The Eddystone Story
The History of Lighthouses
Course 8 · Chapter 3 · The Eddystone Story
Some twelve nautical miles south-west of Plymouth, a reef of rocks lies half hidden at the entrance to the English Channel. It wrecked so many ships that in the 1690s a man decided to build a lighthouse on it, which no one had done before on a rock in the open sea. Four towers have stood there since, each teaching something to the next. This chapter tells the story of Winstanley, Rudyerd, Smeaton and Douglass, and shows how engineers learned to build in the sea. Names, dates and measurements are from general knowledge and flagged "check".
Four Towers
| Tower (check each) | Builder and dates | Fate |
|---|---|---|
| First | Henry Winstanley, built 1696 to 1698 as a polygonal timber tower on a stone base, later enlarged | Swept away in the Great Storm of November 1703, with Winstanley inside |
| Second | John Rudyerd, built 1706 to 1709, timber with a weighted stone base, a tall plain cone | Destroyed by fire in December 1755 |
| Third | John Smeaton, built 1756 to 1759, granite, shaped like an oak trunk | Dismantled in the 1880s because the rock beneath it was failing; the top was rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe |
| Fourth | James Douglass, built 1878 to 1882, large granite blocks, the present tower | Still standing, now automatic, with a helicopter platform added in the 20th century (check) |
Winstanley
The man
Henry Winstanley was from Essex, an engraver and showman who ran a popular attraction of mechanical wonders in London (check). He was also a shipowner who had lost a ship on the rocks, which is said to have been part of his reason for acting.
The work
The workmen could land on the rock only in calm weather and worked for a few hours at a time. The first season they drilled holes for iron bars, and the tower was built over several summers, lit for the first time in November 1698 (check).
The loss
The tower was rebuilt larger and more decorated, with lantern, galleries and rooms. In the Great Storm of 26 and 27 November 1703 it vanished, taking Winstanley and the keepers with it (check). A story says that he had wished to be in it during the worst storm imaginable, a story that cannot be verified (Exercise 2).
Rudyerd and Smeaton
- Rudyerd. John Rudyerd, a silk mercer from London and not an engineer by training, designed a plain tower of timber over a stone base, weighted to resist waves (check). It stood for almost half a century. In 1755 the lantern caught fire. The old keeper, who tried to put out the flames, swallowed molten lead, and died after some days (check).
- Smeaton. John Smeaton (1724 to 1792), from Yorkshire, was asked to build a new lighthouse and became one of the first to call himself a civil engineer (check). He studied the shape of an oak tree, which widens at the base and narrows as it rises, and designed a stone tower on that model.
- The method. The granite blocks were cut to fit in a yard in Plymouth, assembled to test the fit, and then carried out to the rock. Each course was dovetailed to the next and pinned with marble dowels, so that the tower acted as a single mass (check). The first courses were fitted into steps cut into the rock.
- The mortar. Smeaton tested limes and found a kind that set under water, a hydraulic lime, which was an important step towards modern cement (check).
- The result. The tower was first lit in October 1759 and gave service for more than a century. Smeaton wrote an account of its building, which later engineers read closely (check).
Douglass and the Present Tower
| Point (check each) | Detail |
|---|---|
| The problem | By the 1870s the sea was undermining the rock under Smeaton's tower, and the tower trembled in storms. |
| The engineer | James Douglass, the engineer to Trinity House, designed a taller tower on a nearby part of the reef, using larger granite blocks and the dovetailing method (check). |
| The move | Smeaton's tower was dismantled and the upper part re-erected on Plymouth Hoe as a monument, where it can still be visited. The lower stump remains on the rock. |
| The light | The Douglass tower was lit in 1882 and uses a modern lens and electric lamp, and the keepers were withdrawn in 1982 when it was automated (check). |
The story of the four towers is the story of an engineering idea: the best shape for the sea is a low, heavy and interlocked mass, not a tall and elaborate one.
Exercises
Write a short table comparing the four towers by material, shape and fate, and say what each builder learned from the previous one.
Test the story that Winstanley wished to be in his lighthouse during the greatest storm. What would support it, who told it and when, and what would you want to see?
Explain in plain words why Smeaton chose a curved shape like an oak trunk and dovetailed stone blocks, and what problem each choice solved.
Quick Reference
- Towers: Winstanley (1698), Rudyerd (1709), Smeaton (1759), Douglass (1882) (check)
- Lessons: low and heavy beats tall and decorated; interlocking blocks; hydraulic lime
- Legacy: Smeaton's tower on Plymouth Hoe; his account guided later builders