130 Sir James N. Douglass [March 15, 



season of 1850, the lighthouse was so far completed as to be in 

 readiness for receiving the lantern and the illuminating apparatus ; 

 and it was left with confidence, to resist the storms of the approach- 

 ing winter. But during a very violent storm, between 11 p.m. of the 5th 

 and 3 a.m. on the 6th of the following February, the lighthouse was 

 completely destroyed and swept from the rock. On further con- 

 sideration of the matter, the Trinity House determined, on the 

 recommendation of their engineers, to proceed with a stone structure, 

 and my father was appointed to build the lighthouse, I acting as 

 before as Assistant Engineer. The work was proceeded with in the 

 spring of 1851. In order to obtain the greatest possible diameter of 

 base for the tower that the rock would admit of, it was found 

 necessary to lay a portion of the foundation on the most exposed side of 

 the rock, at the level of one foot below low-water of spring tides ; and, 

 although every possible human effort was made by the leader, and his 

 devoted band of workere, the foundations were not completed until the 

 end of the season of 1852. Soon after this, my brother, Mr. William 

 Douglass, now Engineer-in-Chief to the Commissioners of Irish Lights, 

 succeeded me as assistant engineer at the work. The lighthouse was 

 completed in 1858, and its dioptric fixed oil light of the first order 

 was first exhibited on the 1st of September of that year. Soon after- 

 wards, its exposure to heavy seas during storms, was fully realised. 

 On one occasion the Fog Bell was torn from its bracket at the lantern 

 gallery at 100 feet above high water, and the flag staff with a ladder, 

 which were lashed outside the lantern, were washed away. The 

 tremor of the tower on these occasions was such as to throw articles 

 off' shelves, and several of the large glass prisms of the Dioptric 

 Apparatus were fractured. After some time it was found that several 

 of the external blocks of granite situated a few feet above high water 

 were fractured by the excessive strains on the building. In 1874 the 

 tower was strengthened from top to bottom by heavy iron ties, bolted 

 to the internal surface of the walls ; but, after a violent storm in the 

 winter of 1881, there was evidence of further excessive straining at 

 the face of the lower external blocks of masonry, when the Trinity 

 House, on the advice of their engineer, determined on the re-erection 

 of the lighthouse. This was accomplished, as shown on the diagram, 

 by encasing the existing tower with carefully dovetailed granite 

 masonry, each alternate block of the new granite being dovetailed to 

 the old. The work was one of considerable difficulty, owing to the 

 necessity for maintaining the light throughout the progress ; and the 

 risk to the workmen was great, especially at the upper part of the old 

 tower, owing to the narrow ledge on which the work had to be executed. 

 I am, however, thankful to state that the new Lighthouse has been 

 successfully completed by my son, Mr. W. T. Douglass, who was also my 

 assistant engineer at the Eddystone ; and with the same complete immu- 

 nity from loss of life, or limb, to any person employed, as with the two 

 previous structures on this rock. The optical apparatus consists of 

 two superposed tiers of lenses of the type adopted at the Eddystone, 



