228 



THE BELL ROCK LIGHTHOUSE. 



PART VII. 



deviations consisting in the substitution of dovetailed 

 pieces of stone for chain bars in the joints both of the 

 walls and the floors. These recommendations having 

 been adopted, Mr. Rennie was authorised to proceed 

 with the requisite preparations for the work ; and, after 

 making all due arrangements, and giving his repre- 

 sentative suitable instructions, he left the practical 

 operations to be carried out by him accordingly. 1 



The whole of the year 1807 was occupied in con- 

 structing the necessary vessels and in erecting the requi- 

 site machinery and building-shops at the working yard 

 at Arbroath, which was fixed upon as the most conve- 

 nient point on the coast for carrying on the land opera- 

 tions. Some progress had been made at the rock itself, 

 where a smith's forge was fixed and a temporary beacon 

 erected, whilst a floating light, fitted up in an old fishing 

 dogger, was anchored near the reef until the lighthouse 

 could be erected. Preparations had also been made for 

 proceeding with the foundations, the necessary exca- 

 vation being conducted at considerable peril, in con- 

 sequence of the violence of the waves and the short 

 period during which the reef was uncovered during each 

 day. The dangerous nature of the employment may be 

 illustrated by the following brief account of an accident 

 which happened to the workmen on the 2nd of Sep- 

 tember, before the excavation for the first course had 

 been completed. An additional number of masons had 

 that morning come off from Arbroath in the tender of 

 forty tons, named The Smeaton, and having landed them 

 on the rock, the vessel rode at salvagee, with a crosshead 

 made fast to the floating buoy. The wind rising, the 

 men began to be uneasy as to the security of the Smea- 

 tons riding-ropes, and a party went off in a boat to 



1 A detailed account of the opera- 

 tions was afterwards published by 

 the assistant-engineer, in his interest- 

 ing work entitled 'An Account of the 



Bell Rock Lighthouse.' By Robert 

 Stevenson, Civil Engineer. Edin- 

 burgh, 1824. 



