Mr. Stevenson's Account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. 1 61 



cipate. But even when he has provided for the usual contingencies of 

 the elements, he has to encounter storms and surges, the effects of which 

 he could neither foresee nor calculate. 



In greater peril, perhaps, than the military engineer, who erects his works 

 in the middle of cannonading redoubts, and who sees his men falling a- 

 round him, his defences broken down, his implements and his materials 

 crushed or dispersed, the engineer of a submarine-founded lighthouse is 

 surrounded on all points by an enemy still nearer him ; — an enemy that 

 sometimes undermines his foundations, unscrews his bolts, breaks his 

 iron beams, and whirls his granite blocks into the air, as if Neptune and 

 all his court had stumbled over this pillar of the deep. 



The work of which we propose to give here a brief notice, is a large 

 quarto, illustrated with twenty-three engravings. It is ably drawn up by 

 Mr. Stevenson, the engineer of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, and is pub- 

 lished under the direction of the Commissioners of the Northern Light- 

 houses, a body organised in 1786, and to whose labours (which are 

 purely ex officio, and without any remuneration whatever) the country 

 is under the greatest obligations. 



The sunken reef on which this Pharos has been erected, is about 427 

 feet long, and 230 broad, and lies about 12 feet under water at the ordi- 

 nary height of spring tides. The Board of Commissioners, about the 

 year 1800, being desirous of erecting a light-house on this rock, directed 

 Mr. Stevenson, their engineer, to survey it ; he reported, that it was 

 quite practicable to construct a stone building on the principles of the 

 Eddystoue Lighthouse. Various opinions in the first instance existed 

 regarding the practicability of the undertaking, from the depth of the 

 foundation so far surpassing that of the Eddystone. Captain Brodie of 

 the Royal Navy proposed an erection on iron pillars, and other modes 

 were likewise projected, when the Commissioners consulted the late Mr. 

 Rennie. That eminent engineer coincided in opinion with Mr Ste- 

 venson, in favour of a building upon the principles of the Eddy- 

 stone. An act of Parliament was accordingly applied for, and pass- 

 ed in 1806, which provided for a loan to the Board of L. 25,000 ; and 

 as there were surplus duties to the amount of L.20,000 in the hands of 

 the Commissioners, the work commenced with funds to the amount of 

 L.45,000. The operations began in 1807; a temporary floating light 

 was provided ; a work yard for preparing the stones was established at 

 Arbroath ; and a temporary beacon house erected on the rock for the ac- 

 commodation of about 30 workmen. At this period of the undertaking, 

 the labours and dangers of those employed were very great: The lower floor 

 of the beacon house, which was used as a smith's forge and for preparing 

 the mortar, though elevated 25 feet above the rock, was often set adrift 

 by the violence of the sea, and the lime casks, and even the smiths' an- 

 vils, whirled among the waves. During the whole of the operations of 

 the first season, Mr. Stevenson remained constantly with the artificers at 

 the rock, and contributed by his example, as well as by his skilful ma- 

 nagement of the tempers of the workmen, to surmount the difficulties 

 which often threatened to overwhelm them. The dangers of delaying 



vol. II. NO. I. JAN. 1825. M 



