Chapter IV: Operations of 1838 (2)

_11th September._--This was our last day’s work on the Rock this season. We landed at four o’clock with very great difficulty, and some danger of having our boats swamped; and we were forced, owing to the heavy sea which broke upon it, to leave the Rock at high water; but, about one o’clock, we were enabled to return, as the sea fell a little. By dint of great exertions, we got the last of the diagonal braces fixed, and the bats run up with lead and painted, for their protection against corrosion. We also contrived to remove the greater part of the tools from the Rock, but some we were forced to leave to their fate. To the upper part of the pyramid we lashed a water-tight chest, containing biscuits and a cask of water, to serve as a means of support to any shipwrecked mariners who might chance to reach the Rock. I also caused some spars to be lashed at various levels, by way of testing the effects of the sea; but to how little purpose, the sequel will shew. Before leaving the Rock, I climbed to the top of the pyramid, from which I now, for the first time, got a bird’s eye view of the various shoals which the stormy state of the sea so well disclosed; and my elevation above the Rock itself decreased the apparent elevation of the rugged ledge so much, that it seemed to me as if each successive wave must sweep right over its surface, and carry us all before it into the wide Atlantic. So loud was the roaring of the wind among the timbers of the barrack, and so hoarse the clamour of the waves, that I could not hear the voices of the men below; and I, with difficulty, occasionally caught the sharp tinkle of the hammers on the Rock. When I looked back upon the works of the season, upon our difficulties, and, I must add, dangers, and the small result of our exertions--for we had only been 165 hours at work on the Rock between the 7th August and the 11th September--I could see that, in good truth, there were many difficulties before us; but there was also much cause for thankfulness, in the many escapes we had made.

After a somewhat precarious embarkation in the boats, and shipping several seas in our way, we reached the vessel, and immediately set sail with three cheers, rejoicing to have thus concluded our season’s work.

~Destruction of the barrack during a gale.~

~Letter from Mr Hogben.~

After spending a few days at Hynish in making various arrangements for the operations of the next season, which were to embrace the extension of the pier, the completion of the barracks and the erection of sheds and workshops for carrying on the dressing of the materials for the Lighthouse Tower, I left Tyree with the pleasing belief that the successful termination of our first season’s labours might be taken as an omen of future success. But how uncertain are even the most rational sources of satisfaction which Time can furnish! On the 12th November, I received from Mr Hogben, the clerk and store-keeper at Tyree, the unwelcome intelligence that the Barrack-house had been destroyed, as was supposed, by the heavy sea of the 3d November; and as his letters contain all the facts of the case in so far as they could be collected at the time, I cannot do better than quote them at full length:--“_Skerryvore Lighthouse Works, Tyree, 5th November 1838._--Dear Sir,--I am extremely sorry to inform you, that the barrack erected on Skerryvore Rock has totally disappeared. It was seen on the 31st of October, when I observed no change in its appearance. On the two following days the weather was showery, with haze, so that the Rock was not seen; and on the 3d it rained almost all day, with strong breezes. In the evening the wind increased to a gale, with a great swell, and an extraordinary high tide. Yesterday (Sunday the 4th) the weather was moderate, but the swell prevented the Rock being seen from the low ground. Mr Scott and Charles Barclay, however, having gone to the top of Ben Hynish, got a momentary glimpse of the Rock through the spray, and both were of opinion that the barrack was gone. This was not credited by the workmen who had been employed at it, but this morning we found it to be the case; the Rock was pretty clearly seen, but no trace of the barrack. From the circumstance of the yard of a large vessel, and also a piece of a boom, having come ashore in the direction of the Rock, we think it is not improbable that some wreck has happened, and that some part of it has been thrown upon the barrack by the force of the sea. Should any opportunity occur for going out to the Rock, we shall take advantage of it, in order to give you farther information on the subject. I remain, &c. (Signed) WM. S. HOGBEN.” A subsequent letter from Mr Hogben is of the following tenor:--“_Skerryvore Lighthouse Works, Tyree, 10th November 1838._--Dear Sir,--This morning, Charles Barclay, with a boat and four men, went out to the Rock to view the site of the barrack; and, the weather being moderate, he got a good landing. The following is the state in which he found everything:--The whole barrack timbers had been carried away, excepting the long beam next the place where the crab stood which drew up the beams, and about seven feet of the long beam opposite the place where the other crab stood. The former of these beams had fallen in the direction of the highest part of the Rock, and had drawn one of the iron stancheons 16 inches. The latter was all in splinters, with one of the iron stancheons broken, and the other bent. The rest of the stancheons were broken at the point between the round and the flat, and some of them were drawn about 9 inches. The iron hoop which bound the top of the beams was lying at the distance of about the length of the beams to the eastward of the centre of the barrack, having one of its screws broken. Five large wooden knees were remaining, a ladder partly broken, some moulds for taking the angle of the beams, and most of the quarry and masons’ tools. The grindstone was thrown from the top of the Rock into a deep hole on the side next Tyree, a distance of about 12 yards, apparently whole. The smith’s forge had disappeared, and the anvil had been thrown about 8 yards to the N.E. of the place, where it was left; it was brought ashore, along with the hoop which encircled the top of the barrack. The iron posts which supported the bellows were standing. The crab on the S.W. side was thrown from its place to the east side of the site of the barrack, a distance of about 15 or 20 yards, and was dashed to pieces, excepting the axle, handles, pinion, and the trunk of the barrel. The other crab was thrown from its place to the N.E., over a part of the rock 5 or 6 feet high, to a distance of about 6 yards, and was found in a similar state to the former. A stone measuring three-fourths of a ton was found near the seat of one of the beams; it had been thrown up from the hole where it had been deposited while cutting the seats for the barrack timbers. One of the ring-bolts near the top of the Rock to which the chain binding the wood had been made fast, was broken close by the surface of the Rock, and the wood was all gone. The mooring buoy has also disappeared. The barrack was seen from the top of Ben Keen-na-vara, by some men on Saturday, 3d November, so that the succeeding night, which was truly awful, must have done the damage. I may mention, that many of the islanders say that they have not seen such a swell as on that evening for about sixteen years. I am happy to say that no damage has been done to the works on shore here, as on that evening the wind was about S.W., and we are pretty much sheltered from the wind in that direction. The shore on the S.W. side of the island is strewed with sea-weed, which has been carried up far beyond the usual reach of the tide. Hoping that the above information will suffice, I remain, &c.

(Signed) “WM. S. HOGBEN.”

~Proceed to Skerryvore.~

~State in which the Rock was found.~

On the day on which I received this discouraging intelligence, I requested a special meeting of the Committee, for the purpose of deliberating as to the best course to be pursued, when I received instructions to proceed to the Rock, and for that purpose to hire a steamer at Glasgow. I accordingly started that very evening for Skerryvore, with the intention at the same time of removing such of the men from Tyree as were not to be employed during the winter. I left Greenock in the steamer _Tobermory_, accompanied by Mr Macurich of the Lighthouse tender, at midnight of the 14th November, after some delay in repairing a leak in the boiler, which was discovered in time before starting, and reached Hynish at 11 on the forenoon of the 16th, having got a good passage round the Mull of Kintyre. The weather was, however, in every other respect most unfavourable for the purpose; and having merely touched, in passing Tyree, at the workyard at Hynish, to inquire whether any thing farther had transpired, and to take on board Mr Charles Barclay, who had visited the Rock after the loss of the barrack, we at once proceeded and reached Skerryvore about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The sea ran very high, and there was not the most remote chance of landing, but, having got into the boat, I approached near enough to the Rock to enable me to survey the melancholy remains of our labours, which seemed to be in the same state in which they were described by Mr Hogben. The beam which lay back on the inclined ledge still kept its place, having been firmly lashed by Mr Charles Barclay to a ring which was near it when he landed on the 10th November; and I could see the remains of some of the stancheons and of the crabs which the sea had left. After waiting, in the hope of a change in the state of the sea, until it was nearly dark, we again turned towards Tyree, in all the gloom of a stormy night, and depressed by mingled disappointment and sad forebodings, occasioned by the fate of our intended asylum from the waves. Owing to the heavy sea, and a strong gale against us, we hung for a long time off Hynish Point, and did not reach the Bay till midnight. Next morning about 7, we came off Hynish, in order to take in the men who were to go home for the winter. The ground was deeply covered with snow, which made the embarkation of so many persons and so much baggage a tedious and uncomfortable operation; and when we sailed, we experienced all the inconveniences of a strong gale and a heavy sea, with the concomitant of a deck covered with passengers, all very sick and much dispirited. Many of the men, indeed, seemed to be as deeply concerned for the loss we had sustained as I myself was. To add to our difficulties, the vessel, under the care of a native pilot, had touched slightly on a rock off Hynish Point, and gave some indications of leaking. We, however, reached Oban in safety.

~Cause of the destruction of the barrack.~

Various conjectures were made as to the cause of the destruction of the barrack. Those who saw it erected were so confident of its stability, that they could not avoid connecting its failure with some injury received from the wreck-timber, which had come ashore on the island of Tyree, two days after the supposed date of the accident. In this opinion they were strengthened by the total destruction of the cranes and other objects on the rock, forgetting that the timber of the barrack itself, when once let loose, must of necessity have proved even a more powerful agent of destruction than the driftwood of the wreck. But whatever doubt may exist as to the first cause of the injury, there seems good reason to suppose that the dismemberment of the parts of the structure had commenced with the removal of the horizontal braces, and that the beams, having thus more liberty for play and tremor, had gradually shaken loose the fixtures at the top, which consisted of straps _c_ _c_, passing right over the tops _a_ _a_, of the beams and _b b_, the hexagonal quoin of hardwood already noticed at p. 88, which were secured by means of a central bolt _d_, and finally girt outside by a ring, _e_ _e_, as shewn in the annexed woodcut (No. 10.) The moment this dismemberment occurred, the beams would be free to work their own destruction; and the enormous leverage which they exerted, when dashed to and fro by the breakers, would soon snap the iron stancheons at the base, and throw all loose to the waves. The only remaining beam was that which was supported against a ledge of rock, and which had received the sea from the opposite direction to that in which it was found lying. That beam, however, although firmly lashed to the rock by the men who first visited it after the accident, along with Mr Charles Barclay, also disappeared in the course of the winter. As a proof how severely these beams had been dashed by the waves, I may state, that the only remaining part of a beam which I saw attached to the iron stancheons, when I landed in the following spring, was so thoroughly riven and _shaken_ as to be quite like a bundle of lathwood.

~Preparations for a new barrack.~

These circumstances by no means shook my belief in the suitableness of the plan adopted for obtaining a temporary dwelling on the rock; but they induced me, as soon as I received authority from the Commissioners, whose confident expectation of final success was not damped by the unhappy issue of our season’s labours, to examine very carefully the whole details of the ties and fastenings. In preparing a similar structure for next season, I resolved to strengthen the ties at the top, where I imagined the former failure to have occurred, by adding six strong stancheons _a_, _a_ (Plate V.), one to each beam, with heads passing through a centre-plate (H), which united them in one as a cap and to which they were secured by strong screws and keys. The nature of those fixtures will be more easily understood by a reference to the figures (1) and (2) in Plate VI., which shew an elevation and plan of the upper part of the beams. In the elevation only the beams A, B, C, are shewn; but in the plan, all the six beams appear _mitering_ at their heads _n_, _n_, to the central beam or tie _o_, _o_ (see also Plate V.), which was introduced to counteract the tendency of the heavy seas that might burst inside the pyramid, and by exerting a powerful force in the vertical direction, might separate the beams at the top. In the Plate (VI.), _a_, _a_, are strong stancheons of iron attached to the outside of the beams by bolts, and also by collars _r_, _r_, attached to ears _g_, _g_. These stancheons being bent into the vertical direction and rounded at the top, passed through the malleable iron plate H, which was held down, and, as already stated, bound the beams together by nuts _c_, _c_, and wedges _b_, _b_. Through a hole in the centre of this plate, a large spike _p_ was driven, which produced an expansion of the central beam, and thus wedged up or tightened all the joints formed by the _mitering_ of the seven timbers. On each of those stancheons, _snugs_ were formed at _e_, capable of receiving and retaining in its place against any tendency to move upwards, a strong metallic ring _g_, which was tightly keyed by wedges at _k_. Additional ties of iron D, E, F, were also provided, which connected the six beams together in pairs. Each end of those ties was attached to the timbers by three spikes; one tie, D, is shewn a little fore-shortened; another, E, is seen only on the end; while the third F, is shewn as cut off at the middle. Lastly, an important change was made, by the substitution of malleable iron for wooden braces (see Plate V.) _b_, _b_, _b_, _b_, in the horizontal direction. Fixtures of this kind held the whole more firmly together; and their construction was such that they might firmly embrace each beam, without requiring any means of attachment beyond wedging tightly up; and thus the entire strength of the timbers was unimpaired by the driving of spikes or bolts. Those braces (No. 11), _a_, _a_, had, at each end, double knobs, and were pushed up along the beams, until they squeezed the timbers _x_, _x_, _x_ between them; plates _p_, _p_ (having holes in them through which the double knobs of the braces were made to pass), were then put on and keyed and screwed, as shewn in the figure, so that each beam was quite enclosed by fixtures, which were thus independent of spikes or bolts. Thin hardwood wedges were afterwards driven in, wherever they could be inserted between the iron and the timber; and those wedges were “_stitched_” to the beams with common nails, merely to prevent their dropping downward, after any temporary contraction of the timber from the state of the atmosphere. In all this, I have anticipated what more properly belongs to the works of the season 1839; but I consider it best, for the sake of clearness, to connect this account of the new with the destruction of the old Barrack.

* * * * *

~Works at Hynish.~

While the operations already described were in progress at the Rock, various works were going forward at the workyard in Tyree. About 16 masons, 12 quarriers, and 4 carpenters, were employed in building the barracks for the workmen and in erecting smiths’ and carpenters’ shops. A large room, paved with a stone floor, for drawing out at full size the courses of the Tower and making the moulds for dressing the stones, was also provided; and a platform of squared masonry was set in the workyard, on which the courses were to be laid, before being shipped for the Rock. During the season, the pier had also been carried out 256 feet, to a point 15 feet within the low-water mark. It was also necessary to provide depositories for the security of tools and other implements, as well as a large coal-shed for the supply of the Steamer which was then in the course of being built. It had, as already noticed, been determined that the stores were to be served out at the cost prices of the Greenock market, to be paid for once a month, at the same time that the wages of the men were paid. That arrangement had been carried into effect on a small scale, from the very beginning of the works; but this season it became necessary, owing to the increased number of men, to conduct it on a more extended and systematic plan; and, for that purpose, a person was required to act as storekeeper and clerk. In order also to preserve the provisions from injury by damp and to secure them from the inroads of the needy Celts and from innumerable rats which overrun that part of Tyree, it was found necessary to set apart, as a storehouse, a large room on the second storey of one of the workshops. The chief articles served out in the store were meal, molasses, sugar, coffee, tea, tobacco and butter. The establishment of the store entailed a great deal of trouble, and led to some expense for carriage and packages, as well as to occasional trifling losses in serving out the allowances or from injury sustained in the transport of the goods; but the inhospitable nature of the country, and the remoteness of Tyree from the ordinary steam-boat traffic, made the adoption of some such plan unavoidable. Amongst other inconveniences which attended the store, not the least may be reckoned the frequent importunities, on the part of the native labourers whom we employed, to be permitted to purchase provisions at the workyard; but that was never acceded to, except in cases where dearths (which are of frequent occurrence in the island) rendered the call irresistible. Had their entreaties easily prevailed, we should soon have had the whole population of Tyree as our regular customers at the Store.

~Hynish Quarries.~

The quarries at Hynish, as already stated, were by no means productive. The great proportion of the materials which had been quarried, was found to be applicable only to the building of the pier and the inclosing walls, and to the various erections in the workyard; and not more than _one-tenth_ of the whole could be dressed as blocks for the Tower.

During the numerous occasions on which I had been driven by stress of weather to the neighbouring coasts, I had visited the quarries around Oban and in various parts of Morven and Mull. When so forced to leave what I might more especially call my _post_, I had an opportunity of seeing the quarries at Ardentallen near Oban, which contain the old red sandstone strongly impregnated with clay. That stone is by no means suitable for the _face-work_ of a marine building, in such a situation as the Skerryvore; while the comparatively small quantity of _hearting_ which could be admitted into such a work, made it inexpedient to seek such materials at so great a distance. In this way, the Ardentallen quarry seemed completely excluded from the field. At another time, in passing through Inverary, I devoted a day to the examination of the quarries which had lately been opened at that place and in which a beautiful porphyry is wrought; but I saw no appearance of very large blocks, or, at all events, nothing that could favour the expectation of a considerable supply. But after carefully weighing the matter, the great masses of granite at the Ross of Mull finally determined my choice in favour of that locality; and the Duke of Argyll having, with the greatest liberality, ratified his predecessor’s grant of liberty to the Lighthouse Board to quarry stones from any part of the Argyll estates, it was resolved to take measures early in the spring of 1839 for opening quarries at North Bay, in Mull, where an excellent station for shipping had been discovered, close to the place where we saw the most promising appearance of rock. This measure seemed the more indispensable, as the last part of the quarry _terred_[18] or laid bare at Hynish, had greatly disappointed our expectations. The unworkable nature of gneiss rock also and its extreme uncertainty with regard to quality, farther concurred to make a change most desirable. Granite, indeed, is a material in many respects superior to sandstone, gneiss, or porphyry. The first it greatly excels in durability and weight; and, as a stone for the workyard, it is superior to the other two, from its property of being _fissile_, or easily split in any direction. In this respect it resembles certain parts of some sandstone strata which are commonly called _liver rock_, of which Craigleith quarry, near Edinburgh, furnishes an excellent example. Porphyry, and, I think, all other igneous rocks (excepting granite), gneiss also, and most of the other primary rocks, have not this property, being _fissile_ only in one plane, so that quarries of those rocks generally turn out very uncouth or irregular stones, which, though they may in some favourable cases possess good natural _beds_, will always be found to have ragged and irregular _joints_, which, for the most part, are incapable of being properly dressed.

[18] This term in Scotland denotes the removal of the soil and
unsolid material, in order to lay bare the rock previous to working
the quarry, and seems obviously to be derived from the Latin “terra,”
perhaps through the medium of some old charter. The quantity of
terring very much affects the profitable working of a quarry.