Eddystone

Eddystone, a cluster of rocks, some of which are partially uncovered at low water, lying about 14 miles S.W. from Plymouth breakwater, and surmounted by a lighthouse. The erection of a lighthouse on the rocks was first proposed to the Trinity House in 1691 by Mr. Walter Whitfield, and, at this gentleman's expense, one was begun from the designs of Mr. Henry Winstanley, of Littlebury, Essex. A light was exhibited from it in October, 1698, but in the following year the structure was raised by 40 feet, so as to have a total height of 120 feet. This lighthouse, which was of wood, was totally destroyed in the great storm of November 26th, 1703, its architect, who chanced to be in it at the time, perishing with it. A second lighthouse, built of wood upon a basic core of granite, was designed and completed by Mr. John Rudyerd, silk mercer, of Ludgate Hill, aided by Messrs. Norcott and Smith, shipwrights, of Woolwich dockyard. Its height to the top of the ball was 92 feet, and its greatest diameter 24 feet; and. the light, which was first shown in July, 1708, was supplied by twenty-four candles, five of which weighed 2 lbs. apiece. Rudyerd's work was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1755. The construction of a third lighthouse on the rocks was, upon the recommendation of the Royal Society, entrusted to Mr. John Smeaton, who built it of dovetailed blocks of stone. It was begun on August 5th, 1756; the last stone was laid on August 24th, 1759; and the light was first exhibited on October 16th, 1759. Candles were superseded by oil-lamps and reflectors in 1810, and these by a lenticular apparatus in 1845. Smeaton's building would have remained until the present time but for the erosion of the rock on which it was planted. As it showed signs of having thus been seriously shaken, the construction of a new tower a few yards to the eastward of the old one was entrusted to Mr. Thomas Edmond and Mr. W. T. Douglass, under the superintendence of Sir James Douglass, F.R.S. The Duke of Edinburgh laid the first stone on August 19th, 1879, and the last on June 1st, 1881. The structure is- of granite, 44 feet in diameter at the base, 170 feet high to the top of the lantern roof, and showing the light at a height of 133 feet above high-water mark at spring tides. The light is visible at a distance of 17 miles; and it is supplemented with a bell weighing 2 tons foi use in thick and foggy weather.