Dundee in the month of February last; +a dispute had arisen between the magistrates of that burgh and the Regulating +Officer as to his right of impressing Dall, who was <i>bonâ fide</i> +one of the protected seamen in the Bell Rock service. In the meantime, +the poor lad was detained, and ultimately committed to the prison of +Dundee, to remain until the question should be tried before the Court +of Session. His friends were naturally very desirous to have him +relieved upon bail. But, as this was only to be done by the judgment +of the Court, all that could be said was that his pay and allowances +should be continued in the same manner as if he had been upon the sick-list. +The circumstances of Dall’s case were briefly these:- He had gone +to see some of his friends in the neighbourhood of Dundee, in winter, +while the works were suspended, having got leave of absence from Mr. +Taylor, who commanded the Bell Rock tender, and had in his possession +one of the Protection Medals. Unfortunately, however, for Dall, +the Regulating Officer thought proper to disregard these documents, +as, according to the strict and literal interpretation of the Admiralty +regulations, a seaman does not stand protected unless he is actually +on board of his ship, or in a boat belonging to her, or has the Admiralty +protection in his possession. This order of the Board, however, +cannot be rigidly followed in practice; and therefore, when the matter +is satisfactorily stated to the Regulating Officer, the impressed man +is generally liberated. But in Dall’s case this was peremptorily +refused, and he was retained at the instance of the magistrates. +The writer having brought the matter under the consideration of the +Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses, they authorised it to be +tried on the part of the Lighthouse Board, as one of extreme hardship. +The Court, upon the first hearing, ordered Dall to be liberated from +prison; and the proceedings never went further.<br> +<br> +[Wednesday, 4th July]<br> +<br> +Being now within twelve courses of being ready for building the cornice, +measures were taken for getting the stones of it and the parapet-wall +of the light-room brought from Edinburgh, where, as before noticed, +they had been prepared and were in readiness for shipping. The +honour of conveying the upper part of the lighthouse, and of landing +the last stone of the building on the rock, was considered to belong +to Captain Pool of the <i>Smeaton</i>, who had been longer in the service +than the master of the <i>Patriot</i>. The <i>Smeaton</i> was, +therefore, now partly loaded with old iron, consisting of broken railways +and other lumber which had been lying about the rock. After landing +these at Arbroath, she took on board James Craw, with his horse and +cart, which could now be spared at the workyard, to be employed in carting +the stones from Edinburgh to Leith. Alexander Davidson and William +Kennedy, two careful masons, were also sent to take charge of the loading +of the stones at Greenside, and stowing them on board of the vessel +at Leith. The writer also went on board, with a view to call at +the Bell Rock and to take his passage up the Firth of Forth. The +wind, however, coming to blow very fresh from the eastward, with thick +and foggy weather, it became necessary to reef the mainsail and set +the second jib. When in the act of making a tack towards the tender, +the sailors who worked the head-sheets were, all of a sudden, alarmed +with the sound of the smith’s hammer and anvil on the beacon, +and had just time to put the ship about to save her from running ashore +on the northwestern point of the rock, marked ‘James Craw’s +Horse.’ On looking towards the direction from whence the +sound came, the building and beacon-house were seen, with consternation, +while the ship was hailed by those on the rock, who were no less confounded +at seeing the near approach of the <i>Smeaton</i>; and, just as the +vessel cleared the danger, the smith and those in the mortar gallery +made signs in token of their happiness at our fortunate escape. +From this occurrence the writer had an experimental proof of the utility +of the large bells which were in preparation to be rung by the machinery +of the revolving light; for, had it not been the sound of the smith’s +anvil, the <i>Smeaton</i>, in all probability, would have been wrecked +upon the rock. In case the vessel had struck, those on board might +have been safe, having now the beacon-house, as a place of refuge; but +the vessel, which was going at a great velocity, must have suffered +severely, and it was more than probable that the horse would have been +drowned, there being no means of getting him out of the vessel. +Of this valuable animal and his master we shall take an opportunity +of saying more in another place.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 5th July]<br> +<br> +The weather cleared up in the course of the night, but the wind shifted +to the N.E. and blew very fresh. From the force of the wind, being +now the period of spring-tides, a very heavy swell was experienced at +the rock. At two o’clock on the following morning the people +on the beacon were in a state of great alarm about their safety, as +the sea had broke up part of the floor of the mortar gallery!, which +was thus cleared of the lime-casks and other buoyant articles; and, +the alarm-bell being rung, all hands were called to render what assistance +was in their power for the safety of themselves and the materials. +At this time some would willingly have left the beacon and gone into +the building: the sea, however, ran so high that there was no passage +along the bridge of communication, and, when the interior of the lighthouse +came to be examined in the morning, it appeared that great quantities +of water had come over the walls - now eighty feet in height - and had +run down through the several apartments and out at the entrance door.<br> +<br> +The upper course of the lighthouse at the workyard of Arbroath was completed +on the 6th, and the whole of the stones were, therefore, now ready for +being shipped to the rock. From the present state of the works +it was impossible that the two squads of artificers at Arbroath and +the Bell Rock could meet together at this period; and as in public works +of this kind, which had continued for a series of years, it is not customary +to allow the men to separate without what is termed a “finishing-pint,” +five guineas were for this purpose placed at the disposal of Mr. David +Logan, clerk of works. With this sum the stone-cutters at Arbroath +had a merry meeting in their barrack, collected their sweethearts and +friends, and concluded their labours with a dance. It was remarked, +however, that their happiness on this occasion was not without alloy. +The consideration of parting and leaving a steady and regular employment, +to go in quest of work and mix with other society, after having been +harmoniously lodged for years together in one large “guildhall +or barrack,” was rather painful.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 6th July]<br> +<br> +While the writer was at Edinburgh he was fortunate enough to meet with +Mrs. Dickson, only daughter of the late celebrated Mr. Smeaton, whose +works at the Eddystone Lighthouse had been of such essential consequence +to the operations at the Bell Rock. Even her own elegant accomplishments +are identified with her father’s work, she having herself made +the drawing of the vignette on the title-page of the <i>Narrative of</i> +<i>the Eddystone Lighthouse</i>. Every admirer of the works of +that singularly eminent man must also feel an obligation to her for +the very comprehensive and distinct account given of his life, which +is attached to his reports, published, in three volumes quarto, by the +Society of Civil Engineers. Mrs. Dickson, being at this time returning +from a tour to the Hebrides and Western Highlands of Scotland, had heard +of the Bell Rock works, and from their similarity to those of the Eddystone +was strongly impressed with a desire of visiting the spot. But +on inquiring for the writer at Edinburgh, and finding from him that +the upper part of the lighthouse, consisting of nine courses, might +be seen in the immediate vicinity, and also that one of the vessels +which, in compliment to her father’s memory, had been named the +<i>Smeaton</i>, might also now be seen in Leith, she considered herself +extremely fortunate; and having first visited the works at Greenside, +she afterwards went to Leith to see the <i>Smeaton</i>, then loading +for the Bell Rock. On stepping on board, Mrs. Dickson seemed to +be quite overcome with so many concurrent circumstances, tending in +a peculiar manner to revive and enliven the memory of her departed father, +and, on leaving the vessel, she would not be restrained from presenting +the crew with a piece of money. The <i>Smeaton</i> had been named +spontaneously, from a sense of the obligation which a public work of +the description of the Bell Rock owed to the labours and abilities of +Mr. Smeaton. The writer certainly never could have anticipated +the satisfaction which he this day felt in witnessing the pleasure it +afforded to the only representative of this great man’s family.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 20th July]<br> +<br> +The gale from the N.E. still continued so strong, accompanied with a +heavy sea, that the <i>Patriot</i> could not approach her moorings; +and although the tender still kept her station, no landing was made +to-day at the rock. At high-water it was remarked that the spray +rose to the height of about sixty feet upon the building. The +<i>Smeaton</i> now lay in Leith loaded, but, the wind and weather being +so unfavourable for her getting down the Firth, she did not sail till +this afternoon. It may be here proper to notice that the loading +of the centre of the light-room floor, or last principal stone of the +building, did not fail, when put on board, to excite an interest among +those connected with the work. When the stone was laid upon the +cart to be conveyed to Leith, the seamen fixed an ensign-staff and flag +into the circular hole in the centre of the stone, and decorated their +own hats, and that of James Craw, the Bell Rock carter, with ribbons; +even his faithful and trusty horse Brassey was ornamented with bows +and streamers of various colours. The masons also provided themselves +with new aprons, and in this manner the cart was attended in its progress +to the ship. When the cart came opposite the Trinity House of +Leith, the officer of that corporation made his appearance dressed in +his uniform, with his staff of office; and when it reached the harbour, +the shipping in the different tiers where the <i>Smeaton</i> lay hoisted +their colours, manifesting by these trifling ceremonies the interest +with which the progress of this work was regarded by the public, as +ultimately tending to afford safety and protection to the mariner. +The wind had fortunately shifted to the S.W., and about five o’clock +this afternoon the <i>Smeaton</i> reached the Bell Rock.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 27th July]<br> +<br> +The artificers had finished the laying of the balcony course, excepting +the centre-stone of the light-room floor, which, like the centres of +the other floors, could not be laid in its place till after the removal +of the foot and shaft of the balance-crane. During the dinner-hour, +when the men were off work the writer generally took some exercise by +walking round the walls when the rock was under water; but to-day his +boundary was greatly enlarged, for, instead of the narrow wall as a +path, he felt no small degree of pleasure in walking round the balcony +and passing out and in at the space allotted for the light-room door. +In the labours of this day both the artificers and seamen felt their +work to be extremely easy compared with what it had been for some days +past.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 29th July]<br> +<br> +Captain Wilson and his crew had made preparations for landing the last +stone, and, as may well be supposed, this was a day of great interest +at the Bell Rock. ‘That it might lose none of its honours,’ +as he expressed himself, the <i>Hedderwick</i> praam-boat, with which +the first stone of the building had been landed, was appointed also +to carry the last. At seven o’clock this evening the seamen +hoisted three flags upon the <i>Hedderwick</i>, when the colours of +the <i>Dickie</i> praam-boat, tender, <i>Smeaton</i>, floating light, +beacon-house, and lighthouse were also displayed; and, the weather being +remarkably fine, the whole presented a very gay appearance, and, in +connection with the associations excited, the effect was very pleasing. +The praam which carried the stone was towed by the seamen in gallant +style to the rock, and, on its arrival, cheers were given as a finale +to the landing department.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 30th July]<br> +<br> +The ninetieth or last course of the building having been laid to-day, +which brought the masonry to the height of one hundred and two feet +six inches, the lintel of the light-room door, being the finishing-stone +of the exterior walls, was laid with due formality by the writer, who, +at the same time, pronounced the following benediction: “May the +Great Architect of the Universe, under whose blessing this perilous +work has prospered, preserve it as a guide to the mariner.”<br> +<br> +[Friday, 3rd Aug.]<br> +<br> +At three p.m., the necessary preparations having been made, the artificers +commenced the completing of the floors of the several apartments, and +at seven o’clock the centre-stone of the light-room floor was +laid, which may be held as finishing the masonry of this important national +edifice. After going through the usual ceremonies observed by +the brotherhood on occasions of this kind, the writer, addressing himself +to the artificers and seamen who were present, briefly alluded to the +utility of the undertaking as a monument of the wealth of British commerce, +erected through the spirited measures of the Commissioners of the Northern +Lighthouses by means of the able assistance of those who now surrounded +him. He then took an opportunity of stating that toward those +connected with this arduous work he would ever retain the most heartfelt +regard in all their interests.<br> +<br> +[Saturday, 4th Aug.]<br> +<br> +When the bell was rung as usual on the beacon this morning, every one +seemed as if he were at a loss what to make of himself. At this +period the artificers at the rock consisted of eighteen masons, two +joiners, one millwright, one smith, and one mortar-maker, besides Messrs. +Peter Logan and Francis Watt, foremen, counting in all twenty-five; +and matters were arranged for proceeding to Arbroath this afternoon +with all hands. The <i>Sir Joseph Banks</i> tender had by this +time been afloat, with little intermission, for six months, during greater +part of which the artificers had been almost constantly off at the rock, +and were now much in want of necessaries of almost every description. +Not a few had lost different articles of clothing, which had dropped +into the sea from the beacon and building. Some wanted jackets; +others, from want of hats, wore nightcaps; each was, in fact, more or +less curtailed in his wardrobe, and it must be confessed that at best +the party were but in a very tattered condition. This morning +was occupied in removing the artificers and their bedding on board of +the tender; and although their personal luggage was easily shifted, +the boats had, nevertheless, many articles to remove from the beacon-house, +and were consequently employed in this service till eleven a.m. +All hands being collected and just ready to embark, as the water had +nearly overflowed the rock, the writer, in taking leave, after alluding +to the harmony which had ever marked the conduct of those employed on +the Bell Rock, took occasion to compliment the great zeal, attention, +and abilities of Mr. Peter Logan and Mr. Francis Watt, foremen; Captain +James Wilson, landing-master; and Captain David Taylor, commander of +the tender, who, in their several departments, had so faithfully discharged +the duties assigned to them, often under circumstances the most difficult +and trying. The health of these gentlemen was drunk with much +warmth of feeling by the artificers and seamen, who severally expressed +the satisfaction they had experienced in acting under them; after which +the whole party left the rock.<br> +<br> +In sailing past the floating light mutual compliments were made by a +display of flags between that vessel and the tender; and at five p.m. +the latter vessel entered the harbour of Arbroath, where the party were +heartily welcomed by a numerous company of spectators, who had collected +to see the artificers arrive after so long an absence from the port. +In the evening the writer invited the foremen and captains of the service, +together with Mr. David Logan, clerk of works at Arbroath, and Mr. Lachlan +Kennedy, engineer’s clerk and book-keeper, and some of their friends, +to the principal inn, where the evening was spent very happily; and +after ‘His Majesty’s Health’ and ‘The Commissioners +of the Northern Lighthouses’ had been given, ‘Stability +to the Bell Rock Lighthouse’ was hailed as a standing toast in +the Lighthouse service.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 5th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The author has formerly noticed the uniformly decent and orderly deportment +of the artificers who were employed at the Bell Rock Lighthouse, and +to-day, it is believed, they very generally attended church, no doubt +with grateful hearts for the narrow escapes from personal danger which +all of them had more or less experienced during their residence at the +rock.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 14th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The <i>Smeaton</i> sailed to-day at one p.m., having on board sixteen +artificers, with Mr. Peter Logan, together with a supply of provisions +and necessaries, who left the harbour pleased and happy to find themselves +once more afloat in the Bell Rock service. At seven o’clock +the tender was made fast to her moorings, when the artificers landed +on the rock and took possession of their old quarters in the beacon-house, +with feelings very different from those of 1807, when the works commenced.<br> +<br> +The barometer for some days past had been falling from 29.90, and to-day +it was 29.50, with the wind at N.E., which, in the course of this day, +increased to a strong gale accompanied with a sea which broke with great +violence upon the rock. At twelve noon the tender rode very heavily +at her moorings, when her chain broke at about ten fathoms from the +ships bows. The kedge-anchor was immediately let go, to hold her till +the floating buoy and broken chain should be got on board. But +while this was in operation the hawser of the kedge was chafed through +on the rocky bottom and parted, when the vessel was again adrift. +Most fortunately, however, she cast off with her head from the rock, +and narrowly cleared it, when she sailed up the Firth of Forth to wait +the return of better weather. The artificers were thus left upon +the rock with so heavy a sea running that it was ascertained to have +risen to a height of eighty feet on the building. Under such perilous +circumstances it would be difficult to describe the feelings of those +who, at this time, were cooped up in the beacon in so forlorn a situation, +with the sea not only raging under them, but occasionally falling from +a great height upon the roof of their temporary lodging, without even +the attending vessel in view to afford the least gleam of hope in the +event of any accident. It is true that they now had the masonry +of the lighthouse to resort to, which, no doubt, lessened the actual +danger of their situation; but the building was still without a roof, +and the deadlights, or storm-shutters, not being yet fitted, the windows +of the lower story were stove in and broken, and at high-water the sea +ran in considerable quantities out at the entrance door.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 16th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The gale continues with unabated violence to-day, and the sprays rise +to a still greater height, having been carried over the masonry of the +building, or about ninety feet above the level of the sea. At +four o’clock this morning it was breaking into the cook’s +berth, when he rang the alarm-bell, and all hands turned out to attend +to their personal safety. The floor of the smith’s, or mortar +gallery, was now completely burst up by the force of the sea, when the +whole of the deals and the remaining articles upon the floor were swept +away, such as the cast-iron mortar-tubs, the iron hearth of the forge, +the smith’s bellows, and even his anvil were thrown down upon +the rock. Before the tide rose to its full height to-day some +of the artificers passed along the bridge into the lighthouse, to observe +the effects of the sea upon it, and they reported that they had felt +a slight tremulous motion in the building when great seas struck it +in a certain direction, about high-water mark. On this occasion +the sprays were again observed to wet the balcony, and even to come +over the parapet wall into the interior of the light-room.<br> +<br> +[Thursday, 23rd Aug.]<br> +<br> +The wind being at W.S.W., and the weather more moderate, both the tender +and the <i>Smeaton</i> got to their moorings on the 23rd, when all hands +were employed in transporting the sash-frames from on board of the <i>Smeaton</i> +to the rock. In the act of setting up one of these frames upon +the bridge, it was unguardedly suffered to lose its balance, and in +saving it from damage Captain Wilson met with a severe bruise in the +groin, on the seat of a gun-shot wound received in the early part of +his life. This accident laid him aside for several days.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 27th Aug.]<br> +<br> +The sash-frames of the light-room, eight in number, and weighing each +254 pounds, having been got safely up to the top of the building, were +ranged on the balcony in the order in which they were numbered for their +places on the top of the parapet-wall; and the balance-crane, that useful +machine having now lifted all the heavier articles, was unscrewed and +lowered, to use the landing-master’s phrase, ‘in mournful +silence.’<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 2nd Sept.]<br> +<br> +The steps of the stair being landed, and all the weightier articles +of the light-room got up to the balcony, the wooden bridge was now to +be removed, as it had a very powerful effect upon the beacon when a +heavy sea struck it, and could not possibly have withstood the storms +of a winter. Everything having been cleared from the bridge, and +nothing left but the two principal beams with their horizontal braces, +James Glen, at high-water, proceeded with a saw to cut through the beams +at the end next the beacon, which likewise disengaged their opposite +extremity, inserted a few inches into the building. The frame +was then gently lowered into the water, and floated off to the <i>Smeaton</i> +to be towed to Arbroath, to be applied as part of the materials in the +erection of the lightkeepers’ houses. After the removal +of the bridge, the aspect of things at the rock was much altered. +The beacon-house and building had both a naked look to those accustomed +to their former appearance; a curious optical deception was also remarked, +by which the lighthouse seemed to incline from the perpendicular towards +the beacon. The horizontal rope-ladder before noticed was again +stretched to preserve the communication, and the artificers were once +more obliged to practise the awkward and straddling manner of their +passage between them during 1809.<br> +<br> +At twelve noon the bell rung for prayers, after which the artificers +went to dinner, when the writer passed along the rope-ladder to the +lighthouse, and went through the several apartments, which were now +cleared of lumber. In the afternoon all hands were summoned to +the interior of the house, when he had the satisfaction of laying the +upper step of the stair, or last stone of the building. This ceremony +concluded with three cheers, the sound of which had a very loud and +strange effect within the walls of the lighthouse. At six o’clock +Mr. Peter Logan and eleven of the artificers embarked with the writer +for Arbroath, leaving Mr. James Glen with the special charge of the +beacon and railways, Mr. Robert Selkirk with the building, with a few +artificers to fit the temporary windows to render the house habitable.<br> +<br> +[Sunday, 14th Oct.]<br> +<br> +On returning from his voyage to the Northern Lighthouses, the writer +landed at the Bell Rock on Sunday, the 14th of October, and had the +pleasure to find, from the very favourable state of the weather, that +the artificers had been enabled to make great progress with the fitting-up +of the light-room.<br> +<br> +[Friday, 19th Oct.]<br> +<br> +The light-room work had proceeded, as usual, to-day under the direction +of Mr. Dove, assisted in the plumber-work by Mr. John Gibson, and in +the brazier-work by Mr. Joseph Fraser; while Mr. James Slight, with +the joiners, were fitting up the storm-shuttters of the windows. +In these several departments the artificers were at work till seven +o’clock p.m., and it being then dark, Mr. Dove gave orders to +drop work in the light-room; and all hands proceeded from thence to +the beacon-house, when Charles Henderson, smith, and Henry Dickson, +brazier, left the work together. Being both young men, who had +been for several weeks upon the rock, they had become familiar, and +even playful, on the most difficult parts about the beacon and building. +This evening they were trying to outrun each other in descending from +the light-room, when Henderson led the way; but they were in conversation +with each other till they came to the rope-ladder distended between +the entrance-door of the lighthouse and the beacon. Dickson, on +reaching the cook-room, was surprised at not seeing his companion, and +inquired hastily for Henderson. Upon which the cook replied, ‘Was +he before you upon the rope-ladder?’ Dickson answered, ‘Yes; +and I thought I heard something fall.’ Upon this the alarm +was given, and links were immediately lighted, with which the artificers +descended on the legs of the beacon, as near the surface of the water +as possible, it being then about full tide, and the sea breaking to +a considerable height upon the building, with the wind at S.S.E. +But, after watching till low-water, and searching in every direction +upon the rock, it appeared that poor Henderson must have unfortunately +fallen through the rope-ladder, and been washed into the deep water.<br> +<br> +The deceased had passed along this rope-ladder many hundred times, both +by day and night, and the operations in which he was employed being +nearly finished, he was about to leave the rock when this melancholy +catastrophe took place. The unfortunate loss of Henderson cast +a deep gloom upon the minds of all who were at the rock, and it required +some management on the part of those who had charge to induce the people +to remain patiently at their work; as the weather now became more boisterous, +and the nights long, they found their habitation extremely cheerless, +while the winds were howling about their ears, and the waves lashing +with fury against the beams of their insulated habitation.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 23rd Oct.]<br> +<br> +The wind had shifted in the night to N.W., and blew a fresh gale, while +the sea broke with violence upon the rock. It was found impossible +to land, but the writer, from the boat, hailed Mr. Dove, and directed +the ball to be immediately fixed. The necessary preparations were +accordingly made, while the vessel made short tacks on the southern +side of the rock, in comparatively smooth water. At noon Mr. Dove, +assisted by Mr. James Slight, Mr. Robert Selkirk, Mr. James Glen, and +Mr. John Gibson, plumber, with considerable difficulty, from the boisterous +state of the weather, got the gilded ball screwed on, measuring two +feet in diameter, and forming the principal ventilator at the upper +extremity of the cupola of the light-room. At Mr. Hamilton’s +desire, a salute of seven guns was fired on this occasion, and, all +hands being called to the quarter-deck, ‘Stability to the Bell +Rock Lighthouse’ was not forgotten.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 30th Oct.]<br> +<br> +On reaching the rock it was found that a very heavy sea still ran upon +it; but the writer having been disappointed on two former occasions, +and, as the erection of the house might now be considered complete, +there being nothing wanted externally, excepting some of the storm-shutters +for the defence of the windows, he was the more anxious at this time +to inspect it. Two well-manned boats were therefore ordered to +be in attendance; and, after some difficulty, the wind being at N.N.E., +they got safely into the western creek, though not without encountering +plentiful sprays. It would have been impossible to have attempted +a landing to-day, under any other circumstances than with boats perfectly +adapted to the purpose, and with seamen who knew every ledge of the +rock, and even the length of the sea-weeds at each particular spot, +so as to dip their oars into the water accordingly, and thereby prevent +them from getting entangled. But what was of no less consequence +to the safety of the party, Captain Wilson, who always steered the boat, +had a perfect knowledge of the set of the different waves, while the +crew never shifted their eyes from observing his motions, and the strictest +silence was preserved by every individual except himself.<br> +<br> +On entering the house, the writer had the pleasure to find it in a somewhat +habitable condition, the lower apartments being closed in with temporary +windows, and fitted with proper storm-shutters. The lowest apartment +at the head of the staircase was occupied with water, fuel, and provisions, +put up in a temporary way until the house could be furnished with proper +utensils. The second, or light-room store, was at present much +encumbered with various tools and apparatus for the use of the workmen. +The kitchen immediately over this had, as yet, been supplied only with +a common ship’s caboose and plate-iron funnel, while the necessary +cooking utensils had been taken from the beacon. The bedroom was +for the present used as the joiners’ workshop, and the strangers’ +room, immediately under the light-room, was occupied by the artificers, +the beds being ranged in tiers, as was done in the barrack of the beacon. +The light-room, though unprovided with its machinery, being now covered +over with the cupola, glazed and painted, had a very complete and cleanly +appearance. The balcony was only as yet fitted with a temporary +rail, consisting of a few iron stanchions, connected with ropes; and +in this state it was necessary to leave it during the winter.<br> +<br> +Having gone over the whole of the low-water works on the rock, the beacon, +and lighthouse, and being satisfied that only the most untoward accident +in the landing of the machinery could prevent the exhibition of the +light in the course of the winter, Mr. John Reid, formerly of the floating +light, was now put in charge of the lighthouse as principal keeper; +Mr. James Slight had charge of the operations of the artificers, while +Mr. James Dove and the smiths, having finished the frame of the light-room, +left the rock for the present. With these arrangements the writer +bade adieu to the works for the season. At eleven a.m. the tide +was far advanced; and there being now little or no shelter for the boats +at the rock, they had to be pulled through the breach of sea, which +came on board in great quantities, and it was with extreme difficulty +that they could be kept in the proper direction of the landing-creek. +On this occasion he may be permitted to look back with gratitude on +the many escapes made in the course of this arduous undertaking, now +brought so near to a successful conclusion.<br> +<br> +[Monday, 5th Nov.]<br> +<br> +On Monday, the 5th, the yacht again visited the rock, when Mr. Slight +and the artificers returned with her to the workyard, where a number +of things were still to prepare connected with the temporary fitting +up of the accommodation for the lightkeepers. Mr. John Reid and +Peter Fortune were now the only inmates of the house. This was +the smallest number of persons hitherto left in the lighthouse. +As four lightkeepers were to be the complement, it was intended that +three should always be at the rock. Its present inmates, however, +could hardly have been better selected for such a situation; Mr. Reid +being a person possessed of the strictest notions of duty and habits +of regularity from long service on board of a man-of-war, while Mr. +Fortune had one of the most happy and contented dispositions imaginable.<br> +<br> +[Tuesday, 13th Nov.]<br> +<br> +From Saturday the 10th till Tuesday the 13th, the wind had been from +N.E. blowing a heavy gale; but to-day, the weather having greatly moderated, +Captain Taylor, who now commanded the <i>Smeaton</i>, sailed at two +o’clock a.m. for the Bell Rock. At five the floating light +was hailed and found to be all well. Being a fine moonlight morning, +the seamen were changed from the one ship to the other. At eight, +the <i>Smeaton</i> being off the rock, the boats were manned, and taking +a supply of water, fuel, and other necessaries, landed at the western +side, when Mr. Reid and Mr. Fortune were found in good health and spirits.<br> +<br> +Mr. Reid stated that during the late gales, particularly on Friday, +the 30th, the wind veering from S.E. to N.E., both he and Mr. Fortune +sensibly felt the house tremble when particular seas struck, about the +time of high-water; the former observing that it was a tremor of that +sort which rather tended to convince him that everything about the building +was sound, and reminded him of the effect produced when a good log of +timber is struck sharply with a mallet; but, with every confidence in +the stability of the building, he nevertheless confessed that, in so +forlorn a situation, they were not insensible to those emotions which, +he emphatically observed, ‘made a man look back upon his former +life.’<br> +<br> +[1881 Friday, 1st Feb.]<br> +<br> +The day, long wished for, on which the mariner was to see a light exhibited +on the Bell Rock at length arrived. Captain Wilson, as usual, +hoisted the float’s lanterns to the topmast on the evening of +the 1st of February; but the moment that the light appeared on the rock, +the crew, giving three cheers, lowered them, and finally extinguished +the lights.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +Footnotes:<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote2a"></a><a href="#citation2a">{2a}</a> An error: +Stevensons owned at this date the barony of Dolphingston in Haddingtonshire, +Montgrennan in Ayrshire, and several other lesser places.<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote3a"></a><a href="#citation3a">{3a}</a> Pitcairn’s +<i>Criminal Trials</i>, at large. - [R. L. S.]<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote4a"></a><a href="#citation4a">{4a}</a> Fountainhall’s +<i>Decisions</i>, vol. i. pp. 56, 132, 186, 204, 368.- [R. L. S.]<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote4b"></a><a href="#citation4b">{4b}</a> <i>Ibid</i>. +pp. 158, 299. - [R. L. S.]<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote4c"></a><a href="#citation4c">{4c}</a> Working +farmer: Fr. <i>laboureur.<br> +<br> +</i><a name="footnote7a"></a><a href="#citation7a">{7a}</a> This +John Stevenson was not the only ‘witness’ of the name; other +Stevensons were actually killed during the persecutions, in the Glen +of Trool, on Pentland, etc.; and it is very possible that the author’s +own ancestor was one of the mounted party embodied by Muir of Caldwell, +only a day too late for Pentland.<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote7b"></a><a href="#citation7b">{7b}</a> Wodrow +Society’s <i>Select Biographies</i>, vol. ii.- [R. L. S.]<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote9a"></a><a href="#citation9a">{9a}</a> Though +the districts here named are those in which the name of Stevenson is +most common, it is in point of fact far more wide-spread than the text +indicates, and occurs from Dumfries and Berwickshire to Aberdeen and +Orkney.<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote12a"></a><a href="#citation12a">{12a}</a> Mr. +J. H. Stevenson is satisfied that these speculations as to a possible +Norse, Highland, or French origin are vain. All we know about +the engineer family is that it was sprung from a stock of Westland Whigs +settled in the latter part of the seventeenth century in the parish +of Neilston, as mentioned at the beginning of the next chapter. +It may be noted that the Ayrshire parish of Stevenston, the lands of +which are said to have received the name in the twelfth century, lies +within thirteen miles south-west of this place. The lands of Stevenson +in Lanarkshire first mentioned in the next century, in the Ragman Roll, +lie within twenty miles east.<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote54a"></a><a href="#citation54a">{54a}</a> This +is only a probable hypothesis; I have tried to identify my father’s +anecdote in my grandfather’s diary, and may very well have been +deceived. - [R. L. S.]<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote91a"></a><a href="#citation91a">{91a}</a> This +is, of course, the tradition commemorated by Southey in his ballad of +‘The Inchcape Bell.’ Whether true or not, it points +to the fact that from the infancy of Scottish navigation, the seafaring +mind had been fully alive to the perils of this reef. Repeated +attempts had been made to mark the place with beacons, but all efforts +were unavailing (one such beacon having been carried away within eight +days of its erection) until Robert Stevenson conceived and carried out +the idea of the stone tower. But the number of vessels actually +lost upon the reef was as nothing to those that were cast away in fruitless +efforts to avoid it. Placed right in the fairway of two navigations, +and one of these the entrance to the only harbour of refuge between +the Downs and the Moray Firth, it breathed abroad along the whole coast +an atmosphere of terror and perplexity; and no ship sailed that part +of the North Sea at night, but what the ears of those on board would +be strained to catch the roaring of the seas on the Bell Rock.<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote92a"></a><a href="#citation92a">{92a}</a> The +particular event which concentrated Mr. Stevenson’s attention +on the problem of the Bell Rock was the memorable gale of December 1799, +when, among many other vessels, H.M.S. <i>York</i>, a seventy-four-gun +ship, went down with all hands on board. Shortly after this disaster +Mr. Stevenson made a careful survey, and prepared his models for a stone +tower, the idea of which was at first received with pretty general scepticism, +Smeaton’s Eddystone tower could not be cited as affording a parallel, +for there the rock is not submerged even at high-water, while the problem +of the Bell Rock was to build a tower of masonry on a sunken reef far +distant from land, covered at every tide to a depth of twelve feet or +more, and having thirty-two fathoms’ depth of water within a mile +of its eastern edge.<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote94a"></a><a href="#citation94a">{94a}</a> The +grounds for the rejection of the Bill by the House of Lords in 1802-3 +had been that the extent of coast over which dues were proposed to be +levied would be too great. Before going to Parliament again, the +Board of Northern Lights, desiring to obtain support and corroboration +for Mr. Stevenson’s views, consulted first Telford, who was unable +to give the matter his attention, and then (on Stevenson’s suggestion) +Rennie, who concurred in affirming the practicability of a stone tower, +and supported the Bill when it came again before Parliament in 1806. +Rennie was afterwards appointed by the Commissioners as advising engineer, +whom Stevenson might consult in cases of emergency. It seems certain +that the title of chief engineer had in this instance no more meaning +than the above. Rennie, in point of fact, proposed certain modifications +in Stevenson’s plans, which the latter did not accept; nevertheless +Rennie continued to take a kindly interest in the work, and the two +engineers remained in friendly correspondence during its progress. +The official view taken by the Board as to the quarter in which lay +both the merit and the responsibility of the work may be gathered from +a minute of the Commissioners at their first meeting held after Stevenson +died; in which they record their regret ‘at the death of this +zealous, faithful, and able officer, <i>to whom is due the honour of +conceiving</i> <i>and executing the Bell Rock Lighthouse</i>.’ +The matter is briefly summed up in the <i>Life</i> of Robert Stevenson +by his son David Stevenson (A. & C. Black, 1878), and fully discussed, +on the basis of official facts and figures, by the same writer in a +letter to the <i>Civil Engineers’ and Architects’ Journal</i>, +1862.<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote122a"></a><a href="#citation122a">{122a}</a> +‘Nothing was said, but I was <i>looked out of countenance</i>,’ +he says in a letter.<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote171a"></a><a href="#citation171a">{171a}</a> +Ill-formed - ugly. - [R. L. S.]<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote174a"></a><a href="#citation174a">{174a}</a> +This is an incurable illusion of my grandfather’s; he always writes +‘distended’ for ‘extended.’ - [R. L. 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