An Account of the Bell Rock Light-House: Including the Details of the Erection and Peculiar Structure of That Edifice; to Which Is Prefixed a Historical View of the Institution and Progress of the Northern Light-HousesStevenson, Robert
History
An Account of the Bell Rock Light-House: Including the Details of the Erection and Peculiar Structure of That Edifice; to Which Is Prefixed a Historical View of the Institution and Progress of the Northern Light-Houses
Stevenson, Robert
Bell Rock Lighthouse (Scotland); Lighthouses -- Scotland
The wind was from the S. W. to-day, and the signal-bell rung, as usual,
about an hour before the period for landing on the Rock. The writer was
rather surprised, however, to hear the landing-master repeatedly call,
“All hands for the Rock;” and, coming on deck, he was disappointed to
find the seamen only in the boats. Upon inquiry, it appeared, that some
misunderstanding had taken place about the wages of the artificers
for Sundays. They had preferred wages for seven days statedly, to
the former mode of allowing a day for each tide’s work on Sunday; as
they did not like the appearance of working for double or even treble
wages on Sunday, and would rather have it understood that their work
on that day arose more from the urgency of the case, than with a view
to emolument. This having been judged creditable to their religious
feelings, and readily adjusted to their wish, the boats proceeded
to the Rock, and the work commenced at 9 A. M. The artificers were
chiefly employed in removing the iron-stanchions, or frame-work of the
forge, which had last year been fixed on the rock, and which was now
set on a temporary scaffold erected for it on the Beacon. Having now
got two smiths’ hearths above the reach of the tide, the work of this
department made great progress, both in the sharping of the numerous
picks and irons, and in making bats for fixing the different railway
tracks upon the Rock. After getting three and a half hours’ work, the
boats returned to the ship at 12 noon, when the excellent prayer,
composed by the Rev. Dr Brunton, given in a former part of this work,
was read upon the ship’s quarter-deck, in the same manner as had been
done last year.
The sloop Smeaton arrived this afternoon with a quantity of cast-iron
rails, to be laid upon the Rock, for transporting the blocks of stone
from the different landing-places to the site of the building. She had
also on board some Norway logs, intended to be batted on the Rock, for
supporting the railways across the gullies, or inequalities of the
surface. The boats of the Sir Joseph Banks and Floating-light, being
employed during the evening tide in delivering the Smeaton, by landing
the cast-iron on the Rock, and bringing the timber on board of the
Tender, the artificers could not be landed this evening.
[Sidenote: Monday 30th.]
[Sidenote: Fish very abundant at the rock.]
The weather to-day was moderate, and there was much less breach in the
sea than there had been since the commencement of the work this season.
The wind kept steadily in the south-west, and the barometer had changed
its range from 29.40 to 29.90, and the thermometer from about 40° to
45°. The abundance of fish caught near the Rock was another proof of
the more favourable state of the weather; for the fish never failed
to come upon the anchorage-ground during good weather, while they as
regularly disappeared on a change for the worse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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