Winter was approaching, and so the engineers crowded on every man and effort possible, in order to get the structure sunk to the requisite level before work would have to be abandoned for the season. They departed from the engineer’s axiom, “Make haste slowly,” and paid the penalty. When the bad weather broke, compelling the return of all the workmen to shore, the fabric was left insecure. The lower part had been given its filling of concrete, but above a certain level the fabric depended only upon the iron shell of the cylinder. It was stiffened as much as possible with cross-timbers and bracing, but the elements soon made short work of this puny defence. The North Sea, in common with the other large stretches of water throughout the world, was swept by terrible storms that winter, and one morning, when the sea was scanned from shore through glasses, strange to say the caisson was nowhere to be seen. All sorts of rumours were circulated to account for its disappearance, among others being a sensational theory that the caisson, having reached swampy ground while being sunk, had simply dropped suddenly into the submarine quagmire, and had been swallowed up completely. But the divers, when they could get out to the site and could venture into the ocean depths, returned to the surface with a very different story. The waves had snapped off the top of the caisson at the upper level of the concrete within, and had carried it away. Thus ended summarily the first attempt to build a lighthouse upon the red sand at the entrance to the River Weser. [Illustration: _Photo by permission of the North German Lloyd S.S. Co._ THE ROTHERSAND LIGHTHOUSE. This magnificent light marks a dangerous shoal in the estuary of the Weser. The masonry tower is built upon a massive concrete caisson driven deeply into the sand.] The project, however, was not abandoned. The Society Harkort was approached once more, and requested to undertake the work upon its own terms. The invitation was accepted, but the firm, realizing the abnormal risks incidental to the enterprise, revised their price, so as to provide for contingencies. It demanded a sum of £42,650, or $213,250, in return for which it undertook to supply a fully-equipped lighthouse less the illuminating apparatus. The terms were accepted, but the responsible authorities, having suffered a heavy loss from the first failure, decided to protect themselves against a similar disaster, so exacted a bond for £12,000, or $60,000, to be returned when the work should be completed and accepted by the Government. The Society Harkort, on its part, reserved the right to withdraw from the undertaking in the event of the caisson sharing the fate which overtook the first structure.