This tower was completed in 1848, and for the first time the navigator making these treacherous waters received a powerful warning to keep clear of Minot’s Ledge. For three years the beacon survived the battering of wind and wave, but its welcome beam was last seen on the night of April 16, 1851. In the spring of that year a gale of terrific fury beat upon the Massachusetts coast. The wind freshened on April 13; the next day it rose to its full force, and did not abate for four days. The good people of Boston grew apprehensive concerning the plight of the two keepers of the lonely Minot’s light, but, however willing they might have been to have put out to the beacon, they were absolutely impotent before the ferocity of the elements. Time after time the light vanished from sight as it was enveloped in an angry curling mountain of water. On April 17 the doleful tolling of the lighthouse bell was heard, but the light was never seen again. The structure had slipped completely from sight, together with its faithful keepers, swallowed by the hungry Atlantic. Evidently the wail of the bell was a last plea for assistance, because no doubt the lighthouse had bowed to the storm and was tottering when the tolling rang out. But the call brought no help; it was the funeral knell of the guardians of the beacon. When the sea went down a boat pushed off to the ledge, and all that was seen were a few bent piles. Captain Swift had done his work well. The waves could not tear his beacon up by the roots, so had snapped off the piles like carrots, and had carried away the lantern. [Illustration: THE MINOT’S LEDGE LIGHT. Marking the rock off Boston Harbour, it is one of the greatest works completed by the lighthouse builders of the United States. It forms the theme of Longfellow’s well-known poem.] This sensational disaster, after a brief existence of three years, did not augur well for the permanence of a light upon this precarious ledge. The Outer Minot appeared to be determined to continue its plunder of ships, cargoes, and lives, untrammelled. Accordingly, for three years no effort was made to bring about its subjugation. In 1855 General Barnard, one of the most illustrious engineers which the United States has ever produced, brought forward the plans for a structure which he thought would resist the most formidable attacks of wind and wave. He took Rudyerd’s famous Eddystone tower as his pattern. This was perhaps the strongest design that could be carried out against the sea, having one weak point only--it was built of wood. General Barnard contemplated a similar structure for Minot’s Ledge, but in masonry.