FETCH, EXPOSURE, AND WAVE-POWER. 85 



Scotland, fourteen stones, each weighing 2 tons, secured by 

 joggles and laid in Portland cement at the level of 35 feet 

 6 inches above high water, were, during a summer gale, torn up 

 and swept away by the waves. 1 



Heavy seas have struck the iron tower on the Fastnet rock, 

 on the coast of Ireland, although founded on a rock the top of 

 which is 70 feet above high water, and the face almost 

 perpendicular. 



In the year 1887, Sir James N. Douglass, when giving 

 evidence before the committee appointed to inquire into the 

 desirability of electrical communication between light- vessels, 

 outlying lighthouses, and the shore, in reply to a question put 

 to him, said 



"I do allude to the force of the sea, which is almost incalculable. 

 I can tell you one circumstance which occurred in building the first 

 Bishop Rock lighthouse, which was afterwards destroyed during 

 a storm. We had landed a portion of one of the iron columns 

 23 feet long and weighing over 3 tons, and were arranging to place 

 it in its socket, when the wind and sea increased so suddenly that we 

 were compelled to leave the rock ; but being very anxious to save 

 the column, as its loss would have involved serious delay to the work, 

 we did all we could to secure it. The lower part of one of the 

 columns was already fixed in the rock at about 6 feet from its lee 

 edge ; we therefore placed the column just landed close to it over 

 the edge of the rock, and nearly vertical, with its foot resting on a 

 projecting bench, and there it was well lashed with ^-inch chain to 

 strong eyebolts ; the top end was also lashed in the same manner to 

 the fixed column, and it was considered to be perfectly secure until 

 we could return. After three days we were able to sail round the 

 rock, with a heavy sea still running, when, to the amazement of my 

 father, who had forty years' experience of sea- work, and of all who 

 witnessed it, we saw that the column had been tossed up 20 feet on 

 to the top of the rock, where it was held by the chain-lashing at its 

 upper end to the fixed column, and was swaying about horizontally 

 like a piece of timber. When we landed two days afterwards, we 

 found another remarkable effect of the storm. In a hole partially 

 sunk in the rock for one of the columns, 2 feet 6 inches diameter 

 and 3 feet 6 inches deep, the blacksmith had left his anvil, weighing 

 H cwt. ; this anvil had been washed out of the hole. When the 

 blacksmith, who had served many years at similar work, discovered 

 his loss, he exclaimed that the devil himself had been there." 

 1 Min. Proc. List. C.E., vol. xlvi. pp. 6, 7. 



