Chapter IV (4)

From Saturday the 6th till Wednesday the 10th inclusive, the weather and tides were favourable, which afforded an opportunity of landing both with the morning and evening tides, and in the course of these five days twenty-six hours’ work were obtained, and ninety-two stones were laid. The landing-master’s crew also continued their operations in delivering the Smeaton, and laying her cargoes on the Rock.

[Sidenote: Thursday, 11th.]

[Sidenote: 11 Stones laid.]

The boats landed the artificers to-day at 9 A. M., and in about three quarters of an hour the site of the building was cleared of water, when eleven stones were laid in the course of an hour and three quarters. There being a considerable swell in the sea to-day from south-east, the praams could not land any materials upon the Rock at high-water, and nothing could be done in this way at low-water, as the Railways were not yet in a working condition.

[Sidenote: A party of Gentlemen narrowly escape being drowned.]

During the morning-tide, while the work was in progress, a very serious accident was like to have happened to a party of gentlemen from Leith, who came to see the operations at the Rock. They attempted to land in a very small boat belonging to their yacht; but, as a considerable swell of sea set round it in all directions, after several attempts, they found this to be impracticable. The writer then hailed the gentlemen, and advised them to return, and remain on board of their vessel, until the state of the tide would enable him to send a proper boat for them. In the mean time, however, a boat from the Floating-light, pretty deeply laden, with lime, cement and sand, approached, when the strangers, with a view to avoid giving trouble, took their passage in her to the Rock. The accession of three passengers to a boat, already in a lumbered state, put her completely out of trim, and, as it unluckily happened, the man who steered her was not in the habit of attending the Rock, and was not sufficiently aware of the run of the sea at the entrance of the eastern creek. Instead, therefore, of keeping close to the small rock called “John Gray,” the situation of which will be seen in Plate VI., he gave it a _wide birth_, as the sailors term it; a heavy sea having struck the boat, drove her to leeward, and the oars getting entangled among the rocks and sea-weed, she became unmanageable, and was thrown on a ledge by another heavy swell, which instantly leaving her, she _kanted_ seaward upon her gunwale, when the people, and part of the cargo, were thrown into the sea. Before she righted, or any assistance could be rendered by those on the Rock, another sea came which filled her and scattered the passengers, eight in number, in all directions. Some clung to the boat, others to the sea-weed, and two or three having got hold of oars and loose thwarts, which floated about, were carried out of the creek, to a considerable distance from the spot where the accident happened. By the very prompt and active assistance of Mr James Wilson, the landing-master, and his crew, the whole were, however, speedily got out of the water, excepting a Mr Strachan, one of the strangers, who had clung to the sea-weed upon a small insulated rock, bearing his name, in Plate VI., to which it was impossible at this time of tide to approach, without the assistance of a boat. Mr Wilson, with a dexterity peculiar to himself, made towards this spot, where Mr Strachan, with great resolution and perseverance, still kept his hold, although every returning sea laid him completely under water, and even hid him from the view of the spectators on the Rock. In this situation he must have remained for ten or twelve minutes. When the boat reached the insulated rock, the most difficult part was still to perform, as it required the greatest nicety of management to guide her in a rolling sea, so as to prevent her from being carried forcibly against Mr Strachan, who was in danger of being struck with the stem of the boat, to which he lay completely exposed. Notwithstanding the breach of the sea, however, and the narrowness of the passage, the boat was conducted at the proper moment close to Mr Strachan, without either touching him or the insulated rock to which he clung, till he was lifted into the boat. Mr Strachan was of course much exhausted, from having been so completely overrun by the sea, and having had but a very short space for breathing between the returning waves.

The gentlemen thus extricated in safety from the most imminent peril, were immediately removed on board of their own vessel, no doubt very thankful for the narrow escape they had made, and with grateful recollections of the exertions made by Captain Wilson and his crew. With regard to the people belonging to the Light-house service, none of them were materially injured beyond the disagreeable ducking which they experienced; but the boat was almost completely wrecked: her cargo was also injured, and partly lost.

[Sidenote: Friday, 12th.]

[Sidenote: First entire course completed.]

The artificers landed this morning at half-past 10, and after an hour and a half’s work, eight stones were laid, which completed the First entire course of the building, consisting of 123 blocks, the last of which was laid with three hearty cheers. Immediately after this tide the Tender left the Rock for Arbroath, with all hands on board; and having a fine breeze at south, she got into the harbour at half-past 6 P. M., to wait the return of the spring-tides.

[Sidenote: Artificers are welcomed into Arbroath Harbour.]

Those on board felt not a little happy, when the ship, which, on her passage, had been decorated with colours, intimating that the First entire course was laid, was received with cheering from the workmen ashore, and the inhabitants of Arbroath. The service of the Bell Rock now became every trip more desirable with the artificers, who, having been enabled to work both during the morning and evening tides, with the exception of the evening of the 11th, the premiums over and above their stated wages became more and more an object, while the experience acquired in landing 123 blocks of stone, had fully established the practicability of the whole operation.

[Sidenote: One of the Artificers disabled. He receives an annuity.]

On the writer’s arrival at the work-yard this evening, he learned, with much regret, that an unfortunate accident had happened to one of the masons, of the name of Hugh Rose, while employed in raising a block of stone, of between two and three tons weight, with the carpenter’s jack, represented in Plate X. The jack had not been set with sufficient care, and slipped from under the stone, which instantly fell upon his knees. For a considerable time Rose was thus kept in a sitting posture, with a great part of the weight of this large stone resting upon his legs, till relieved by the other workmen who came to his assistance, and again applied the jack to raise the stone. His legs were, however, sprained in a very painful and distressing manner, which kept him from work for upwards of a twelvemonth. He was one of the best workmen in the Yard, and a man of great bodily strength; but became so much disabled by this accident, that the Light-house Board was afterwards pleased to settle an annuity of L. 20 _per annum_ upon him.

[Sidenote: Friday, 19th.]

[Sidenote: Granite Stones much wanted.]

The work at this moment had much the appearance as if it would be retarded, as several blocks of stone were still wanted from the quarries at Aberdeen, to complete the Third entire course, the Second being now ready to be removed from the work-yard to the Rock. This course was 18 inches in thickness, the granite stones of which measured from 4 to 7 feet in length, varying in breadth from 3 feet to 4 feet 6 inches. Stones of these dimensions could not be landed with safety at high-water, but the railways on the Rock were nearly completed from the eastern landing-place to the site of the building, so that every thing was now in readiness for commencing the landing of the materials with low-water.

[Sidenote: Wednesday, 24th.]

[Sidenote: 10 Stones laid.]

Having made all the necessary arrangements for making dispatch with the Third course, the writer sailed at mid-day on the 24th, with the Tender, for the Bell Rock, having on board forty-three persons in all, and the wind being favourable, the vessel was made fast to her buoy at the Rock at 7 P. M. The Smeaton also came to her moorings with a cargo of the Second course, when the landing-master’s crew brought the praam-boat along-side, and was loaded with 10 stones, which were landed, and laid this evening after three hours’ work.

[Sidenote: Saturday, 27th.]

[Sidenote: 136 Stones laid in 7 tides.]

The weather having been extremely favourable, regular tides’ work were got both morning and evening, so that the Second entire course, containing 136 stones in number, and 152 tons weight, was laid in the course of seven tides; the sloop Smeaton having been kept constantly plying between the Bell Rock and Arbroath, where, on her arrival, she was immediately loaded, whether by night or day. From the favourable state of the weather, the complete and effective condition of the landing apparatus, and the dexterity of the landing-master’s crew, a cargo of stones was discharged from the vessel, and landed on the Rock in as short a time as the stones could be built, and the holes bored into the course below, and trenails fixed into them. To facilitate the lifting of the stones off the waggons, after they were brought on the railways to the site of the building, and for laying them at once on every part of its area, though measuring 42 feet in diameter, a second crane was erected on the First entire course, as represented in Plate IX., which thus admitted of the Second course being built with great facility, without once requiring to shift the cranes horizontally; as the beams, when extended in opposite directions, reached from the centre to the extremity of the course.

[Sidenote: 1808, September.]

[Sidenote: Second course completed.]

On completing the laying of the Second entire course, the Light-house began to assume the appearance and form of a building; for, although still under a part of the excavated rock, it was, nevertheless, 4 feet above the level of the lower bed of the foundation-stone,--a consideration which was highly gratifying to those immediately connected with the work. Having successfully completed this course, the writer sailed with the Smeaton for Arbroath, accompanied by such of the artificers as had been employed in building, and leaving the Tender at the Rock, with the mill-wrights, joiners, smiths, and masons, who worked at the Railways, and in preparing the upper part of the Beacon as a barrack. After landing at Arbroath, the Smeaton was immediately dispatched for Aberdeen, in quest of a few blocks of granite, still much wanted for the courses in hand.

[Sidenote: Friday, 9th.]

[Sidenote: Artificers go off to the Rock. 10 Stones laid.]

Having now got the Third entire course nearly ready for shipping, the Tender returned to Arbroath for the artificers, and a supply of water and provisions; and sailed again this morning at two o’clock for the Bell Rock, having forty persons on board. At 9 she was made fast to the S.W. buoy, when the boats were hoisted out and landed the artificers, who remained till 12 noon. These two hours were occupied in adjusting the cranes, and making preparations for commencing the building operations. A landing is again made in the evening at 9, and at midnight the artificers returned on board of the Tender, having been three hours on the Rock, when ten stones of the Third course were laid and trenailed to the course below.

[Sidenote: Saturday, 10th.]

[Sidenote: Pumping of Water discontinued.]

Land at 9 A. M., and by a quarter past 12 noon, 23 stones had been laid. The works being now somewhat elevated by the lower courses, we got quit of the very serious inconvenience of pumping water to clear the foundation-pit. This gave much facility to the operations, and was noticed with expressions of as much happiness by the artificers as the seamen had shewn when relieved of the continual trouble of carrying the smiths’ bellows off the Rock, prior to the erection of the Beacon.

[Sidenote: One of the Artificers loses a finger.]

While the workmen were laying the closing or last stone of the former course, John Bonnyman, one of the most active and expert of the masons, met with an unlucky accident in the following manner. The moveable beam of the building-crane having been lowered to a horizontal position, for the purpose of laying the stone at the circumference of the course, Bonnyman, who was directing it into its birth with a small pince in his right hand, had inadvertently rested his left hand on the beam, near the sheave or pulley, at its extremity, when one of the links unfortunately caught his hand, and before the crane could be stopped, the chain had passed over the middle joint of the fore-finger, and cut it so nearly off, that he applied to the writer, who was standing by, to relieve him of the almost detached part. But having no great inclination for the performance of operations of this kind, the severed parts were set together and bandaged in as careful a manner as circumstances would admit, when the patient was sent in a fast-rowing boat to Arbroath for medical aid. It was nevertheless soon afterwards found necessary to amputate the finger, and Bonnyman became a successful candidate for a light-keeper’s birth.

[Sidenote: Sunday, 11th.]

[Sidenote: Progress of the works stopped for want of granite.]

Having landed this morning at 10, the work was continued during four hours, when 14 stones were laid; but its regular progress had now to be stopped for a time, owing to the want of stones from the work-yard, where some blocks of granite were waited for from the quarries. In the afternoon the Smeaton arrived with a few hearting or interior stones of the course in hand; but the wind having been for some days past in the N.E., accompanied with a considerable swell of sea, it was not found practicable to make a landing, and the praam-boat, after having been loaded, was made fast to her moorings: consequently no landing was made on the Rock with the night tide.

[Sidenote: Monday, 12th.]

[Sidenote: Building level with the higher parts of the Rock.]

The wind being still at N.E., the swell was so great that the boats landed with much difficulty on the Rock this morning at half-past 11 o’clock, but could only remain for an hour and a half, owing to the heavy sea which ran upon it. This tide was employed in completing the boring of the trenail-holes, and in securing the stones which had been laid. The cranes were also raised from the second to the third course, which being 18 inches in thickness, the artificers who worked them now stood nearly on a level with the highest parts of the Rock.

[Sidenote: Tuesday, 13th.]

[Sidenote: Experience great difficulty in landing.]

The wind being still at N.E., accompanied with a heavy breach on the Rock, no attempt would have been made to land to-day, had not the writer felt a more than ordinary desire to examine the state of the work, from the manner in which the sea broke upon the building. In accomplishing this about noon, the boats were frequently put back, but were at length successful, when it was found that the force of the sea had raised two of the stones exposed to its immediate wash, which, in the unfinished state of the course, formed an abrupt face to the waves. These two stones were lifted perpendicularly off their beds, the one to the height of 6, the other of 10 inches; but they were fortunately still held by the trenails, and supported as if on stilts. Had this not been timeously observed, the probability is, that the operation of another tide might have swept them into deep water, which would have been attended with much additional hazard, by delaying the work in its present state, at so advanced a period of the season.

[Sidenote: Two Stones loosened but are again secured. The vessels slip their moorings.]

The trenails of these stones having been drawn or bored out, the stones were laid a second time, when every precaution was taken to secure the mortar, by stuffing bagging-cloth round the joints, and loading them with bars of iron. The guy-ropes of the cranes were also tightened, and every thing put in as complete a state of security as circumstances would admit. At 1 P. M. the boats again returned to the Tender, which now rode so heavily at her moorings that it was found necessary to get her under way, when she sailed for Arbroath with the artificers. The Smeaton also slipped her moorings; but instructions were previously given to Mr Pool, to keep as close as possible to the loaded praam-boat, still riding at her moorings, that, in the event of her breaking adrift, he might be at hand to take her in tow. In the evening, however, the weather moderated considerably, and, after landing the masons at Arbroath, to remain till the return of spring-tides, the Tender returned to her station at the Rock, with the workmen employed at the Beacon-house and Railways.

[Sidenote: Saturday, 17th.]

[Sidenote: 10 Stones are laid. The praam-boats ride out the gale.]

The Light-house Yacht having to-day returned from the Northern Light-houses, she transported the builders from Arbroath to the Rock, and supplied the Floating-light and Tender with provisions and necessaries. By this means, the latter vessel was enabled to remain at her moorings during the present neap-tides, by which the operations on the higher parts of the Beacon made great progress. The writer also embarked this morning in the Light-house Yacht, and having hailed the Floating-light at noon, found that she had rode out the late gales with great ease. At 3 o’clock P. M. the Yacht was made fast to a set of moorings which had been laid down for her early in the season; and at 5, thirty artificers landed, when 10 stones were laid in two hours and a quarter. Notwithstanding the heavy seas which had run upon the Rock since the completion of the Second course, every thing was found in good order. The stones of the course in hand were all in their respective places, and the joints were full of mortar. The cranes also stood quite firm, with their guys and tackling. It was no less satisfactory to find that the loaded praam rode at her moorings in perfect safety, without having apparently shipped any sea during the gale.

[Sidenote: Sunday, 18th.]

[Sidenote: 31 Stones laid in 6¼ hours.]

The artificers landed this morning at 5 o’clock, and continued at work till a quarter past 8. The railways being now in a pretty complete state, and a further supply of stones having been brought to the Rock, the landing-master got 21 blocks conveyed from the eastern wharf to the building. In the same manner, with the evening tide, 10 stones were landed, and the work continued from half-past 5 to half-past 8, having had six hours’ and a quarter’s work to-day, during which no fewer than 31 stones were laid.

[Sidenote: Monday, 19th.]

[Sidenote: 12 Stones are laid. The western track of Railway much wanted.]

The artificers landed this morning, and continued at work for three hours, when 7 stones were laid. The wind being at S.E. there was a very heavy swell of sea in the eastern creek; and not having as yet been able to lay the Railway-track to the western creek, the stones were obliged to be landed on the eastern side of the Rock, which was often attended with great disadvantage to the work. For it was only in the very finest weather that materials could be dropped or lowered upon the Rock at high-water; an operation which was further attended with great inconveniency, from the sparse manner in which it was found necessary to drop them from the praam, to prevent their being injured. The fear also of a storm overtaking the work while the stones were in this situation, was none of the least sources of uneasiness which attended this practice: for, though the sea might not carry them entirely off the Rock, they might nevertheless be so damaged, as to render them unfit for the work, and the loss of a single stone could not be replaced without returning to the work-yard, and having recourse to the mould from which it was cut.

[Sidenote: One of the beams cannot be got out of the eastern creek.]

As the landing-master’s crew were in the act of towing one of the praam-boats into the eastern creek this morning, an unlucky sea struck her, and carried her upon the same ledge of the Rock, which, on the 11th of last month, had almost proved fatal to the Floating-light’s boat. By the active exertions of the crew, however, the praam on the present occasion was got off without sustaining much damage, her bottom being only slightly rubbed; and the cargo, consisting of 7 blocks of stone, with cement, &c. was landed in safety. The boats returned to the Rock at 6 P. M., and left it again at 9, after having had three hours’ work, and laid 5 stones, being all the materials that could be got this tide, owing to the rough state of the weather; for it was not till after three successive attempts had been made, that Mr Wilson succeeded in getting the praam into the creek this evening, the wind being at S.E., and still continuing to blow fresh with a heavy swell of sea, insomuch, that it was found impracticable to get her out again after unloading; and she, therefore, remained till the tide had flowed sufficiently to float her over the lower parts of the Rock to the westward.

[Sidenote: Tuesday, 20th.]

[Sidenote: 15 Stones are laid. The weather continues to be very boisterous.]

The artificers landed this morning at 6 o’clock, and left the Rock again at a quarter past 10, having had four hours’ and a quarter’s work, when seven stones were laid. In the evening, the artificers landed at 6, and continued at work till 10, having had a tide of four hours, in which time eight stones were laid. Owing to the surf of sea upon the Rock to-day, it was with the utmost difficulty that the heavy blocks could either be got out of the Smeaton into the praams, or conveyed in safety to the Rock. It was only by the experience now acquired, and the activity of the landing-master’s crew, that any thing was done to the building during the whole of these spring-tides. Indeed the Smeaton was forced to leave her moorings, and return to Arbroath, before the whole of her last cargo could be delivered. In this state of the weather, the workmen could not be regularly employed in building; but there was so much to do with each course, in boring trenail holes, and laying railways during the time of low-water, that the artificers were always fully employed, when it was possible to land. During the period of high-water, the mill-wrights and joiners were occupied in framing the upper part of the Beacon-house.

[Sidenote: Wednesday, 21st.]

[Sidenote: Engineer’s clerk most active in dispatching the shipping.]

To-day the wind was at S.W., blowing a fresh gale, and it was not expected that the Smeaton could have possibly returned from Arbroath, with the remaining stones of the course in hand, consisting of 17 blocks, with which, from the advanced period of the season, and the boisterous state of the weather, it was proposed to terminate the building for this year. The Smeaton, however, got to Arbroath last night, at a late hour; and Mr Lachlan Kennedy, Engineer’s clerk,--whose department it was to attend to the dispatch of the vessels,--with that promptitude and zeal in the service which uniformly marked all his transactions, called the artificers in the work-yard barrack at midnight, when they commenced, with torch-light, to cart the stones to the quay, and had loaded the Smeaton, by half-past 2 A. M., so that she saved tide out of the harbour, and at half-past 6 got to her moorings at the Rock.

[Sidenote: The unfortunate loss of James Scott, one of the seamen.]

Mr Thomas Macurich, mate of the Smeaton, and James Scott, one of the crew, a young man about 18 years of age, immediately went into their boat to make fast a hawser to the ring in the top of the floating-buoy of the moorings, and were forthwith to proceed to land their cargo, so much wanted at the Rock. The tides at this period were very strong, and the mooring-chain, when sweeping the ground, had caught hold of a rock or piece of wreck, by which the chain was so shortened that when the tide flowed, the buoy got almost under water, and little more than the ring appeared at the surface. When Macurich and Scott were in the act of making the hawser fast to the ring, the chain got suddenly disentangled at the bottom, and this large buoy, measuring about 7 feet in height, and 3 feet in diameter at the middle, tapering to both ends, being what seamen term a _Nun-buoy_, vaulted or sprung up with such force, that it upset the boat, which instantly filled with water. Mr Macurich, with much exertion, succeeded in getting hold of the boat’s gunwale, still above the surface of the water, and by this means was saved; but the young man Scott was unfortunately drowned. He had, in all probability, been struck about the head by the ring of the buoy, for although surrounded with the oars and the thwarts of the boat which floated near him; yet he seemed entirely to want the power of availing himself of such assistance, and appeared to be quite insensible, while Pool, the master of the Smeaton, called loudly to him: and, before assistance could be got from the Tender, he was carried away by the strength of the current, and disappeared! A signal of distress was immediately hoisted, when one of the boats of the landing-master’s crew instantly attended to Macurich’s safety, and picked him up in a very exhausted state, but he happily soon recovered.

[Sidenote: His mother gets a small annuity.]

The young man Scott was a great favourite in the service, having had something uncommonly mild and complaisant in his manner; and his loss was therefore universally regretted. The circumstances of his case were also peculiarly distressing to his mother, as her husband, who was a seaman, had, for three years past, been confined to a French prison, and the deceased was the chief support of the family. In order, in some measure, to make up the loss to the poor woman for the monthly aliment regularly allowed her by her late son, it was suggested, that a younger boy, a brother of the deceased, might be taken into the service. This appeared to be rather a delicate proposition, but it was left to the landing-master to arrange according to circumstances: such was the resignation, and at the same time the spirit of the poor woman, that she readily accepted the proposal, and in a few days the younger Scott was actually afloat in the place of his brother. On representing this distressing case to the Board, the Commissioners were pleased to grant an annuity of L. 5 to Scott’s mother.

[Sidenote: 17 stones are laid. The Building operations completed for the season.]

The Smeaton not having been made fast to the buoy, had, with the ebb-tide, drifted to leeward, a considerable way eastward of the Rock, and could not, till the return of the flood-tide, be worked up to her moorings, so that the present tide was lost, notwithstanding all exertions which had been made both ashore and afloat with this cargo. The artificers landed at 6 A. M., but as no materials could be got upon the Rock this morning, they were employed in boring trenail holes, and in various other operations, and after four hours’ work they returned on board the Tender. When the Smeaton got up to her moorings, the landing-master’s crew immediately began to unload her. There being too much wind for towing the praams in the usual way, they were warped to the Rock, in the most laborious manner, by their windlasses, with successive grapplings and hawsers laid out for this purpose. At 6 P. M., the artificers landed, and continued at work till half-past 10, when the remaining seventeen stones were laid, which completed the Third entire course, or Fourth of the Light-house, with which the building operations were closed for this season.

[Sidenote: Summary of the Building operations at the Rock.]

The building, being now on a level with the highest part of the margin of the foundation-pit, or about 5 feet 6 inches above the lower bed of the foundation-stone, is computed to contain about 388 tons of stone; consisting of 400 blocks, connected with 738 oaken trenails, and 1215 pairs of oaken wedges. The number of hours of low-water work upon the Rock this season, amounted to about 265, of which number only 80 were employed in building. It was further highly satisfactory to find, that the apparatus, both in the work-yard at Arbroath, and also the craft and building apparatus at the Rock, were found to answer every purpose much beyond expectation. The operations of this season, therefore, afforded the most flattering prospects of the practicability of completing the solid part, or first 30 feet of the building, in the course of another year.

[Sidenote: Sunday, 25th.]

[Sidenote: Shipping obliged to run for Arbroath.]

Owing to very heavy gales of wind from a north-eastern direction, the Sir Joseph Banks Tender, the Sloop Smeaton, and Light-house Yacht, were, on the 22d, obliged to slip their moorings, and proceed with all hands for Arbroath. The Tender and the Smeaton again returned to their stations at the Bell Rock on the 25th; the former to attend the mill-wrights, joiners, and smiths, while they completed certain operations connected with the Railways, and Beacon-house, that everything might be left in as secure a state as possible for the winter months; the crew of the Smeaton being at the same time occupied in lifting the several sets of moorings, building-cranes, and other apparatus connected with the works, which she carried to Arbroath.

[Sidenote: Appearance of things at the Rock after the late gale.]

[Sidenote: Writer sails for the Northern Light-houses.]

The writer having also sailed on the 25th in the Light-house Yacht, on his annual inspection of the Northern Light-houses, wished, in passing the Bell Rock, to have landed, but this he found impossible, owing to the heavy sea which still ran upon it. The vessel, however, sailed as near the Rock as possible, that he might, in some measure, learn the state of matters after the late gales of the 22d and 23d. He could discern that the Beacon was in good order, but found that the strong Triangular-sheers of cast-iron, represented in Plate XI., at the Eastern wharf, were thrown down and broken to pieces; and that the North-west buoy had drifted from its moorings. The circumstance of the breaking of these sheers greatly surprised the writer, as they consisted of bars of iron, whose cross section was about 10 inches; having each four longitudinal ribs, of about an inch and a half in depth, and thus forming a common circumference of 16 inches.

[Sidenote: 1808, October.]

[Sidenote: Monday 31st.]

[Sidenote: Visits the Rock on his return.]

After sailing by the Orkney Islands, and visiting all the Light-houses on the coast of Scotland, the writer landed at Greenock on the 19th of October, and soon afterwards returned to the works at Arbroath. At half-past 11 A. M. on the 31st, he landed on the Bell Rock, and remained till half-past 3 P. M., examining every thing minutely, when he had the satisfaction of finding the stones and joints of the building quite entire. The Railways and Beacon were also in good order; while the moorings, and all the moveable apparatus, had been conveyed to Arbroath.

[Sidenote: December.]

[Sidenote: Arrangements for the Writer.]

During the months of November and December, the affairs of the work-yard went forward in the usual busy manner. A small squad of artificers went off to the Bell Rock at each period of spring-tides, when the weather permitted, with tools and implements to repair and refit any temporary damage which the Beacon or Railways might sustain, and likewise to examine the state of the several courses of masonry. In the work-yard the masons were employed in hewing or cutting stones for the next year’s operations; the joiners, in preparing the upper framing of the accommodation part of the Beacon-house. The Tender was occupied in carrying off the workmen who landed at the Rock; in relieving the crew of the Floating-light in their turns ashore, and supplying that ship with provisions and necessaries; while the sloop Smeaton made several trips to the granite quarries of Aberdeen and Peterhead, and the Light-house Yacht was laid up in ordinary at Leith.

In this state of arrangement, the business of the Bell Rock was left during the winter months; and the writer is now to continue the narrative, by giving the account of the operations of the year 1809.