395
sively erected upon the rock, which were all speedily
carried away. Fortunately it happened that the only
man of the day who seemed capable of overcoming
such a combination of obstacles from winds, and
waves, and sunken rock, had long been brooding
silently upon the enterprise, and devising the means
of success. Even before the storm of 1799 Mr.
Stevenson had prepared a pillar-formed model of a
lighthouse, which he hoped might be available for
the Bell Rock; and in the summer of 1800 he visited
the rock in person, that he might judge of its appli-
cability. He soon saw that his pillar-shaped model
would not suit the situation; but he also saw that it
was practicable to erect a solid stone edifice instead,
upon the plan of the Eddystone lighthouse. To
work, therefore, he went, in the construction of a
new model, where massive blocks of stone were to
be dovetailed into each other, so as to resist every
pressure, both laterally and perpendicularly, and so
connected with iron cased in lead as to be proof
against disruption; while the building itself, high
enough to surmount the waves at their wildest, was
to occupy to the best advantage the narrow founda-
tion which the rock afforded, and present the smallest
front to the force of the tempest. These plans and
models being finished, were submitted to the Light-
house Board, with estimates of the expense of such
a building, which amounted to £42,685, 8s. After
much demur, arising from the expense of the under-
taking, his proposal was duly sanctioned by act of
parliament, and Mr. Stevenson was empowered to
commence operations. Now it was, however, that
a full sense of his new responsibility, hitherto viewed
from a distance, assumed, when looked fully in the
face, a very formidable aspect. "The erection," he
thus wrote in a MS. which he kept for his own use,
"on a rock about twelve miles from land, and so
low in the water that the foundation course must be
at least on a level with the lowest tide, was an enter-
prise so full of uncertainty and hazard, that it could
not fail to press on my mind. I felt regret that I
had not had the opportunity of a greater range of
practice to fit me for such an undertaking. But I
was fortified by an expression of my friend Mr. Clerk
[of Eldin, the improver of naval tactics], in one of
our conversations upon its difficulties. 'This work,'
said he, 'is unique, and can be little forwarded by
experience of ordinary masonic operations. In this
case Smeaton's Narrative must be the text-book,
and energy and perseverance the pratique.' "
The work was commenced by searching for such
a vessel as would serve for a temporary lighthouse,
as well as a habitation for the workmen. This was
soon found in a Prussian fishing-vessel of 82 tons,
one of the captures of the war, which being rounded
off both at stem and stern, was best adapted by its
form for the new service in which it was to be em-
ployed. After having been suitably fitted up and
rigged, this Pharos, as it was now named, was fur-
nished with a large copper lantern for each of its
three masts, and moored near the Bell Rock. Another
vessel, expressly built for the purpose, called the
Smeaton, of 40 tons, was employed in bringing the
stones for the building, that were hewn in the quar-
ries of Rubeslaw near Aberdeen, and Mylnfield near
Dundee, and conveyed to Arbroath, the nearest har-
bour to the rock. The work itself was commenced
on the 18th of August, 1807; and such was the clink
and bang of hammers, the hurrying of feet, and the
din of human voices that now took possession of the
solitude, that the affrighted seals, which had hitherto
regarded the Bell Rock as their own exclusive pro-
perty, went off in shoals in quest of new settlements.
It is not our purpose to detail the daily and almost
hourly difficulties with which Mr. Stevenson had to
contend in a task of seven years' duration, and the
dangers to which he was exposed, while he had to
battle with an almost impracticable foundation, and
the continual war and shifting of elements that op-
posed every step of his progress. On one occasion,
when the Smeaton was drifted out to sea, he was left
with thirty-two workmen upon the rock, which, by
the progress of the flood-tide, would soon be sub-
merged at least twelve feet, while the two boats
which they had at hand could have carried off little
more than half of the company—after perhaps a life-
and-death struggle with their less fortunate compan-
ions. At this critical moment he thus describes
their situation, in the third person: "The writer had
all along been considering various schemes, provid-
ing the men could be kept under command, which
might be put in practice for the general safety, in
hopes that the Smeaton might be able to pick up the
boats to leeward when they were obliged to leave
the rock. He was, accordingly, about to address
the artificers on the perilous nature of their circum-
stances, and to propose that all hands should unstrip
their upper clothing when the higher parts of the
rock were laid under water; that the seamen should
remove every unnecessary weight and incumbrance
from the boats; that a specified number of men
should go into each boat, and that the remainder
should hang by the gunwales, while the boats were
to be rowed gently towards the Smeaton, as the
course to the Pharos, or floating light, lay rather to
windward of the rock. But when he attempted to
speak his mouth was so parched that his tongue re-
fused utterance, and he now learned by experience
that the saliva is as necessary as the tongue itself for
speech. He then turned to one of the pools on the
rock, and lapped a little water, which produced an
immediate relief. But what was his happiness,
when, on rising from this unpleasant beverage, some
one called out, 'A boat! a boat!' and on looking
around, at no great distance, a large boat was seen
through the haze making towards the rock. This
at once enlivened and rejoiced every heart. The
timeous visitor proved to be James Spink, the Bell
Rock pilot, who had come express from Arbroath
with letters. Every one felt the most perfect happi-
ness at leaving the Bell Rock this morning, though
a very hard and even dangerous passage to the float-
ing light still awaited us, as the wind by this time
had increased to a pretty hard gale, accompanied
with a considerable swell of sea. The boats left the
rock about nine, but did not reach the vessel till
twelve o'clock noon, after a most disagreeable and
fatiguing passage of three hours. Every one was
as completely drenched in water as if he had been
dragged astern of the boats." During the two first
seasons occupied on the Bell Rock, Mr. Stevenson's
abode was the Pharos or floating light, as uncom-
fortable as well as perilous a home as the worst
hulks which justice could have devised for the tam-
ing of a sturdy malefactor. Sometimes they had to
ride out a gale, and endure all the horrors that pre-
cede a shipwreck, without the consolation of feeling
that a voyage was in progress, or a port at hand into
which they might run at the worst. On one occa-
sion, indeed, after a storm they found themselves
making a voyage in sad earnest, with the prospect
of being dashed against the Bell Rock by way of
termination—for the Pharos had broke from its
moorings, and was drifting none knew whither.
Even in fair weather it rolled like a tub, or rather
like a barrel, so that such rocking was provocative
of anything but tranquil repose. After the beacon
or barrack was erected, Mr. Stevenson took up his