“By east of the Isle of May, twelve miles from all land
in the German Seas,
lyes a great hidden rock, called Inchcape, very dangerous for navigators"
- John Monypenny (1633)
Inchcape or Bell Rock was one of the most feared hazards to navigation on the
Fife coast of northeastern Scotland. It lay some 11 miles off Arbroath obstructing the path of ships approaching the Firth of
Forth. Bell Rock
was said to be so feared by sailors that as many ships had perished going
aground trying to avoid it as had actually struck the rock itself. The
reddish sandstone rock was only barely visible at low tide and was completely
submerged the rest of the time. Bell Rock had been responsible for the
destruction of hundreds of ships over the years. By the end of the 1700's the
demands from ship owners, Captains, sheriffs and merchants had risen to such a
level that the Scottish Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) was forced to take action.
Previous attempts at marking Bell Rock had met with dismal failure. These
included the Abbot of Aberbrothock's attempt in the 1600's by to install a bell
on the rock, that was cut down by the pirate, Sir Ralph the Rover. In
1799, Captain Joseph Brodie, made several attempts to construct a light on Bell
Rock, the longest of which
lasted five months before being washed to sea by a winter storm. Some
members of the NLB felt that the construction of a lighthouse on Bell Rock was
impossible.
“Canst hear,” said one, “the breakers roar?
For methinks we should be near the shore.”
“Now, where we are I cannot tell,
But I wish we could hear the Inchcape Bell.”
“Inchcape Rock” by Robert Southey
Things came to a head in 1804, when the British man-of-war, HMS York,
struck the Bell Rock and was lost with all hands on board. In 1806, the Northern
Lighthouse Board passed a bill authorizing the sum of
£25,000 for the construction of a stone tower on Bell Rock. Politics
played a role from the project's inception. Robert Stevenson (grandfather
of the author Robert Louis Stevenson) was the assistant to Thomas Smith, the
Engineer for the NLB. Robert, the patriarch of the Lighthouse Stevensons,
had been studying the feasibility of
constructing a lighthouse on Bell Rock since his first visit to the rock in
1800. He had also been lobbying the members of the NLB relentlessly on
behalf of the project, a move which may have been counterproductive. In the event,
John
Rennie, a
contemporary of Robert's was named Chief Engineer on the project, with Robert
assigned to assist him. Time and determination prevailed however and over the
course of the next three years Robert so completely managed the design and
construction that he, rather than Rennie is usually given most of the credit.
“To build a tower high enough to carry a warning light
and stable enough to house three men to watch it, on a rock 11 miles from land,
and buried under 16 feet of water twice every 24 hours in a sea much liable to
storms, was not a task to be lightly undertaken.”
- Robert Stevenson ,
from his account of the Bell Rock lighthouse
Construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse consumed the next five years and
were filled with almost unimaginable hardships. Just walking on the slippery surface of Bell
Rock was a difficult task and it was commonplace for an entire day's work to be
washed away by a single huge wave. Not the least of the problems was that
no one even knew it was possible! Constructing a tower on a scrap of sandstone
whose foundation was underwater most of the time and would be expected to
withstand almost unimaginable forces of wind and seas year after year was more
like pioneering than engineering. Even the most basic tasks such as
transporting materials and landing them on the rock required considerable
ingenuity. Dynamite had only just been introduced as a builder's tool and
was not yet considered trustworthy, concrete hadn't been invented yet, there
were no hydraulic cranes and every scrap of building material had to be hauled
to the site on a boat manned by sailors with a deeply seated and well founded
instinct that Bell Rock was a place to be avoided at all costs. Despite
these daunting obstacles, and many others, work commenced on 16 August 1807 and
continued, weather permitting, until the light was lit on the first of February
1811.
Credit for the design for the Bell Rock lighthouse goes primarily to Robert,
though it certainly draws on the work of John Smeaton who designed the stone
tower of the Eddystone lighthouse in 1759. Although Robert
clearly drew on Smeaton's
work, the demands of the Bell Rock project were much more extreme and
Robert was
forced to invent many completely new construction techniques. The design
of the Bell Rock tower is a study in ingenuity, and a sobering reflection on the
forces of nature.
Initially, a circular "foundation pit," about
a meter deep was chiseled by hand into the surface of the rock.
Eighteen "foundation blocks" were set to level the bottom of the
pit. Carved granite blocks were then laid to form the first full
"course" of 123 interlocking stones that filled the circular
foundation pit. Each
stone was dovetailed to lock it into the others, like a puzzle, and strengthen
the entire form. Each course was also keyed to the one above and below it,
using trenails (oak dowels), wedges and a minimum of mortar. The design of each course varied to
realize the exterior shape of the tower. The first twenty five courses of the
tower were solid dovetailed granite stones, forming a ten meter high base for
the hollow, habitable portion of the tower above it. Above this solid
foundation, the building material switched from granite to sandstone.
Since each stone weighed up to a
ton, the work progressed slowly. During the first year of work, three complete
courses were set, consisting of 400 stones. The 80 men on the project under
Stevenson's supervision worked seven days a week, as much as 16 hours per day.
The working season on Bell Rock ran roughly from May to August though it varied
according to the weather. For the first year, the men shuttled between the
rock and the Smeaton. During that year, a temporary quarters called the Beacon
House was constructed to facilitate the effort.
Once the foundation was complete, the pace of the work increased. The second
year of construction, 1809 brought completion of the 26th stone course, the last
of the solid courses. 1810 marked completion of the tower itself, with the last
stone of the 90th course, the lintel of the Light Room door, being laid on
the 30th of July. Robert Stevenson marked the occasion with the following
invocation:
“May the Great Architect of the Universe, under whose
blessing this perilous work has prospered, preserve it as a guide to the
Mariner.”
The year 1811 brought completion of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. On the
first of February, the unique alternating red and white light was installed and
the tower commenced its mission of warning approaching ships away from the
dangers of the rock on which it stood. Since that time, the Bell Rock
light has been in nearly continuous operation, despite being attacked by enemy
aircraft during World War II, struck by a RAF helicopter, set afire by a
faulty gas pipe, and withstood innumerable storms. The lighthouse was fully
automated and the final crew of lightkeepers relieved on the 26th October 1988
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References
1 The Northern Lighthouse Board: http://www.nlb.org.uk
2 Bell Rock Lighthouse website: http://www.bellrock.org.uk/
3 Diagrams showing the pattern of interlocking
stone courses: http://www.bellrock.org.uk/lighthouse/lighthouse_courses.htm
4 Links to lighthouse resources: http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/lighthouses.htm
Three Great Books about the Lighthouse Stevensons
"A Star for Seamen - The Stevenson Family of Engineers" by Craig Mair
(1978)
"The Lighthouse Stevensons" by Bella Bathurst (1999)
"Bright Lights - The Stevenson Engineers - 1752-1971" by Jean Leslie
and Roland Paxton (1999)
Here's that famous lighthouse picture that lighthouses always make me think of
(Goog it for the image)
"Phares dans la Tempete - La Jument" Jean
GUICHARD