Wave Washed Lighthouses

Before I tell you about the Bell Rock Light, I should tell you how the little reef on which it stands came to be known as Bell Rock.

Some 11 miles from the shore of Angus, Scotland, is a reef, once only known as Inchcape.  Though tiny, about 1/4 mile long and only 300' wide, and surrounded by nothing but sea, it was a big hazard.  At lowest tide, part of it was visible above the surface of the water.  Otherwise, it was virtually invisible to mariners, and the water around it was shallow.  Ships wrecked there.  People died there.

Then, so the story goes, sometime in the 1300's, the Abbot of Arbroath decided to put a bell 

there, as a warning to those sailing the dangerous waters.  He did so, rigging it so that it would clang whenever the the water covered the reef, which was most of the time.

However, within a year Ralph the Rover, a pirate, sailed up to the bell, cut it loose, and watched it sink below the waves.  Later, old Ralph got his come uppance.  His own ship hit the very same reef, and he perished, because there was no bell to warn him away. 

From then, it had a new name, Bell Rock, but continued to be a serious hazard.

Robert Southey, by John James Masquerier [Public domain],

via Wikimedia Commons

Centuries later, the story lived on, and was immortalized in by an English poet.
Here's a link to a page where you can read the ballad of Inchcape Rock by Robert Southey.

While no one has verified the whole truth of this story, some noted historians have labeled it as quite plausible.

Sadly,  in 1800, ships and lives were still being lost on Bell Rock. After the loss in 1804 of the HMS York with all hands, parliament decided to accept the proposal by one Robert Stevenson to erect a lighthouse there.

He'd visited the famous Eddystone Light, studied it, and improved on it. (Eddystone was in its third incarnation then, and currently enjoys a fourth.) The improvements to the way the foundation was built were so successful that Steven's tower has lasted for 200 years against the constant battering of the sea.

Against astonishing odds, the tower was completed and lit just under four years after construction began. The dangerous work cost the lives of two 

workers.

Living on a ship anchored not far away, the workmen had only four hours each day in which to work, when the tide was low, exposing the highest part of the reef. Fearing irreparable damage to the rock if blasting was done, Stevenson insisted that none be used, necessitating extensive chiseling with pick axes.

The light was finally lit on the first of February, 1811.

 Image courtesy Derek Robertson, CC

Before the tower was built, many ships and hundreds lives were lost on the rocks there.  That all changed once Stevenson's work was completed.   

In the 100 years before the beacon was lit, an estimated 600 to 700 vessels met their ends there, with with an unknown number of lives lost, but the count must have been enormous.

In the 200+ years since, only two ships have been lost, one in 1908, and one in 1915.  ALL HANDS were rescued in both instances.

Bell Rock Lighthouse by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 - 1851) P.D, from the Google Art Project, via Wikimedia Commons

To see the original of this work, you'll have to travel to the Scottish National Gallery, in Edinburgh.  Created in 1819, it's an extraordinary art work, inspired by an extraordinary piece of engineering.

You may not be able to hang the original in your living room, but   you can own a reproduction of J.M.W. Turner's work, or read more about the family that produced not only the light on Bell Rock, but also the author of Treasure Island and Kidnapped

La Vieille with Mast By Jean-Pierre Hussin / CC-BY-SA-3.0

After many years of planning and five years of construction, a sea washed lighthouse called La Vieille, or The Old Lady, was first lit on September 15, 1887, and the granite based tower still stands there today, nearly 120 years later.

She and her companion light, La Petite Vieille, meaning the little old woman, mark the channel that ships must use to safely navigate a trecherous straight off the coast at  Poite du Raz in northwestern France.

Though accessible now only by helicopter, there had been a smaller tower with a landing / embarkation platform.  That was deconstructed after the light was automated in the 1990's.

Duty at the Old Lady was a hard one, with two keepers assigned at all times.  When it was time for a new keeper to come in and an existing one to rotate out, it wasn't an easy task.  

GETTING TO AND FROM THE OLD LADY

Boats couldn't just 'dock' at Gorlebella rock, on which the station was built.  They could only get close - weather and seas permitting.  The keepers would throw the end of a line to the boat, which would then be secured.  The keepers had to ride up or down the line (with their belongings) on a ball shaped aparatus that was attached to the line.  Imagine transferring  from a pitching and rolling boat, passing over seething waves, to high rocks, with sharp edges, while hanging on a rope!

Once there, things weren't so pleasant, either.  A story follows. 

After WWI, France passed legislation that reserved certain jobs that were considered 'easy' assignments for disabled veterans.  One of those positions was that of lighthouse keeper.

While at some light stations, the duty may have been less arduous than other jobs, that was hardly true at La Vieille. Life in some lighthouses was referred to as 'hell' within the community of keepers.  The Old Lady was one of those.

Getting there and back alone was a challenge for an able bodied man, much less one with disabilities from war wounds.  (See above for details)   Once there, the isolation, together with intensly inhospitable weather, and the continuous assault of the sea against the outside of the tower were enough to unnerve just about anyone.

 Image Source - View of The Old Lady from Pointe du Raz..  Petite Vieille  or the "Little Old Woman" is visible to her left.

In 1925, two disable veterans with punctured lungs were posted there.  In addition, one had lost muscles in an arm and the other had an inoperable leg wound.  These were the men who had to climb up and down the 120 steps to the light to keep it lit.  Their health and mental condition worsened, with both men developing severe nerve damage.  Commendably, the light never went a single night without being lit.

However when it finally became clear that these two men didn't belong at that particular post, it took two more months to rescue them, at which point they were in dreadful shape, and had to be rescued by swimmers, as they were unable to make the rope transfer.

Finally, the law was amended to say that disabled veterans were not to be posted to duty at sea washed lighthouses.

Image Source

Not all wave washed lights are out at sea. Some have been built in treacherous inland waterways. Here's an example of one in the United States. It's on a rock about three miles off an island in Lake Superior, and is aptly named the Rock of Ages Light.

The need for a light there was great, as the reef had been the abrupt ending of voyages for a number of ships.

A 50' x 200' outcropping at one end of the offending reef was chosen as the site, and construction becan in 1908.

First lit in 1910, the beacon and fog horn were operated by keepers for 68 shipping seasons. They would arrive in the early spring, and stay at the rock until the season ended in the late fall. The third order Fresnel lens, automated in 1978, was visible for 15 nautical miles.

Replaced by a solar powered light in 1985, the original lens is on display at the Isle Royale National Park ranger station.

You can learn more about the building and history of this historic light station at this reprint from the Keeper's Log.

There have been a number of shipwrecks on the Rock of Ages Reef. Three of them, all passenger vessels, stand out. Two of those three were before the lighthouse was built there, and one was afterwards. But these vessels all had one thing in common. They had names beginning with C:

The following video, from the Rock of Ages Lighthouse Preservation Society plainly shows that today, this historic structure is in a sad state, and in need of restoration and preservation.  

Though its grandeur is still apparent, so is its age and disrepair, in some of the pictures you'll see.

While you can't actually go ONTO the Rock and climb the tower, you can get a good view the lighthouse from the deck of a ferry as it passes by it.  Ferries run daily between Grand Portage, Minnesota, and Isle Royale.

The Rock of Ages Lighthouse tower continues to serve mariners of the Great Lakes.  Not only is it still an active aid to navigation with its automated beacon, but it is also a weather station.  NOAA has installed an array of weather measurment and reporting instruments there, and it is designated as a C-MAN station.

If you are interested, you can see the current weather conditions being reported from the lighthouse.