Eddystone Lighthouse Totally Explained

Everything about The Eddystone Lighthouse totally explained

The Eddystone Lighthouse is situated on the treacherous Eddystone Rocks, some 9 statute miles (14 kilometres) south west of Rame Head, United Kingdom. Whilst Rame Head is in Cornwall, the rocks are within the city limits of Plymouth in the county of Devon.
The current structure is the fourth lighthouse to be built on the site. The first and second lighthouses were both destroyed in accidents. The third lighthouse, also known as Smeaton's Tower, is perhaps the best known of the four, because of its influence on modern lighthouse design and its importance in the development of concrete as a building material. Its upper portions have been re-erected in Plymouth as a monument.

Winstanley's lighthouse

The first lighthouse to be erected on the Eddystone Rocks was an octagonal wooden structure built by Henry Winstanley.
   Construction started in 1696 and the light was first lit on 14 November 1698. During the construction period, the lighthouse first made news when a French privateer took Winstanley prisoner, causing Louis XIV to order his release with the words "France is at war with England, not with humanity".
   The lighthouse survived its first winter but was found to be badly in need of repair. In doing this, the top of the structure was removed and replaced, a fact which causes some sources to state that there have been five lighthouses on the Eddystone Rock. Winstanley's tower then lasted in its modified state until the Great Storm of 1703 erased almost all trace of it on 27 November. Winstanley was on the lighthouse at the time, completing some additions to the structure. No trace was ever found of him.
   The cost of construction and 5 years' maintenance of the lighthouse totalled £7,814 7s.6d. during which time dues totalling £4,721 19s.3d. had been collected, at a rate of 1d per ton, from passing vessels.

Rudyard's lighthouse

Following the destruction of the first lighthouse, a Captain Lovett acquired the lease of the rock, and by an Act of Parliament was allowed to charge all passing ships a of 1d per ton, both inward and outward. He commissioned John Rudyard (or Rudyerd) to design the new lighthouse, which was built as a conical wooden structure around a core of brick and concrete and was first lit in 1709. This design proved much more durable than its predecessor, surviving for nearly 50 years.
On the night of December 2 1755, the top of the lantern caught fire, probably through a spark from one of the candles used to illuminate the light. The three lighthouse keepers did their best to put out the fire by throwing water upwards from a bucket, but were gradually driven out onto the rock as the tower burnt down from above them. Fortunately the fire was noticed from the shore, and the keepers were rescued by boat. Henry Hall, who was one of the keepers and either 84 or 94 years old at the time of the fire, subsequently died from lead poisoning because of the quantity of molten lead (from the lantern roof) he'd ingested whilst fighting the fire. A report on this case of lead poisoning was submitted to the Royal Society by the physician Dr Edmund Spry, and the piece of lead is now in the collections of the National Museums of Scotland.

Smeaton's lighthouse

The third lighthouse marked a major step forward in the design of such structures.
   Recommended to the task by the Royal Society, civil engineer John Smeaton modelled the shape of the lighthouse on that of an oak tree, albeit an oak tree built of substantial granite blocks. He pioneered the use of 'hydraulic lime' (a form of concrete that will set under water) and developed a technique of securing the granite blocks together using dovetail joints and marble dowels. Construction started in 1756 at Millbay and the light was first lit on 16 October 1759.
   While in use, Smeaton's lighthouse was 59 feet (18 metres) in height, and had a diameter at the base of 26 feet (8 metres) and at the top of 17 feet (5 metres). It remained in use until 1877 when it was discovered that the rocks upon which it stood were becoming eroded—each time a large wave hit the lighthouse it would shake from side to side. Smeaton's lighthouse was largely dismantled and rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe, in the city of Plymouth, as a memorial.
   The foundations and stub of the old tower remain on the Eddystone Rocks, situated close to the new (and more solid) foundations of the current lighthouse - the foundations proved too strong to be dismantled so the Victorians left them where they stood.

Douglass's lighthouse

The current, fourth, lighthouse was designed by James Douglass, using Robert Stevenson's developments of Smeaton's original techniques. The light was first lit in 1882, and is still in use. It is operated by Trinity House. It was automated in 1982, and was the first Trinity House lighthouse to be so converted. In recent years the outline of the tower has been markedly changed by the construction of a helipad above the lantern, to allow maintenance crews to gain access by helicopter.
The tower is 49 metres(161 feet) high, and it carries a white light which flashes twice every 10 seconds. The light is visible out to a range of 22 nautical miles (41 kilometres), and is supplemented by a fog signal of 3 blasts every 60 seconds.

References in the media

The lighthouse inspired a sea shanty and has been used as a metaphor for stability.
Eddystone lighthouse is mentioned in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick: "See what a real corner of the world it occupies; how it stands there, away off shore, more lonely than the Eddystone Lighthouse."
A novel based on the building of Smeaton's lighthouse, containing many details of the construction, was published in 2005.

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