... ‘The Board are surprised to heare of the Enginer who was erecting a Light House on the Eddystone being taken away by a French boate and carryed to France, and the more soo because the order sent you relateing to this matter particularly directed that they should have the assistance of the Terrible guardshipp, together with her boates and men, when she was not employed on other necessary services, not only for carrying off and bringing the workmen a shore, but for defending them from any attempts which might be made on them; and it is the direction of their Lordshipps that you doe let them know how it comes to pass that these people had not a sufficient strength to defend them from the enemy according to the said orders, and you having been short in the relation of this unhappy accident, the Board would have you informe yourself, as well as possibly you can, how this whole matter happened and give them a particular account there of.’ More to the point than this inquiry made of Commissioner St. Loe, was the request made by the Admiralty on the following day to the Commissioners of Sick and Wounded, that they should get Winstanley exchanged ‘as soon as possible may be.’ This was apparently done, and the prisoner, none the worse for his short captivity[4], was at work upon the Eddystone with his former workmen by July 6, when the Terrible made an early start from Plymouth and landed those whose business took them to ‘the stone’ by eight o’clock. Narcissus Luttrell makes two references to the event, one on July 3, 1697: ‘The Lords of the Admiralty have sent to France to have Mr. Winstanley, the engineer, who was taken off the Edistone rock, near Plymouth, exchanged according to cartell.’ Ten days later he records the fact that Winstanley had returned, ‘being exchanged according to cartell.’ Narcissus, it may be here observed, himself became personally and financially interested in the Eddystone later on. The rule seems now to have been for the Eddystone party to return to the Terrible at or about sunset, and sail back to Plymouth; a method more cautious, but which evidently impeded the progress of the work, since they often lay weather-bound at Plymouth for several days, as the summer was a very stormy one. It is noteworthy that when Sunday was a fine day the ox or the ass was pulled out of the pit without hesitation. It is curious that Winstanley himself makes no mention of this exciting occurrence. All he says of the second year’s work is that it was spent in making a solid body or round pillar, twelve feet high and fourteen in diameter, which, when finished, gave him and his men more time to work on the stone itself, and ‘something to hold by.’