On the 7th of August 1807 the work was begun. The first stage was the erection of a wooden workshop and residence for the artificers, and this apparently simple operation occupied the whole season, the supports having to be firmly fixed in holes dug out of the solid rock. The hardness and compactness of the sandstone, however, soon blunted their tools, and rendered necessary the constant employment of a smith with his forge. But it often happened, says Mr. Stevenson, to our annoyance and disappointment, in the early state of the work, when the smith was in the middle of “a favourite heat,” and fashioning some useful article, or sharpening the tools, after the flood-tide had compelled the men to strike work, a sea would come rolling over the rocks, dash out the fire, and endanger that indispensable implement, the bellows; or, if the sea were smooth, while the smith often stood at work knee-deep in the water, the tide rose imperceptibly, first cooling the exterior of the fireplace, or hearth, and then quietly blackening and extinguishing the fire from below. Mr. Stevenson was frequently amused at the anxiety and perplexity of the unfortunate smith when coaxing his fire, and endeavouring in vain to contend against the rising tide. Obviously the work would go on but slowly, until the workshop (also intended to serve as a beacon) was completed, and the smith protected against the insidious waters.[36] [36] Stevenson, “Account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse,” p. 125. To prevent the repetition of useless references, we would here acknowledge that in the following pages we have closely followed Mr. Stevenson’s own narrative. Dangers of a far more serious kind also beset the patient founders of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. On the 2nd of September, after the first cargo of stones had been landed, and while thirty-two artificers were busily occupied in their various departments of labour, a gale arose, and the attendant vessel—named the _Smeaton_, after the great English engineer—broke adrift from her moorings. This unfortunate circumstance, at first, was known only to Mr. Stevenson and his landing-master, who fully appreciated the gravity of the situation—thirty-two men on an insulated rock, which, at flood-tide, lay twelve feet under water, with only two boats at hand, and these not capable in foul weather of carrying more than eight men each.