OPERATIONS OF 1842.
~State of the Rock in Spring of 1842.~
On the 17th of April 1842, I made my first landing on the Skerryvore,
for the season, and found traces of very heavy seas having passed over
the Rock during the preceding winter. Its surface was washed quite
clean from all the scattered materials which were left lying on it at
the end of the last season; and the building, to the height of 6 or 8
feet from the foundation, was covered with a thick coating of green
sea-weed. The railway had suffered considerably from large stones
having been thrown upon it; and several blocks of about half a ton
in weight were found wedged into the deep fissures of the Rock, and
lying among the main timbers of the Barrack. Heavy sprays had been
playing over the Tower, in the upper uncovered apartment of which a
great number of water-worn pebbles or boulders were found. Those stones
had been raised by the heavy surf and deposited on the floor of the
apartment and on the top of the wall at a height of no less than 60
feet above high watermark; but the balance-crane, which had stood all
winter on the top of the Tower, had sustained no damage, although the
canvass cover was torn to shreds by the action of the weather. In the
Barrack every thing was in good order except the smoke-funnel, which,
from the effects of the sea-water, was riddled full of holes and
required to be completely renewed.
~Commencement of Rock operations.~
As I had resolved to keep, during the summer of 1842, a complement
of about eighteen or twenty seamen on the Rock, in addition to the
usual detachment of masons, in order to work the crabs for raising
the materials to the top of the Tower by successive stages; my first
step was to set about preparing additional accommodation in the
Barrack, by converting the open gallery (called _store for coals_,
&c., in Plate V.), immediately below the cook-house, into a covered
apartment for lodgings for the additional hands. I accordingly landed
on the 20th of April, with a stock of provisions, water and fuel and
a party of joiners and a smith, to prepare that apartment by simply
flooring over the joists of the gallery and closing the _triangular_,
or rather _trapezoïdal_, spaces between the uprights of the Barrack,
with double planking, protected on the seams with painted canvass,
so as to render them impervious to the heavy sprays which, even in
summer, dashed forcibly on the lower parts of the Barrack. Windows
were formed on the sides least exposed to the intrusion of the sea;
but, with all our precautions, we could not succeed in keeping dry
even the cots or hammocks, which were suspended there; and it must be
admitted that the addition to the Barrack proved, in bad weather, but a
comfortless retreat, the inconveniences of which few but seamen would
have patiently endured. Those discomforts, however, were to a certain
extent, counterbalanced by some advantages which that singular abode
possessed in hot weather; for, at such times, its inhabitants enjoyed
more room, freer air, and more tolerable temperature, than any of their
neighbours in the highest storey could obtain, owing to the greater
number of persons in that part of the Barrack and its exposure to the
heat of the cook’s stove.
During the remainder of the month of April and the commencement of May
we had frequent stiff gales; and it often happened that the men could
not venture out of the Barrack, owing to the heavy sea which swept
over the Rock. The crane, too, which had been erected at the wharf for
unloading the stones, although its top stood about 8 feet above the
Rock, was often buried in the breakers and seemed in hourly danger of
being carried away, an event which we were the more ready to fear from
our experience in a former season, when the crane disappeared during a
heavy westerly gale. The sea on those occasions also broke so heavily
on the Barrack, that the windows of my apartment, which were about 55
feet above the sea, were often darkened by the sheet of water which
flowed over them after the house had been struck by a wave. From those
causes it was not till the 18th May that we were enabled to occupy the
Rock in full force; and on the day following we commenced building the
38th course on the top of the last year’s work.
After that period we had a long continuance of north-easterly winds,
which always brought both smooth water for landing materials and dry
weather for building; so that by the 23d of May our work had made
such progress and the Tower had risen so high, that the chain of the
balance-crane, which had been raised along with the building, by
sliding it upwards on the cast-iron pillar or shaft placed in the
centre of the Tower, could not reach the top of the _shear-poles_, by
which the stones were raised to the level of about 40 feet above the
Rock; and it was found necessary to rig from the lowest window a beam
or _needle_ (in the manner described at page 155, and as also shewn in
Plate IX. of my Father’s _Account of the Bell-Rock Lighthouse_), as an
intermediate stage between the top of the Tower and the shear-poles on
the Rock. The needle, as already noticed, projected horizontally from
the window and the stones were raised by a chain which passed over the
sheave at its outer end and was wrought by means of a crab placed in
the interior of the Tower. In that manner we continued for about six
weeks, with little interruption from the weather, to raise the blocks
of stone to the top of the Tower by successive needles from storey to
storey; while the mortar, lewis-bats and other lighter materials were
raised at once by means of a line wrought by a windlass placed on the
Rock.
On the night of Saturday the 9th of July, however, a heavy sea, caused
by a combination of high tides and strong gales, threw down some of
the stones of the belt course which lay piled up round the base of
the Tower ready to be raised for building; and they were with great
difficulty, but most happily, saved from the insatiable deep. The loss
of any of the stones of that course would have been a serious obstacle
to the progress of the works and might have prevented our completing
the erection of the lantern until next year; and indeed, as that
course formed a prominent feature of the Tower, any slight injury even
to the arris or corners of the outer face would have been much to be
regretted. It was with great satisfaction, therefore, that it was found
on examination next morning that none of the stones had sustained the
slightest damage.
~Last Stone.~
On the 21st July the last stones of the Tower were safely landed
on the Rock, under a salute from the steamer, as an expression, no
doubt, of the satisfaction which the commander Mr Kerr and his crew
naturally felt at having successfully brought out not fewer than 75
lighter loads, or about 1500 tons, of stone during the season, as well
as in some measure of their joy at the prospect of a speedy and happy
termination of our arduous labours. The process of landing, indeed,
owing to the fine weather that prevailed throughout the season, was
very easy, compared with that of former years; in proof of which, I
may state, that in 1841, there were often as many as five warps broken
at a single landing, while in 1842, not a single rope was broken in
the discharging of the stones. On the 25th July the last stone of
the parapet or top-course was built; and immediately thereafter we
proceeded to remove from the Tower, the balance-crane and the cast-iron
pillar on which it was swung, and to make way for the erection of the
Lantern.
In looking back upon the works we found great cause for thankfulness
for the successful conclusion of the building operations, without loss
of life, or even the occurrence of any serious accident, excepting the
destruction of the first Barrack in November 1839. It also gave me
great satisfaction to reflect that, however difficult a rigid adherence
to scrupulous accuracy of workmanship may be in such a situation as
the Skerryvore, it had nevertheless, from the exactness with which
the stones were dressed, on no occasion been necessary, throughout the
execution of the whole work, to deviate from the rule which I had laid
down of carefully gauging the diameter of each course and of admitting
no variation from the true form materially exceeding ¹⁄₈ inch. Every
part of the stone work, indeed, was fitted in an accurate manner and
the floor stones, in particular, which serve as _ties_ across the
building, were finely dressed and carefully set. All opportunities were
also embraced, whenever it was practicable, to grout each course over
night that the recent masonry might be in a state fit for building upon
in the morning; and by those precautions and the peculiar properties
of the mortar used, any disadvantages from very rapid building were
entirely avoided. Even the elliptic cavetto which forms the cornice
and which projects no less than three feet from the face of the wall,
although bearing a very heavy _entablature_ or _plinth_, never gave any
signs of _settling_ outwards; and when I examined it from a stage hung
from the end of the balance-crane just before it was removed, there was
no appearance of any change in the thickness of the joints, although
the outer heads of the stones had been purposely kept a little high to
allow for any tendency to settlement. The effect of the cornice is very
bold and striking and is quite in accordance with the simple and almost
severe style of the pillar itself. The masonry of the Tower is 137 feet
11 inches in height and it contains 58,580 cubic feet or about 4308
tons.
~The Lantern.~
The day after landing the last stone of the parapet, the steamer
started from Tyree for Greenock, with two lighters in tow, for the
transport of the Lantern; and by the 10th of August the whole was
landed on the Rock. No time was lost in preparing the beds for the
sole-plates of the Lantern, and that operation had been nearly
completed when my Father, in the course of his annual tour of
inspection, as Engineer for the Northern Lights, visited the Rock, two
days after the iron work had been landed. By the 16th the whole of the
sashes and the frame of the roof were to their places; and on the same
day the fixtures of the lightning-conductor were completed. On the
18th of August Mr Bruce, the Sheriff of Argyll, and some gentlemen who
accompanied him and had spent the preceding night at Hynish, visited
the Rock; and, after breakfasting at the base of the Tower, ascended to
the top and minutely inspected every part of the work. They afterwards
returned to Hynish, whither I accompanied them and had an opportunity
of pointing out to Mr Bruce the various works in progress there. The
party sailed for Oban in the afternoon of the same day.
From want of room on the Rock it was found necessary to build the roof
of the Lantern in separate pieces instead of rivetting together the
sheets of which it was composed on the ground, and raising the whole
to the top in one mass, as is usually done; but, in spite of that
disadvantage, the work was brought to a close for the season on the
14th September, on which day the glazing of the Lantern was completed
and the glass was covered with a framework of timber to protect it
from the sea-fowls which frequent in myriads the Rock and the Tower.
The workmen were, on the same day, removed from the Rock, although
with much difficulty, owing to the heavy surf which broke over the
landing-place and rendered the embarkation more perilous than almost
any I had before experienced at the Skerryvore.