Account of the Skerryvore lighthouse : $b with notes on the illumination of lighthousesStevenson, Alan
History
Account of the Skerryvore lighthouse : $b with notes on the illumination of lighthouses
Stevenson, Alan
Skerryvore Lighthouse (Hebrides, Scotland)
On the side of the dock stands a crane, which is used for various
purposes connected with the shipment and discharging of materials. It
also serves for raising the booms, by means of a double hook, which can
be attached to the chain and which embraces the pegs in the centre of
each boom, shewn in Plate XI. The two tiers of booms are firmly lashed
down by means of chains passing through ring-bolts in the manner shewn
in the section (Plate XI.), so as to prevent their rising with the
tide.
The necessity of providing somewhere in the neighbouring island of
Tyree for the proper accommodation of the vessel which was to wait
upon the Lighthouse (if it could ever have been a matter of doubt),
was abundantly demonstrated by the experience of 1843, and more
especially by that of the months of November and December. Owing to the
shortness of the day and the distance of any place of shelter from the
Skerryvore, together with the difficulty of landing on the Rock and
the extreme variableness and uncertainty of the climate, the Regent
Tender, although constantly waiting on the coast and making trials on
every occasion that seemed to offer any prospect of success, could not
effect any communication with the people who had been left on the Rock,
during a period of no less than seven _long_ weeks. The poor seamen
who were living in the Barrack passed that time most drearily, for not
only had their clothes been literally worn to rags, but they suffered
the want of many things dearer to them than clothes, and amongst others
of tobacco, the failure of the supply of which they had despondingly
recorded in chalk on the walls of their prison-house, with the date
of the occurrence! Unless, therefore, the vessel had been stationed
near the rock, the few casual and uncertain opportunities which occur
at intervals, during the short days of winter, would often have been
lost, and the future maintenance of the Light rendered excessively
precarious. The experience of subsequent years, during which the relief
of the Light-keepers has been kept up with considerable regularity,
shews that the small Harbour at Hynish forms a most important integral
part of the Establishment of Skerryvore, than which I believe no
Lighthouse on the coast is more comfortable as a residence.
~Bo Pheg Beacon.~
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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