Lighthouse Builder Swept Away with His Own Edifice

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 904, 22 February 1930, Page 23

Lighthouse Builder Swept Away with His Own Edifice

Romance of Eddystone TRAGEDY OF GREAT STORM Exactly 226 years ago this week the j greatest storm that England has ever j experienced swept away the first j Eddystone Lighthouse with its de- | signer and builder. The Eddystone has always been a | dangerous rock for shipping entering the Channel, and there had been many 1 suggestions for lighting it so that j mariners might be warned. One | scheme was that there should be a J coal fire kept burning, but it was really a Mr. Walter Whitfield who made the first practicable proposition to put up a lighthouse, his reward to be a share of the tolls levied on Plymouth shipping. Years later an agreement was made with Whitfield, giving him the entire j proceeds of the lighthouse for five j years, and one-half for fifty, provided J he -built the lighthouse. Whitfield at once made some preliminary experiments on the Eddystone Rock, but these convinced him of the very risky nature of the undertaking, and he became so alarmed that he abandoned the enterprise. A Strange House But a more venturesome and enterprising man, Henry Winstanley, stepped into the breach and offered to erect the lighthouse; and after some further negotiations with Trinity, House, Winstanley finally undertook the work at his own expense. This man was born near Saffron Walden, in Essex, but we do not know a great deal about him. He was a draftsman and engraver, and among other things designed a set of playing cards. But in addition to being an artist, Winstanley dabbled in the science of mechanics, and his house and garden at Littlebury, in Essex, was full of strange mechanical contrivances. In fact, a visit to it was a very uncanny adventure indeed. As you went into the passage and trod upon a certain board of the floor a door at the end of the passage flew opent and out sprang a skeleton before you; or, perhaps, you were seated in the summer-house, before the duckpond, when suddenly the seat was swung round and you found yourself over the centre of the pond. The Work Begins

Winstanley was greatly interested in art and mechanics for their own sakes, but he also turned them to profit, and we find that he exhibited some of his patnet contrivances together with a set of moving waxworks, at Hyde Park Corner, and made money out of the show. The work of building the first Eddystone Lighthouse began on July 14, 1686, and the first summer was spent in making twelve holes in the rock, and fastening twelve great irons to hold the work that was to be done afterward. He hoped to finish the lighthouse in the second year, and the Admiralty helped him by lending him boats and men.

Those were days before the Entente Cordiale, and France and England did not love one another. A British guardship watched the rock, but one foggy night in 1697, as Winstanley and his men slept on the rock, the guardship missed her position and anchored off Fowey, where she remained for three or four days. This proved disastrous for the lighthouse builder, for during the absence of the British guardship a small French privateer sent her boat with thirty armed men, who landed on the rock, overpowered Winstanley and his labourers, and forced them into the boat. They stripped the men naked and turned them adrift in the boat, while Winstanley himself was taken on the warship, which sailed away. When the Admiralty heard of this they were naturally very angry, and asked for full particulars. Further, they had Winstanley exchanged for a French prisoner, and he was soon at work again upon the Eddystone, with his original labourers, who had fortunately been picked up. After this experience the Eddystone party was taken on board the British guardship at sunset every day, and carried back to Plymouth for safety. In the second year a round pillar, 12 feet high and 14 feet in diameter, was erected on the rock, and in the third year the remainder of the lantern. built of wood, was carried up 80 feet, and a vane placed on top.

Winstanley and his men now lived ori the rock in the lighthouse to complete the details of the structure, and soon after they took up residence there a terrific storm raged in the Channel, waves breaking over the building, and washing away their building material. The storm lasted for ten days and nights, and the fact that the lighthouse had weathered the gale gave great confidence to Winstanley. By November 14th, 1698, the whole structure was completed, and at night it was lighted up with tallow candles. We can imagine the satisfaction of Winstanley, first of all with the lighthouse as a building, and afterwards as from the shore he watched the lights of the tallow candles twinkling. The lighthouse was indeed a wonderful building. It was not round but many-sided. The upper part was ornamented with vanes and wooden candlesticks. and decorations of various kinds. There were several cranes for hauling up food and material; the outside was painted with strange scenes. compasses and mottoes, and inside there were not only bedrooms and a kitchen, but a very fine state-room, finely carved and painted with two imposing windows. LIGHTHOUSE AND FORTRESS But the building was not merely a lighthouse to warn mariners, it was a fortress to resist siege, and on top was a kind of movable platform or chute, which could be turned round, and from which stones could be showered upon any enemy attacking the building from any side. Everybody was pleased, and Trinity House inserted a notice in the “London Gazette” expressing the hope that vessels would cheerfully pay the dues for the support of the lighthouse. When, after the first winter, Winstanley returned to the Eddystone to see how it had borne the blasts, he found it unshaken, but he came to the conclusion that it was not nearly high enough, the seas being frequently thrown over the lantern and hiding the light. He therefore determined

to strengthen the foundations, take down the upper part of the building, and rebuild it. This was done, and the total height was now raised to 120 feet. DANGER FROM THE PRESS-GANG Perhaps one of the most amazing things we read about this first lighthouse was that the keepers were constantly in danger of being carried away by press-gangs. There seems to hare been a good deal of difficulty in getting men for the Navy, and although we are not told that any lighthouse-keepers were actually taken, they lived constantly in dread. There' were not wanting some people who feared for the lighthouse after the experience of the terrific storm which it had weathered, but Winstanley laughed at all their fears, and although scientific experts pointed out defects in the construction, the designer persisted that his building was absolutely secure.

“I only wish,” he said, “to be in the lighthouse under circumstances that will test its strength to the utmost.’’ THE BUILDER OBTAINS HIS WISH The opportunity came. On the afternoon of November 26, 1703, in dirty weather, he set off from Ply- f mouth for the Eddystone Lighthouse, t Then came the historic storm with , its dramatic consequences. No more was known except that when daylight dawned on November 27, and men looked out toward the Eddystone Rock, they ■were amazed to 1 see no lighthouse. The rock w r as 1 bare, and Winstanley’s erection with ( its designer had been swept away for j s ever. One strange circumstance may be < mentioned. The storm beat around Winstanley's house at Littlebury, but not much damage was done there, and there was only cne accident. The 1 silver model of the reconstructed ■ lighthouse, which had stood in the designer’s home, fell to the ground. It would be interesting to know 1 whether the hour of this incident corresponded with the time when the ; first Eddystone Lighthouse was carried away by the waves.