THE EDDYSTONE AS A TYPE OF ENGLISH LIGHTHOUSES.
A Stone Lighthouse proposed--Smeaton's first Visit to the
Rock--Operations of the First Season--Second Season--Structure
of the Foundation--Ingenious Mode of securing the Stones--Third
Season--State of the Work--Progress and Description of the
Work--Accidents to the Engineer--Proposal to exhibit a Light
before the completion of the Building refused--Fourth Season--
Completion of the Work--Appearance of the Lighthouse during a
Storm--Situation of the Light-keepers.
To return to the history of the Eddystone Lighthouse. When the
proposal relating to the rebuilding of this edifice was made to
Smeaton, and when he had duly weighed the subject in his own mind, he
delivered his decided opinion that the building ought to be
constructed _entirely of stone_. Some opposition was at first raised
against this idea, but the proprietors were at length so well
satisfied with the plans submitted to their inspection, and with the
plain, straightforward reasoning of Smeaton on the matter, that they
left the whole affair in his hands. Their chief objection had arisen
from the opinion, supported by that of the best judges, that the
safety and continuance of Rudyerd's lighthouse during so many years,
had in a great measure depended on the elasticity of the materials of
which it was composed, which enabled it to give way to the shocks of
the sea. Indeed it was affirmed, that in violent storms the motion of
that wooden edifice was so great that trenchers and other articles
were thrown from the shelves in the upper rooms. Smeaton answered to
this, that the great agitation of the late building arose from its
want of _weight_, as well as want of strength; that the edifice he had
in view would be much _heavier_ and much stronger, so that the
building would not give way to the sea, but the sea would give way to
the building.
In the spring of 1756 Smeaton first visited and examined the Eddystone
rock, proving, as his predecessors had done, the extreme difficulty of
gaining a landing, or of remaining long enough on the rock to carry on
his observations. These difficulties suggested to him the important
and valuable expedient of keeping a vessel fixed within a quarter of a
mile of the rock, which should be capable of lodging the workmen and
their tools, and thus enable them to take immediate advantage of any
favourable opportunity of putting out their boat and conveying
materials at once to the Eddystone, instead of having to take the
voyage from Plymouth on each occasion.
The first actual work done on the rock was in August, 1756. Two
companies of workmen were employed, each remaining at the work a week,
that every opportunity might be made the most of, and the men relieved
by visits to the shore. A sloop, a large yawl with sails and oars, and
a boat, were employed to expedite the work. The sloop formed the
lodging for the company working at the rock, and was anchored at a
short distance from it. The sloop was afterwards replaced by a larger
store vessel, called the Neptune Buss. The weather from the 27th of
August to the 14th of September happened to be favourable to the work,
so that the companies were employed on it at every tide. After this,
unsettled weather began to prevail, so that Smeaton was obliged to be
satisfied with the progress already made, which consisted in the mere
preparation of the House-rock for the intended edifice, by cutting two
new steps in the lowest part of the sloping side of the rock, and
forming anew the five steps which remained of the efforts of Rudyerd.
Dove-tailed recesses were also cut in all these steps for the
reception of the stone-work. The remaining part of the autumn was
spent in expediting necessary work on shore, such as completing the
work-yard with its machinery and conveniences, and then preparing the
granite and Portland stone, of which the lighthouse was to be made.
The desirability of doing as much of the work as possible on shore,
became more and more apparent, as experience showed the dangers and
accidents likely to occur at the rock. During this winter Smeaton
began seriously to consider the great importance to his work, of
getting the most perfect cement possible, to resist the extreme
violence of the sea. He found that nothing of the resinous or oily
kind would answer, as it was impossible to get a dry surface at the
rock. He therefore went through a complete set of experiments on
cements with a view to produce one which would, in despite of water
almost continually driven against it with every degree of violence,
become so firm in its consistence and adhesion to the stone, that it
should compose one even regular surface with the stone, without
needing hoops of iron or copper to surround the horizontal joints. In
this endeavour he considered himself at length completely successful.
At the beginning of June, 1757, Smeaton renewed his work at the
Eddystone rock. The first proceedings were to fix some timbers to the
east side of the rock merely as a defence to the boats, which were
frequently damaged by running against the sharp edges; and also to
erect shears, windlass, &c. The first stone was laid in its place on
the 12th of June. This stone weighed two tons and a quarter, though
the ordinary weight of the stones did not exceed one ton each. The
first course consisting of four stones was finished during the next
day. By Smeaton's plan the stones were most ingeniously dove-tailed
together and into the rock, so that when once fixed, it was impossible
for one stone to be separated from the rest. The second course of
stones was not completed until the 30th of the same month; several
accidents having occurred to hinder the progress of the work; yet
Smeaton was in no wise disheartened, for in establishing these two
courses he considered the most difficult and arduous part of the work
to be already accomplished, since these courses brought him up to the
same level where his predecessor Mr. Rudyerd had begun. On the 11th of
July the third course, consisting of twenty-five pieces, was
completed, and on the 31st the fourth course of twenty-three pieces.
The fifth course was closed in on the 5th of August. When the sixth
course was completed, which was on the 11th of that month, Smeaton had
the satisfaction to find that the sea did not now invariably wash over
every part of their work at each tide, which had always hitherto been
the case in the course of laying the previous courses. The greatest
difficulties were now considered to be successfully surmounted, as
each succeeding course gave them more time and more room, and they had
brought their work to a level with the highest part of the rock.
Up to this point all the courses had been begun by the stones that
were securely dove-tailed into the rock, and further made fast by
oak-wedges and cement. To receive these wedges, two grooves were cut
in the waist of each stone, from the top to the bottom of the course,
of an inch in depth and three inches in width. The care with which the
foundation-work was carried on may be gathered from Smeaton's
description of the manner of laying each stone. 'The stone to be set
being hung in the tackle, and its bed of mortar spread, was then
lowered into its place, and beat with a heavy wooden maul, and
levelled with a spirit level; and the stone being accurately brought
to its marks, it was then considered as set in its place. The business
now was to retain it exactly in that position, notwithstanding the
utmost violence of the sea might come upon it, before the mortar was
hard enough to resist it. The carpenter now dropped into each groove
two of the oaken wedges, one upon its head, the other with its point
downwards, so that the two wedges in each groove would lie heads and
points. With a bar of iron about two inches and a half broad, a
quarter of an inch thick, and two feet and a half long, the ends being
square, he could easily (as with a rammer) drive down one wedge upon
the other; very gently at first, so that the opposite pairs of wedges
being equally tightened, they would equally resist each other, and the
stone would therefore keep place. A couple of wedges were also, in
like manner, pitched at the top of each groove; the dormant wedge, or
that with the point upward, being held in the hand, while the
drift-wedge, or that with its point downward, was driven with a
hammer. The whole of what remained above the upper surface of the
stone was then cut off with a saw or chisel: and generally, a couple
of thin wedges were driven very moderately at the butt-end of the
stone; whose tendency being to force it out of its dove-tail, they
would, by moderate driving, only tend to preserve the whole mass
steady together, in opposition to the violent agitation that might
arise from the sea.' In addition to this, a couple of holes having
been bored through every piece of stone, one course was bound to
another by oak trenails driven stiffly through, and made so fast that
they could more easily be torn asunder than pulled out again. 'No
assignable power,' says Smeaton, 'less than what would by main stress
pull these trenails in two could lift one of these stones from their
beds when so fixed, exclusive of their natural weight, as all
agitation was prevented by the lateral wedges.' The stone being thus
fixed, a proper quantity of mortar was liquefied; and the joints
having been carefully pointed, up to the upper surface, this mortar or
cement was poured in with iron ladles so as to occupy every void
space. The more consistent parts of this cement naturally settled to
the bottom, and the watery parts were absorbed by the stone: the
vacancy thus left at the top was repeatedly refilled, until all
remained solid; the top was then pointed, and, when necessary,
defended by a coat of plaster. When the whole of the foundation was in
this manner brought to a level, some other means was necessary of
attaining the like degree of security. For this purpose the central
stone of the sixth course had a hole of one foot square cut quite
through the middle. Eight other depressions of one foot square and six
inches deep were also sunk at equal distances in the circumference. A
plug of strong hard marble, from the rocks near Plymouth, one foot
square and twenty-two inches in length, was set with mortar in the
central cavity, and fixed firmly therein with their wedges. This
course was thirteen inches in height, so that the marble plug, which
reached through it, stood nine inches above the surface. Upon this the
centre-stone of the seventh course was fixed, having a similar hole
made in its centre, bedded with mortar and wedged as before. By this
means no force of the sea acting horizontally upon the centre-stone,
less than what was capable of cutting the marble plug in two, was able
to move it from its place; and to prevent the stone the more
effectually from being lifted, in case its bed of mortar should happen
to be destroyed, it was fixed down by four trenails. The stones
surrounding the central stone were dove-tailed to it in the same
manner as before, and thus the courses proceeded with no other
interruption than arose from the nature of the situation.
Smeaton tells us that when the work had proceeded so far as to afford
a level platform, the pleasure he took in it, and the novelty of the
thing, led him to walk to and fro upon it with much complacency. But
making a false step, and not being able to recover himself, he tumbled
over the brink of the work down among the rocks on the west side. The
tide had then retreated, so that no serious result happened, but in
his fall he dislocated his thumb, and as no medical aid could be
procured, he set it himself, and then returned to his work. It was
more than six months, however, before he recovered the full use of his
thumb.
Owing to very boisterous weather, and repeated losses of the necessary
materials left on the rock, the seventh course was not laid until the
7th of September. But Smeaton had the satisfaction to find that all
the work actually completed, stood the utmost severity of the weather
unmoved. At this time the sea became so calm that the work proceeded
rapidly, and for three days in succession the top of the work was not
wetted. The eighth course was completed on the 13th, but the weather
again becoming unfavourable, the ninth was not finished until the
30th, and here Smeaton found it desirable to close the operations for
this year.
The ensuing winter was of so stormy a nature as severely to test the
strength of the work at the Eddystone. Smeaton went early in the
spring to view it, and says, 'I was much surprised, notwithstanding
what had been reported of the soundness of the work, to find it so
perfectly entire, for, except a small spawl which had been washed from
the rock itself, the whole did not seem to have suffered a diminution
of so much as a grain of sand since I left it on the 1st of October:
on the contrary, the cement, and even the grouted part, appeared to be
as hard as the stone itself, the whole having become one solid mass,
and, indeed, it had quite that appearance, as it was covered with the
same coat of sea-weed as the rock, the top of the work excepted, which
was washed clean and white.'
Various disasters to the vessels, moorings, &c. near the rock retarded
the work in the spring of 1758. It was not till the 10th of July that
the eleventh course was finished. Twelve days afterwards the twelfth
course was laid down. After this the work went on better, so that on
the 8th of August the fourteenth course was completed, and with it
what was called the fundamental solid. From hence begins the building
also called the Solid, which includes the passage from the entry-door
to the well-hole for the stairs. It was now necessary for the sake of
the well-hole to omit the centre-stone. The four stones surrounding
the centre were therefore fastened together by what are called
hook-scarf joints, so as to compose, in effect, one stone. Means were
also taken to prevent them from shifting, or being lifted out of their
position.
From the 9th to the 20th of August there was an uninterrupted
continuance of fine weather, so that great progress was made. By the
latter day the eighteenth course was completed, which reunited the
building into a complete circle, by covering the passage to the
staircase. Over the head of the entry-door the figures 1758 were cut
in deep characters. During another month, by great exertions, the
twenty-fourth course was reached and completed. This course finished
the Solid, and formed the floor of the store-room, so that Smeaton had
every reason to be satisfied with the work of this season; yet as he
had been long meditating on the advantage to the public which would
accrue from setting up a light during that very winter, he resolved to
make a vigorous effort to get the store-room completed and a light
erected above it.
The building had hitherto been carried up solid as high as there was
any reason to suppose it exposed to the heavy stroke of the sea, _i.
e._ to thirty-five feet four inches above its base, and twenty-seven
feet above the top of the rock, on the common spring-tide high-water
mark. At this height it was reduced to sixteen feet eight inches
diameter; and it was necessary to make the best use of this space, and
make all the room and convenience therein that was possible,
consistent with the still necessary strength. The rooms being made
twelve feet four inches in diameter would leave twenty-six inches for
the thickness of the walls. These walls were made of single blocks in
the thickness, so shaped that sixteen pieces formed a complete circle,
and from their figure composed a stout wall. These pieces were cramped
together with iron, and also secured to the lower courses by marble
plugs as before. To hinder the passage of wet through the upright
joints, flat stones were introduced into each joint so as partly to be
lodged in one stone, partly in another, thus making it tolerably
certain that the rooms would be kept comfortable and dry in all
weathers. On the 30th of September the twenty-eighth course was
completely set. This and the next course received the vaulted floor,
which made the ceiling of the store-room and floor of the upper
store-room. For further security, therefore, there was a groove cut
round the upper surface of this course, in which was placed a circular
chain of great strength. Upon this chain, in the groove, was poured
melted lead, until the cavity was filled up. The next course was then
laid on, and this was also secured by a chain in like manner, it
being considered that the courses on which the floors rested demanded
every possible security. The formation of the floors, and the care
taken to avoid the danger of lateral pressure on the walls, is worthy
of notice. Each floor rested upon two courses; being firmly supported
by a triple ledge going circularly round the two supporting courses.
'Had each floor,' says the architect, 'been composed of a single
stone, this lying upon the horizontal bearings furnished by these
ledges, would, while it remained entire, have no lateral pressure or
tendency to thrust out the sides of the encompassing walls; and that
in effect the several pieces of which the floors were really composed
might have the same property as whole stones, the centre stone was
made large enough to admit of an opening, from floor to floor, to be
made through it; and being furnished with dove-tails on its four
sides, like those of the entire solid, it became the means by which
all the stones in each floor were connected together; and
consequently, the whole would lie upon the ledges like a single stone,
without any tendency to spread the walls. But if by the accident of a
heavy body falling, or otherwise, any of those stones should be
broken, though this might not destroy its use as a floor; yet the
parts would then exert their lateral pressure against the walls; and,
therefore, as a security against this, it became necessary that the
circle of the enclosing walls should be bound together, and the
building, as it were, _hooped_.' Thus assiduously did Smeaton urge
forward the work, yet without neglecting any of the necessary
precautions for its safety. By the 10th of October he had nearly
completed all the necessary arrangements for establishing a light and
light-keepers at the Eddystone during the same winter, when he
received an unexpected and painful refusal from the Corporation of
Trinity-House, to the effect that 'on reading the Acts of Parliament,
the application from the merchants and owners of ships, and
Winstanley's narrative of the first lighthouse erected there, they are
of opinion that a light cannot be exhibited on the Eddystone Rock till
the lighthouse is re-built.'
Smeaton employed the winter of 1758-9 in London, preparing everything
for the final work at the Eddystone the ensuing season. He formed and
made out designs for the iron rails of the balcony, the cast iron, the
wrought iron, and the copper-works of the lantern, &c. There was a
violent storm on the 9th of March, 1759, which it was supposed might
have damaged the unfinished lighthouse, as it had done very great
damage to the ships and houses at Plymouth. As soon as it was possible
to effect a landing the works were visited and a report sent to
Smeaton. From this he found, with pleasure, that not only the solid
but the hollow work remained perfectly sound and firm; all the mortar
having become quite hard, and every part of the work just as it was
left by the workmen in October.
The commencement of the work for the next and last season, took place
on the 5th of July. On the 21st of the same month the second floor was
finished, and by the 29th the fortieth course of stone was laid down,
and the third floor finished.
The main column of the lighthouse was completed on Friday, August
17th. It contained in all forty-six courses of stone, and reached the
height of seventy feet. The beds for the light-keepers were fixed in
the uppermost room, and the kitchen with its fire-place in the room
below it, whereas in the former house, the kitchen had been the upper
room, doubtless, because the funnel for the smoke would be shorter.
But Smeaton having been informed that with the former arrangement the
beds and bedding were in a very damp and disagreeable state, proposed
to remedy the evil by allowing the copper funnel to pass through the
bed-room, and thus to dry the air. This plan completely answered the
desired end; though it must be observed, that the whole edifice, even
those portions of it which were continually subject to the action of
the waves, were much more impervious to moisture than Rudyerd's
edifice; as may naturally be imagined from the difference of material
used in the building of the lighthouse, and the well-known quality of
granite to resist humidity. In the upper room, therefore, were fixed
three cabin-beds to hold one man each, with three drawers and two
lockers in each to hold his separate property. In the kitchen, besides
the fire-place and sink, were two settles with lockers, a dresser with
drawers, two cupboards and one platter-case. In the lantern a seat was
fixed to encompass it all round, except at the doorway, and this
served equally to sit upon, or to stand and snuff the candles; also to
enable a person to look through the lowest tier of glass-panes at
distant objects, without having occasion to go on the outside of the
lantern into the balcony.
Besides the windows of the lantern ten other windows were constructed
for the edifice, namely, two for the store-room, and four each for the
other two rooms. In fixing the bars for these windows, an accident
occurred which had nearly proved fatal to Smeaton, and which he thus
describes:--'After the boat was gone, and it became so dark that we
could not see any longer to pursue our occupations, I ordered a
charcoal-fire to be made in the upper store-room, in one of the
iron-pots we used for melting lead, for the purpose of annealing the
blank ends of the bars; and they were made red hot altogether in the
charcoal. Most of the workmen were set round the fire, and by way of
making ourselves comfortable, by screening ourselves and the fire from
the wind, the windows were shut; and, as well as I remember, the
copper cover or hatch put over the man-hole of the floor of the room
where the fire was; the hatch above being left open for the heated
vapour to ascend. I remember to have looked into the fire attentively
to see that the iron was made hot enough, but not over-heated: I also
remember I felt my head a very little giddy; but the next thing of
which I had any sensation or idea, was finding myself upon the floor
of the room below, half drowned with water. It seems, that without
being further sensible of anything to give me warning, the effluvia of
the charcoal so suddenly overcame all sensation that I dropped down
upon the floor; and had not the people hauled me down to the room
below, where they did not spare for cold water to throw in my face
and upon me, I certainly should have expired upon the spot.'
By unremitting exertions on the part of Smeaton and his work-people,
the balcony-rails, the lantern, with the cupola and gilt ball, the
lightning-conductor, and, in fact, all the remaining parts of the
lighthouse, with the stores and necessary furniture, were set in their
places by the 16th of October, on which day a light was once more
exhibited on the Eddystone Rock.
It may be imagined that Smeaton took peculiar pleasure in this
beautiful monument of his skill and ingenuity. He slept in the
lighthouse, viewed it from sea and land, and made every observation
that an ingenious and clever man might be expected to make. The
account he gives of its appearance after a storm, as he viewed it with
his telescope from the garrison at Plymouth, is this: 'Though I had
had many opportunities of viewing the unfinished building, when buried
in waves in a storm at S. W., yet never having before had a view of it
under this circumstance in its finished state, I was astonished to
find that the account given by Mr. Winstanley did not appear to be at
all exaggerated. At intervals of a minute, and sometimes two or three,
I suppose when a combination happens to produce an overgrown wave, it
would strike the rock and the building conjointly, and fly up in a
white column, enwrapping it like a sheet, rising at least to double
the height of the house, and totally intercepting it from sight; and
this appearance being momentary, both as to its rising and falling,
one was enabled to judge of the comparative height very nearly, by the
comparative spaces alternately occupied by the house, and by the
column of water, in the field of the telescope.'
The year 1759 closed with a series of very stormy weather, and as this
was the first winter's trial of the lighthouse, it may be supposed
that there was some anxiety among the more timid and doubting of those
concerned in it. Especially was the courage of the light-keepers put
to the test. When a boat could come near them after one of these
storms, a letter was sent by Henry Edwards, one of the light-keepers,
to the manager of the works acquainting him that they had had such bad
weather, and that the sea ran over the house in such a manner, that
for twelve days together they could not open the door of the lantern
or any other. 'The house did shake,' says the poor light-keeper, 'as
if a man had been up in a great tree. The old men were almost
frightened out of their lives, wishing they had never seen the place,
and cursing those that first persuaded them to go there. The fear
seized them in the back, but rubbing them with oil of turpentine gave
them relief.'
Meanwhile the lighthouse itself bore the storm admirably, and suffered
nothing from it. Two years afterwards a tempest of unusual violence
occurred, causing much loss of life and property at Plymouth. Eighty
thousand pounds' worth of damage were done in the harbour and sound,
and a friend of Smeaton's, after writing a full description of the
several disasters, adds, 'In the midst of all this horror and
confusion, my friend may be assured that I was not insensible to his
honour and credit, yet in spite of the high opinion that I had of his
judgment and abilities, I could not but feel the utmost anxiety for
the fate of the Eddystone. Several times in the day I swept with my
telescope from the garrison, as near as I could imagine, the line of
the horizon, but it was so extremely black, fretful, and hazy, that
nothing could be seen, and I was obliged to go to bed that night with
a mortifying uncertainty. But the next morning early, I had great joy
to see that the gilded ball had triumphed over the fury of the storm,
and such an one as I had no conception of. I saw the whole so
distinctly from the bottom to the top, that I could be very sure the
lantern had suffered nothing. It is now my most steady belief, as well
as everybody's here, that its inhabitants are rather more secure in a
storm, under the united force of wind and water, than we are in our
houses from the former only.'
After this trial of the strength of the lighthouse, there seems no
longer to have been any apprehension concerning it. The light-keepers
even became attached to the spot, and found it a remarkably healthy
and comfortable abode. There were often as many as half a dozen
applications for the office, although the salary was only twenty-five
pounds per annum.
One of the light-keepers, after a residence of fourteen years on the
rock, became so much attached to the place, that for two summers he
gave up his turn of going on shore to his companions, and declared his
intention of doing so on the third; but being over-persuaded he went
on shore to take his month's turn. At the lighthouse he had always
been a decent, sober, well-behaved man; but he had no sooner got on
shore than he went to an alehouse and became intoxicated. This he
continued the whole of his stay; which being noticed, he was carried
in an intoxicated state on board the Eddystone boat and delivered in
the lighthouse, where he was expected to grow sober; but after
lingering for two or three days, he expired. Vacancies, however,
seldom occurred in the lighthouse. Smeaton mentions several men who
had served there to his knowledge ten, fifteen, or twenty years.
Having thus conducted our readers to the close of Smeaton's arduous
undertaking, and noticed its complete success, we may proceed to
describe the more remarkable lighthouses erected in other portions of
the kingdom subsequent to the labours of this celebrated engineer.