1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



181 



VIEW OF THE COLUMN NOW ERECTING BY GENERAL 

 BROWNE CLAYTON, ON THE ROCK OF CARRICK A 

 DAGGON, COUNTY OF WEXFORD, IRELAND. 



The column is a fac-simile of Pompev's Pillar, but not monolithic* 

 it is being constructed under the directions of Mr. Cobden the architecti 

 of granite, from the county of Carlow, with a staircase up the centre, 

 the situation upon which it is erected is a considerable eminence 

 above the sea, and when finished will form a conspicuous land mark 

 for mariners. The following are the principal dimensions of the 

 column, height of base 10 ft. 4 in., shaft and base 73 ft. 64 in., capital 



10 ft. a in., total height 94 ft. 3 in., diameter of shaft at the base 8 ft. 



11 in., and at the top 7 ft. 8 in. 



" This column is to commemorate the conquest of Egypt, and the events of 

 the campaign under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby, K.B., in the 

 year 1801, when General Browne Clayton, (then Lieut. Colonel), commanded 

 the 12th Light Dragoons, and afterwards commanded the cavalry in pursuit 

 of the enemy to Grand Cairo, taking besides other detachments a convoy in 

 the Lybian Desert, composed of 600 French cavalry, infantry, and artillery, 

 commanded by Colonel Cavalier, together with Buonaparte's celebrated 

 Dromedary corps, one four pounder, and one stand of colours, and capturing 

 300 horses and dromedaries, and 550 camels. 



" The events of this campaign are further to be commemorated, by the ap- 

 pointment of trustees under the will of General Browne Clayton, who shall 

 annually at sun rise on the morning of the 21st of March, (when the French 

 under the command of General Menou, attacked the British encampment be- 

 No. 33.— Vol. III.— June, 1840. 



fore Alexandria), raise the standard on the column, and hoist the tricolour 

 French flag which shall remain until the hour of 10 o'clock, when the British 

 flag shall be hoisted and kept up untU sunset, as a memorial of the defeat of 

 the French, which event forms the prelude of Britannia's triumphs through a 

 regular and unbroken series of glory and prosperity down to the battle of 

 Waterloo, in 1815. And on the 28th of March annually, the British flag 

 shall be hoisted half standard high as a memorial of the death of the brave 

 commander-in-chief Sir Ralph Abercromby, who died of the wounds which 

 he received before Alexandria, on the 21st of March 1801." 



WYRE LIGHTHOUSE. 



Description and structure of the Wyre (SeawardJ Lighthouse, leading to 



Port Fleetwood* 



It was my study when planning this navigation to identify the remotest 

 spit of bank turning into it, without subjecting the mariner to the treacherous, 

 and, at best, but partially-hghting agent, a Light Vessel ; Messrs. Alexander 

 Mitchell and Son, of Belfast, readily took up the proposition, and the Board 

 of Directors of the railway and harbour project, as readily adopted the appU- 

 cation of Mitchell's ingenious mooring screwf to the insertion and basing of 

 piles or pillars, in sub-marine foundation. I had given much trouble to 

 Messrs. Mitchell, when unavailingly submitting their plans and specifications 

 to the Liverpool Dock Committee, (Oct. 4, 1838,) of so perfect a mode of 

 establishing hghts out upon the very banks of a navigation, whereby the 

 power and object of a hghthouse is enhanced by proximity with the anxious 

 observer from sea. In fact, a hghthouse can be thus erected upon any under- 

 water spit, as indifferent to a 30-feet rise of tide and channel surge, whilst 

 sending forth its hght of the same character and stability, as if on the main 

 land ; thereby throwing it more intensely and effectively on the region re. 

 quired, especially where shoals out-he the main to any extent. Its time in 

 erection, the shortest possible.^ and of so portable a structure that it may be 

 removed, if local changes require, to another site in a month. Wherefore, 

 then, should not every spit, now guarded by a light-vessel, with her unavoid- 

 ably inferior order of lights, rendered more so in a gale of wind by pitching, 

 floundering about, and ever and anon submerged in the trough of sea, spray, 

 and spoon-drift, and that too when most wanted, and often at the very crisis 

 of exigency to all around, breaking adrift ? Wherefore not supersede them 

 by so purpose-like a fabric ? Let those who take interest, but who doubt or 

 cannot conceive the matter, go to Fleetwood-mount Observatory, command- 

 ing the mouth of Wyre, and watch the effects of a westerly gale upon the 

 first of its kind, (not associating the effects of a sea-way upon the Eddystone 

 or Bell Rock, for the screw-piled pillars do not oppose the sea). A structure 

 destined to save many a gallant bark that would othervrise drive, unbeaconed 

 and unwarned, upon the sands of Morecambe Bay, and I doubt not will give 

 rise to a general adoption ; whilst rendering it imperative on local guardians 

 of a navigation, to estabhsh refuges for the cast-away mariner, on the 

 isolated banks ; since, by this method, the practicabihty is manifested. In- 

 deed, this sub-marine method of commanding foundation and hold-fast, so 

 ingeniously contrived by Messrs. Mitchell, combines the vital essentials to the 

 seaman's hope, of warning, grading, succouring, and, when in port, securing.' 

 The figure of this first ' Screw-pile' Lighthouse in the United Kingdom,— in 

 the world I may say, is shown m the annexed engraving, and presents to the 

 eye a well-proportioned group of columns rising out of the sea, in the inter- 

 vening and over-lapping order that hexagonal or six-angled figures produce, 

 according to the separate angles you may be opposite to ; a systematic inter- 

 lacing of tension-rods renders the fabric sufficiently opaque, even below the 

 platform ; but above the platform, of 27 feet diameter, you have a six-angled 

 dwelhng-house of 20 feet diameter, by 9 feet high ; on the centre of which 

 rises the 12-sided lantern, with Chinese roof, of 10 feet diameter. Thus, you 

 have a figure of 46 feet spread at the base, contracting at the platform bal- 

 cony to 27 feet, and elevated 45 above low-water level ; surmounted, as 

 stated, by a bulky, yet pleasing and eff'ective, superstructure, comprising a 



• We are indebted for this description and drawing to a very able work, 

 by Commander H. M. Denham, R.N., F.K.S., lately published at Liverpool. 



t See Journal, Vol. II., p. 38, 



♦ The Wyre Lighthouse was reared in two of the shortest-day months in 

 the year, not affording daylight during a low-water period, spring tides, Irut 

 depending on flambeaus or moonlight. 



' 2 B 



