CHAPTER VIII.OPERATIONS OF 1842.
On the 17th of April 1842, I made my first landing on the Skerryvore, for the season,State of the Rock in Spring of 1842.and found traces of very heavy seas having passed over the Rock during the preceding winter. Its surface was washed quite clean from all the scattered materials which were left lying on it at the end of the last season; and the building, to the height of 6 or 8 feet from the foundation, was covered with a thick coating of green sea-weed. The railway had suffered considerably from large stones having been thrown upon it; and several blocks of about half a ton in weight were found wedged into the deep fissures of the Rock, and lying among the main timbers of the Barrack. Heavy sprays had been playing over the Tower, in the upper uncovered apartment of which a great number of water-worn pebbles or boulders were found. Those stones had been raised by the heavy surf and deposited on the floor of the apartment and on the top of the wall at a height of no less than 60 feet above high watermark; but the balance-crane, which had stood all winter on the top of the Tower, had sustained no damage, although the canvass cover was torn to shreds by the action of the weather. In the Barrack every thing was in good order except the smoke-funnel, which, from the effects of the sea-water, was riddled full of holes and required to be completely renewed.
As I had resolved to keep, during the summer of 1842, a complement of about eighteen or twenty seamen on the Rock, in addition to the usual detachment of masons, in order to work the crabsfor raising the materials to the top of the Tower by successive stages;Commencement of Rock operations.my first step was to set about preparing additional accommodation in the Barrack, by converting the open gallery (calledstore for coals, &c., inPlate V.), immediately below the cook-house, into a covered apartment for lodgings for the additional hands. I accordingly landed on the 20th of April, with a stock of provisions, water and fuel and a party of joiners and a smith, to prepare that apartment by simply flooring over the joists of the gallery and closing thetriangular, or rathertrapezoïdal, spaces between the uprights of the Barrack, with double planking, protected on the seams with painted canvass, so as to render them impervious to the heavy sprays which, even in summer, dashed forcibly on the lower parts of the Barrack. Windows were formed on the sides least exposed to the intrusion of the sea; but, with all our precautions, we could not succeed in keeping dry even the cots or hammocks, which were suspended there; and it must be admitted that the addition to the Barrack proved, in bad weather, but a comfortless retreat, the inconveniences of which few but seamen would have patiently endured. Those discomforts, however, were to a certain extent, counterbalanced by some advantages which that singular abode possessed in hot weather; for, at such times, its inhabitants enjoyed more room, freer air, and more tolerable temperature, than any of their neighbours in the highest storey could obtain, owing to the greater number of persons in that part of the Barrack and its exposure to the heat of the cook’s stove.
During the remainder of the month of April and the commencement of May we had frequent stiff gales; and it often happened that the men could not venture out of the Barrack, owing to the heavy sea which swept over the Rock. The crane, too, which had been erected at the wharf for unloading the stones, although its top stood about 8 feet above the Rock, was often buried in the breakers and seemed in hourly danger of being carried away, an event which we were the more ready to fear from our experiencein a former season, when the crane disappeared during a heavy westerly gale. The sea on those occasions also broke so heavily on the Barrack, that the windows of my apartment, which were about 55 feet above the sea, were often darkened by the sheet of water which flowed over them after the house had been struck by a wave. From those causes it was not till the 18th May that we were enabled to occupy the Rock in full force; and on the day following we commenced building the 38th course on the top of the last year’s work.
After that period we had a long continuance of north-easterly winds, which always brought both smooth water for landing materials and dry weather for building; so that by the 23d of May our work had made such progress and the Tower had risen so high, that the chain of the balance-crane, which had been raised along with the building, by sliding it upwards on the cast-iron pillar or shaft placed in the centre of the Tower, could not reach the top of theshear-poles, by which the stones were raised to the level of about 40 feet above the Rock; and it was found necessary to rig from the lowest window a beam orneedle(in the manner described atpage 155, and as also shewn in Plate IX. of my Father’sAccount of the Bell-Rock Lighthouse), as an intermediate stage between the top of the Tower and the shear-poles on the Rock. The needle, as already noticed, projected horizontally from the window and the stones were raised by a chain which passed over the sheave at its outer end and was wrought by means of a crab placed in the interior of the Tower. In that manner we continued for about six weeks, with little interruption from the weather, to raise the blocks of stone to the top of the Tower by successive needles from storey to storey; while the mortar, lewis-bats and other lighter materials were raised at once by means of a line wrought by a windlass placed on the Rock.
On the night of Saturday the 9th of July, however, a heavy sea, caused by a combination of high tides and strong gales, threw down some of the stones of the belt course which lay piled upround the base of the Tower ready to be raised for building; and they were with great difficulty, but most happily, saved from the insatiable deep. The loss of any of the stones of that course would have been a serious obstacle to the progress of the works and might have prevented our completing the erection of the lantern until next year; and indeed, as that course formed a prominent feature of the Tower, any slight injury even to the arris or corners of the outer face would have been much to be regretted. It was with great satisfaction, therefore, that it was found on examination next morning that none of the stones had sustained the slightest damage.
Last Stone.On the 21st July the last stones of the Tower were safely landed on the Rock, under a salute from the steamer, as an expression, no doubt, of the satisfaction which the commander Mr Kerr and his crew naturally felt at having successfully brought out not fewer than 75 lighter loads, or about 1500 tons, of stone during the season, as well as in some measure of their joy at the prospect of a speedy and happy termination of our arduous labours. The process of landing, indeed, owing to the fine weather that prevailed throughout the season, was very easy, compared with that of former years; in proof of which, I may state, that in 1841, there were often as many as five warps broken at a single landing, while in 1842, not a single rope was broken in the discharging of the stones. On the 25th July the last stone of the parapet or top-course was built; and immediately thereafter we proceeded to remove from the Tower, the balance-crane and the cast-iron pillar on which it was swung, and to make way for the erection of the Lantern.
In looking back upon the works we found great cause for thankfulness for the successful conclusion of the building operations, without loss of life, or even the occurrence of any serious accident, excepting the destruction of the first Barrack in November 1839. It also gave me great satisfaction to reflect that, however difficult a rigid adherence to scrupulous accuracy of workmanship may be in such a situation as the Skerryvore, it had nevertheless,from the exactness with which the stones were dressed, on no occasion been necessary, throughout the execution of the whole work, to deviate from the rule which I had laid down of carefully gauging the diameter of each course and of admitting no variation from the true form materially exceeding ¹⁄₈ inch. Every part of the stone work, indeed, was fitted in an accurate manner and the floor stones, in particular, which serve astiesacross the building, were finely dressed and carefully set. All opportunities were also embraced, whenever it was practicable, to grout each course over night that the recent masonry might be in a state fit for building upon in the morning; and by those precautions and the peculiar properties of the mortar used, any disadvantages from very rapid building were entirely avoided. Even the elliptic cavetto which forms the cornice and which projects no less than three feet from the face of the wall, although bearing a very heavyentablatureorplinth, never gave any signs ofsettlingoutwards; and when I examined it from a stage hung from the end of the balance-crane just before it was removed, there was no appearance of any change in the thickness of the joints, although the outer heads of the stones had been purposely kept a little high to allow for any tendency to settlement. The effect of the cornice is very bold and striking and is quite in accordance with the simple and almost severe style of the pillar itself. The masonry of the Tower is 137 feet 11 inches in height and it contains 58,580 cubic feet or about 4308 tons.
The day after landing the last stone of the parapet, the steamer started from Tyree for Greenock, with two lighters in tow, for the transport ofThe Lantern.the Lantern; and by the 10th of August the whole was landed on the Rock. No time was lost in preparing the beds for the sole-plates of the Lantern, and that operation had been nearly completed when my Father, in the course of his annual tour of inspection, as Engineer for the Northern Lights, visited the Rock, two days after the iron work had been landed. By the 16th the whole of the sashes and the frame of the roof were totheir places; and on the same day the fixtures of the lightning-conductor were completed. On the 18th of August Mr Bruce, the Sheriff of Argyll, and some gentlemen who accompanied him and had spent the preceding night at Hynish, visited the Rock; and, after breakfasting at the base of the Tower, ascended to the top and minutely inspected every part of the work. They afterwards returned to Hynish, whither I accompanied them and had an opportunity of pointing out to Mr Bruce the various works in progress there. The party sailed for Oban in the afternoon of the same day.
From want of room on the Rock it was found necessary to build the roof of the Lantern in separate pieces instead of rivetting together the sheets of which it was composed on the ground, and raising the whole to the top in one mass, as is usually done; but, in spite of that disadvantage, the work was brought to a close for the season on the 14th September, on which day the glazing of the Lantern was completed and the glass was covered with a framework of timber to protect it from the sea-fowls which frequent in myriads the Rock and the Tower. The workmen were, on the same day, removed from the Rock, although with much difficulty, owing to the heavy surf which broke over the landing-place and rendered the embarkation more perilous than almost any I had before experienced at the Skerryvore.