200 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
must have been in the early summer ; for he reckons three 
summers' work prior to the completion of his first design, and 
the exhibition of a light in it on November 14th, 1698. 
His own account, given on the engraving published just after, is : 
"The lighthouse was begun in 1696, and was more than four 
years in building, not from the greatness of the work, but from 
the difficulty and danger of getting backwards and forwards to 
the place, as nothing could be left there safe for the first two 
years, but what was most thoroughly affixed to the rock. The 
first summer was spent in making twelve holes in the rock, and 
fastening twelve great irons to hold the work that was to be done 
afterwards. The next summer was spent in making a solid body, 
or round pillar, twelve feet high, and fourteen in diameter. . . . 
The third year the aforesaid pillar or work was raised, which to 
the vane was eighty feet. Being all finished, with the lantern 
and all the rooms which were in it, we ventured to lodge there 
soon after midsummer, for the greater dispatch of the work. But 
the first night the weather came bad and so continued that it was 
eleven days before any boat could come near us again. . . . [After 
getting on shore] As soon as the weather permitted we returned 
again and finished all and put up the light on the 14 Novr. 1698, 
which being so late in the year, it was three days before Christmas 
before we had relief to come on shore again, and were almost at 
the last extremity for want of provisions . . . and so ended this 
years work. . . . The fourth year finding in the winter (1698-9) 
the effect the sea had upon the house burying the lantern at 
times, although more than sixty feet high, early in the spring I 
encompassed the aforesaid building with a new work four feet in 
thickness from the foundation making all solid near twenty feet 
high and taking down the upper part of the first building made it 
as it now appears." 
After the lighthouse was left in its final state by Mr. Winstanley, 
in 1699, many were the fears expressed for the safety of his curious 
building; but he was confident of its capability of resisting all 
the forces of winds and waves. It is well known that the 
building was utterly destroyed by the terrible storm which visited 
these islands in November, 1703, lasting many days. This storm 
was at its height during the night of the 27th, and during its 
continuance the lighthouse was entirely swept away. The architect 
himself perished with it, for he had gone out two days before 
with some workmen to effect repairs. 
Immediately after the lighthouse was swept away a vessel was 
lost on the reef, the property of a Plymouth merchant, Sir J. 
Kogers. She was laden with tobacco for this port. 
