Winstanley tells us that work was commenced in 1696. Government so far smiled upon the undertaking that the guardship Terrible was appointed to accompany both Winstanley and his men on their journeys between Plymouth and the rock; the log-book and journal of this vessel afford us authentic details of the progress of the building. On Saturday, June 6, we find that Captain St. Loe and ‘the Ingineer’ were taken from Plymouth to the Eddystone. But their stay on this occasion was of short duration. The regular work began on July 14, and the plan seems to have been to bring the Terrible to an anchor at a short distance from the Eddystone, and then to despatch Winstanley, and such workmen as he took with him, in the long-boat, to the rock, leaving them to work all day and fetching them back at night; such entries as these in the log being typical of the rest: ‘July 15—proving calm, sent the Ingineers (sic) by long-boat to work; we lying by, off and on, all day. At night they came on board us again. 16th, at 4 a.m., sent the long-boat with the Ingineers to the stone again, returned at night,’ and so on. The Terrible was, except when pursuing some French privateer that chanced to come in sight, in pretty constant attendance, Commissioner St. Loe often coming out from Plymouth to visit the work. Not unfrequently the man-of-war lay off ‘the stone’ all night. Except for an occasional rough day, which prevented Winstanley and his men landing, work was kept on continuously till August 15, when the Terrible was ordered to Ushant, and we hear no more of the works that year. Winstanley tells us something of what this first year’s work comprised. ‘The first summer was spent in making twelve holes in the rock, and fastening twelve great irons to hold the work that was to be done afterwards.’ It was his hope to finish the Eddystone lighthouse in the second year’s work—that is, if he could get adequate assistance from the naval authorities at Plymouth. It was—so he told the Trinity House, and the Trinity House told the Admiralty—his intention to begin work so soon as the calm summer days permitted it. And on June 30, 1697, the commissioners of the Navy wrote to Commissioner St. Loe informing him of the fact, and directing ‘all possible encouragement and assistance’ to be given ‘for the effecting an undertaking that may lead to so much public good, by means of the guardship Terrible and her boats and men,’ not only for the carrying off and bringing on shore, when occasion should require it, the persons employed in this work, ‘but for defending them from any attempts that may be made by the enemy for obstructing the same, unless the guardship and her boats be otherwise employed on his majesty’s service’—in such case some other man-of-war at Plymouth was to take the Terrible’s place. This it seems was an additional favour granted at Winstanley’s request, since, by want of an arrangement of that kind, a great deal of valuable time had been lost in the past.