OPERATIONS OF 1840.
In describing the progress of the works during the season of 1840,
I shall speak of the various departments separately, as in the last
chapter, beginning with the workyard at Hynish.
~Hynish Workyard.~
During the preceding winter months, the establishment at Hynish was
reduced to about fifty persons, of whom twenty-seven were masons
employed chiefly in dressing blocks for the Lighthouse, in laying the
stone platform in the workyard (on which each course was adjusted
previously to its being shipped for the Rock, to prevent the occurrence
of mistakes which might not be easily remedied there), and in building
some additional barracks, masons’ sheds and a limekiln for the
summer of 1840. The quarriers and labourers formed a party of about
eighteen, and were engaged in cutting blocks in the Tyree quarries,
which, although unfit for the Lighthouse Tower, were very suitable
for the completion of the Pier at Hynish; while nine carpenters
had full occupation in making moulds for dressing the Lighthouse
blocks, preparing oaken treenails to be used in the lower courses
of the Lighthouse Tower, and in dressing handles for the masons’
and quarriers’ tools. In the month of April, a reinforcement of
thirty-seven masons from Aberdeen arrived at Hynish; and the greater
number of them were at once employed in the dressing of stones for
the Tower; while a few assisted in building the dressed materials
in a temporary manner on the stone platform in the workyard already
mentioned. The number of masons in the workyard, during the summer
months, varied considerably, according to the state of the works on
the Rock, where seldom fewer than thirty men were stationed throughout
the whole working season. But the dressing of the stones for the Tower
proceeded with considerable vigour; and notwithstanding the inroads
necessarily made upon the men’s time, by their being frequently
required to assist in the landing of materials from Mull, a work for
which few of the Tyree men were fit, from their awkwardness in the
management of cranes and all kinds of machinery or tackling, and also
by the constant detachment of a considerable number both of men and
of tools for the laborious work of dressing the foundation-pit at the
Rock, upwards of 20,000 cubic feet of granite had been dressed and
fitted on the platform, when I left Hynish in the end of October 1840.
~Hynish Pier.~
During the whole of the summer, the traffic at the pier at Hynish
was so great in landing materials from the Mull quarries, and in
shipping stones for the Rock, that much inconvenience was felt from
want of room. Nearly 4000 tons were shipped and discharged at the
quay, independently altogether of the ballasting of each vessel which
discharged at the pier, and the receiving, storing, and finally
supplying coals to the steamer, which formed no inconsiderable item
of the labour. Every exertion was made to extend the pier, so soon as
the works at the Rock were closed for the season and the stone trade
with Mull had ceased; and by great perseverance on the part of Mr James
Scott, the foreman of the workyard, whom I always found ready, night
and day, to second and even to anticipate my wishes in regard to the
progress of the works, an additional length of 36 feet was added to the
berthage of the quay before the winter had set in.
~The Rock.~
The first landing on the Rock, for the purpose of resuming the work
in 1840, was on the 30th April, when all things connected with the
Barrack were found in nearly the same state in which we had left them
seven months before. The red paint with which we had coated it had
become nearly white, partly by a covering of sea-salt, and by blanching
of the paint itself, but chiefly towards the top by the soil of the
numerous sea-fowl which had perched on the roof. The timbers, also,
bore the signs of being wave-washed, and in the more sheltered parts
were tufted with the finer kinds of seaweed; the iron-work was much
rusted and entirely divested of paint. The door had been firmly secured
with lashings and bolts, and some difficulty was experienced in forcing
an entrance into the interior, about the state of which, as our future
abode, much curiosity was naturally felt by the men, who were desirous
to know how it had weathered a seven months’ exposure to the waves of
the Atlantic. It was with no small pleasure, therefore, that, when the
door was opened and the windows unbarred and the sunshine admitted
to dispel its gloom and chilly damp, we found, that although the
water had forced its way through some of the imperfect seams in the
window-frames, the interior shewed evident signs of the stability of
the fabric, and was in some places so dry, that the greater part of the
biscuits which we had left the year before, as a store for shipwrecked
seamen who might find their way to the Rock, although some of them were
wet and pulpy on the side nearest the outer walls, admitted of being
dried, and when a little toasted at the fire, were palatable enough
to hungry men, so that, in fact, we consumed the greater part of that
stock before we entered on our new supply.
The most important change which had occurred during the winter, was the
removal of a mass of rock in the neighbourhood of the foundation-pit,
which had been shaken by the effects of the blasting operations of
the previous year. That mass, the moving of which shewed that a great
weight of water had passed over the Rock, weighed about five tons,
and had been detached from its bed during a heavy gale from the N.W.,
in the month of March, and carried right across the foundation-pit
to the Barrack, against one of the beams of which it had rested, and
had partially injured the iron _collars_ or _glands_ by which the
beam was secured. The stone was broken into small fragments by a
party of men, who had been appointed to visit the Rock after heavy
gales, and had landed on the 27th of March, to see the state of the
Barrack. The men, in their anxiety to break down the block, which they
feared might injure the Barrack, if thrown against it by the waves,
and allured by the smoothness of the sea, most imprudently remained
all night, mooring their boat in the landing creek, and trusting to
the scanty stock of provisions which they had brought out, with the
intention of at once returning to Hynish. The risk involved in such
a proceeding, we afterwards had many opportunities of knowing during
our stay on the Rock, as we were often forced to make fast all our
materials, to prevent their being washed away by the sudden rising of
the waves, especially about the time of high-water in spring-tides. The
discomforts, however, experienced by the men on that occasion while in
the Barrack, without fire, light or bedding, in a cold dark night of
spring were such, that several of them did not afterwards much affect
the Rock as a residence even in summer.
~Life in the Barrack.~
Owing to the great difficulty of landing on the Rock in the early
part of May, few opportunities occurred of preparing the Barrack as
a habitation; and it was not until the 14th of that month that we
were enabled to take up our quarters in it; and even then we were
most uncomfortably lodged, as many of the smaller fittings which
are essential to a _wind-and-water-tight_ habitation had not been
completed. During the first month we suffered much from the flooding of
our apartments with water, at times when heavy sprays lashed the walls
of the Barrack with great violence and also during rainy weather; and
in northerly gales we had much difficulty in keeping ourselves warm. On
one occasion, also, we were fourteen days without communication with
the shore or the steamer; and during the greater part of that time we
saw nothing but white fields of foam as far as the eye could reach,
and heard nothing but the whistling of the wind and the thunder of the
waves, which were at times so loud as to make it almost impossible
to hear any one speak. For several days, the seas rose so high as
to prevent our attempting to go down to the Rock; and the cold and
comfortless nature of our abode reduced all hands to the necessity of
seeking warmth in bed, where (rising only to our meals) we generally
spent the greater part of the day listening to the howling of the
winds and the beating of the waves, which occasionally made the house
tremble in a startling manner. Such a scene, with the ruins of the
former barrack not 20 yards from us, was calculated only to inspire
the most desponding anticipations; and I well remember the undefined
sense of dread that flashed across my mind, on being awakened one night
by a heavy sea which struck the Barrack, and made my cot or hammock
swing inwards from the wall, and was immediately followed by a cry of
terror from the men in the apartment above me, most of whom, startled
by the sound and tremour, immediately sprang from their berths to the
floor, impressed with the idea that the whole fabric had been washed
into the sea. The alarm, however, was very short and the solemn pause,
which succeeded the cry, was soon followed by words of reassurance
and congratulation. Towards the end of the fourteen days I began to
grow very uneasy, as our provisions were drawing to a close; and when
we were at length justified, by the state of the sea on the rock, in
making the signal to those on shore (at the hour fixed for pointing the
telescope at Hynish on the Barrack), that a landing could be effected,
we had not more than twenty-four hours’ provision on the Rock, so that
when the steamer came in sight she was hailed by all hands with the
greatest joy!
The construction of the Barrack has already been very fully described,
and a glance at Plate V. will be sufficient to give a pretty correct
idea of the nature of our singular dwelling. Immediately under the
wooden tower was an open gallery, the floor of which was removed at
the end of each season, so as to allow free space for the passage of
the sea during the storms of winter, but on which, during the summer,
we kept the stock of coals, the tool-chests, the beef and beer casks,
and other smaller materials which we could not, even at that season,
safely leave on the Rock itself. Next came the kitchen and provision
store, a six-sided apartment about 12 feet in diameter and somewhat
more than 7 feet high, in which small space, curtailed as it was by
the seven beams which passed through it, stood a _caboose_, capable
of cooking for forty men, and various cupboards and lockers, lined
with tin, for holding the biscuits, meal, flour, barley and other
things needful for the sustenance of the human frame. That apartment,
for protection against fire, was coated, partly with tin and partly
with sheet-lead, which latter, although not in all respects the most
desirable material to come in contact with that element, was found to
be the only one which we could in some parts conveniently apply. The
next storey was divided into two apartments, whereof one was shared by
Mr Thomas Macurich, who superintended the landing of all the materials
and Mr Charles Stewart, the foreman of the builders, and the other
was allotted to myself. The apartments thus occupied consisted of
a twelve-sided narrow space twisted around a centre pyramid, whose
bevelled faces formed, as will in part be seen by inspecting Plate V.,
their sloping walls on one side. The half of that space constituted
my apartment, which, I think, would be generally pronounced not over
commodious; and when it is added that it contained my bed, desk, chair
and table, and a stock of groceries, it will readily be imagined I had
little room to spare for myself. So much attention was paid to economy
of space, that the recesses of the pyramid formed by the meeting of
the beams were boarded over and made into cupboards; while my _cot_,
or framed hammock (which, during the night, rested upon brackets which
could be folded close to the wall when not required), was, during the
day, hoisted by pullies to the roof of the apartment, so as to leave me
as much space to move about in as a prisoner could expect. The cornice
of the apartment consisted of a narrow shelf adorned with books, which
I found very needful helps to solitary life. The highest apartment was
also twelve-sided, surmounted by a pyramidal roof and a small six-sided
lantern or ventilator, and was lined round the sides with four tiers
of berths, capable of accommodating thirty people. The closeness of
that room was most intolerable, especially during the heat of fine
weather in summer, at which time several of the men preferred taking
a nap on the rock, with the clear blue sky for a canopy. The economy
of our life on the Rock was strange enough. At half-past three in the
morning we were called, and at four the work commenced, continuing
till eight, when half-an-hour was given for breakfast: after which it
was carried on till two, when another half-hour was given for dinner;
and the work was again resumed and continued till seven, eight, and
even nine o’clock, when anything urgent was in hand. Supper was then
produced and eaten with more leisure and comfort in the cool of the
evening. Such protracted exertion produced a continual drowsiness,
and almost every one who sat down fell fast asleep. I have myself
repeatedly fallen asleep in the middle of breakfast or dinner; and have
not unfrequently awakened, pen in hand, with a half-written word on
the paper! Yet life on the Skerryvore Rock was by no means destitute
of its peculiar pleasures. The grandeur of the ocean’s rage, the deep
murmur of the waves, the hoarse cry of the sea-birds, which wheeled
continually over us, especially at our meals, the low moaning of the
wind, or the gorgeous brightness of a glassy sea and a cloudless sky,
and the solemn stillness of a deep blue vault, studded with stars, or
cheered by the splendours of the full moon, were the phases of external
things that often arrested our thoughts in a situation where, with all
the bustle that sometimes prevailed, there was necessarily so much time
for reflection. Those changes, together with the continual succession
of hopes and fears connected with the important work in which we were
engaged, and the oft-recurring calls for advice or direction, as well
as occasional hours devoted to reading and correspondence, and the
pleasures of news from home, were more than sufficient to reconcile me
to, nay, to make me really enjoy, an uninterrupted residence, on one
occasion, of not less than five weeks on that desert Rock.
~Foundation-pit.~
During the first half of the season 30 men were engaged 14 hours a day
in the preparation of the foundation-pit, which, as already said, was
a work of the greatest labour. The Rock, indeed, was in many places
so hard as often to make it seem hopeless that tools could make any
impression on it. The time employed in the excavation and the number
of tools expended on it, were very great, as a pick seldom stood more
than three strokes in the harder quartzose veins; but our perseverance
was at length amply rewarded by obtaining a foundation so level and
so fairly wrought throughout the whole area of a circle 42 feet in
diameter, as to present to the view the appearance of a gigantic basin
of variegated marble; and so much pleased were the workmen themselves
with the result of their protracted toil, that many of them expressed
serious regret that the foundation must soon be covered up so, as (we
trusted), never to be seen again. In the dressing of the Rock much
inconvenience arose from the small splinters which flew out before the
tools, sometimes rising to the height of 40 feet, and coming in at the
windows of the Barrack; and after several injuries had been sustained,
I at length found it necessary to send to Glasgow for fencing masks to
protect the men’s faces. In all our work, nothing was more grudged than
the occasional loss of half a day in _baling_ out the water from the
foundation-pit after it had been filled by a heavy sea.
~Landing of materials on the Rock.~
Before we had made an actual trial of landing stones on a Rock at the
distance of 12 miles from the nearest shore, exposed to the incessant
beating of Atlantic waves, there was much room for doubt as to the
measure of success to be expected; and, as the time approached, I
naturally looked to the attempt with increasing anxiety, as to an
experiment in a great measure decisive of the future complexion of our
operations. Four small vessels, carrying from 16 to 19 tons, had been
built at Leith and Dumbarton, for the purpose of carrying the stones
on their decks, so as to admit of their being easily lifted by the
crane, and so to avoid the risk which would have been incurred by any
attempt to raise stones by a crane from the hold of a vessel moored
to a rock in the open sea and moving about with every wave. Had that
been attempted, the crane would, on many occasions, have been pulled
down before the stone could be cleared from the hold. The vessels were
very similar to those which were used for the same purpose at the Bell
Rock; and I therefore beg leave to refer the reader to page 509, and
to Plate XI. of my Father’s account of that work, for a description of
them. Being decked all over, to give room for cargo (for they carried
nothing in the hold but empty casks for the purpose of floating them
in the event of their sustaining any injury), they were towed between
Hynish and the Rock by the steamer, and being _cast off_ as near the
landing-place as possible, were taken by the boats to the creek, and
moored with warps to the fenders at the quay.
The first trial of the lighters in landing stones on the Rock was
made on the 20th of June, on which occasion both the steamer and the
stone craft were decorated with flags; and due honour was done to
the occasion of landing the first stone, by firing a salvo shot and
drinking success to the works. The landing service throughout the
whole progress of the works was one of much difficulty and anxiety and
many narrow escapes were made; but it was managed with great prudence,
and at the same time with unremitting energy, by Messrs Macurich and
Heddle, in their several departments, both ashore and afloat. On many
occasions the men who steered the lighters ran great risks; and it was
often found necessary to lash them to the rails, to prevent their being
thrown overboard by the sudden bounds of the vessels, or being carried
away by the weight of water which swept their decks as they were towed
through a heavy sea. Sometimes, also, we were forced, owing to the
rush of the sea into the creek, which threatened to lift the vessels
on the top of the Rock, to draw out the loaded lighters from the wharf
without landing a single stone, after they had been towed through a
stormy passage of 13 miles; and one day, during the very best part of
the season, so sudden was the bounding of the vessel before the sea,
that eight large warps were snapped like threads as the lighter was
carried violently before a crested wave which rolled unexpectedly into
the creek, while those who stood on her deck were thrown flat on their
faces and imagined that the vessel had been laid _high and dry_ on the
top of the Rock. During the whole season, however, in the course of
landing 800 tons of masonry on the Rock, too often in that dangerous
manner, none of the dressed stones received any great damage, nor was
any other injury of importance sustained.
~Building the first stone.~
The building of the Tower was commenced on the 4th July; but it was
not till the 7th that the ceremony of laying the foundation-stone was
performed by His Grace the Duke of Argyll, who, as proprietor of the
adjacent Island of Tyree, took a great interest in the success of
the works, and on that day visited the Skerryvore with the Duchess
of Argyll, the Marquis of Lorne, Lady Emma Campbell, and a party of
friends, in the Toward Castle steamer. On that occasion His Grace
expressed himself much pleased with the works and kindly left with me a
donation of L.10 for the workmen.
The building operations in 1840 were entirely carried on by means of
two cranes with moveable jibs, of which one was fixed just beyond the
foundation, at the place shewn in Plate III., between the landing quay
and the Tower, and was chiefly used in bringing forward the materials;
and the other, placed in the centre of the Tower, served for laying
the stones, and was raised along with the rise of the building. So
perfectly had the stones been dressed in the workyard at Tyree, that
no alteration or paring of the beds or joints was required; and such
was the facility afforded by the building apparatus, that by working
14 hours, we occasionally _set_, through the activity of Mr Charles
Stewart, the foreman builder, so many as 85 blocks in a day. The first
course of masonry was laid by means of a wooden trainer; but the place
of all the subsequent stones was, as already noticed, regulated by the
use of _plumb-templets_, whose inner faces were arcs of the generating
hyperbola. By those means we succeeded in _setting_, in a most perfect
manner, six courses, which carried the building to the height of 8
feet 2 inches, and contained a mass equal to 10,780 cubic feet. That
quantity is not greatly less than the whole materials of the Eddystone
Lighthouse Tower, which, according to my computations from the drawings
of SMEATON, do not exceed 13,300 cubic feet, and is somewhat more than
_one-third_ of the contents of the Bell Rock Tower, which are about
28,500 cubic feet. That frustum was also nearly equal to _one-fifth_
part of the whole mass of the proposed building, which is about 56,000
cubic feet. Of the six courses, the first three are of Hynish gneiss,
and the rest are of granite from the Ross of Mull. The comparative
merits of those two materials may be stated as follows:--The Hynish
stone is harder, and susceptible of finer workmanship, and perhaps its
most perfect blocks are more durable; but it requires much more labour
in dressing than the Mull granite, which is more homogeneous in its
structure and is not intersected by hard veins, like those which occur
in the gneiss of Tyree. There is good reason also for concluding that
the Mull stone is sufficiently durable, because it contains but a small
proportion of micaceous matter, and in its texture closely resembles
some of the blocks of St Oran’s chapel in the neighbouring Island of
Iona, which have resisted the action of the weather, it is believed,
for more than 600 years and still retain the marks left by the tools of
the workmen. I had also carefully compared the density of the Hynish
and Mull stones, by weighing blocks of known dimensions, and found that
it requires 13·16 cubic feet of the former, and 13·66 cubic feet of the
latter to weigh one ton, a difference much less than the appearance of
the stone would lead one to expect. A Tower of the dimensions of that
at Skerryvore, built entirely of Hynish stone, would have weighed about
4308 tons, while the same mass of Mull stone would weigh 4252 tons,
leaving a difference of not more than 156 tons in favour of the Hynish
stone.
The mortar employed in the building was composed of equal parts of
Aberdda lime and Pozzolano earth, and was therefore identical, in its
composition, with that used by Smeaton at the Eddystone. Not having
been able, after searching the neighbouring islands, to obtain good
sand, I found it inexpedient to adopt the proportion of equal parts
of lime, sand, and Pozzolano, which were so successfully used at the
Bell Rock; but so perfect was the adhesion of the mortar used at the
Skerryvore, that in that mass of 800 tons only two small leaks were
discernible, which being _ripped_ or opened with an _iron_, and allowed
to run dry, were afterwards carefully repointed, and have never since
shewn the slightest symptoms of leaking.