The Lighthouse Stevensons - Bella Bathurst [43]
Having effectively removed Rennie and dispensed with the distractions of his other engineering business, Robert focused wholly on his pet project. After deciding that a tower of stone was possible, he set about establishing the neatest methods of organising the works. All building work was circumscribed by time and tide. Since it was impossible to get near the rock in the winter months, Robert aimed to do as much as he could between May and September of each year. His plan, to which Rennie had vainly objected, was to build temporary workmen’s quarters next to the tower. This, he argued, would allow the builders to stay for longer at the site and short-circuit the need to make endless shore trips for supplies or rest. The Commissioners clearly thought the idea of a workmen’s barracks was the lunatic fantasy of a deluded mind, but, with a little more argument, Robert was given the authority to start. They were more amenable to the construction of a makeshift beacon near the rocks to provide early warning for sailors, since it would allow them to charge shipowners for its use and therefore provide an extra source of funds.
By now, Robert was working openly from his own plans. With a little sleight-of-hand, Robert had managed to convince the Commissioners that his designs were more trustworthy than those of Rennie; the Commissioners, distracted by other business and wary of the prospect of another of Robert’s sonorous fifty-page reports, capitulated. They did, however, express serious reservations at Robert’s digressions from the Eddystone template. Robert argued that the comparison between the Eddystone and the Bell Rock was tempting but inaccurate; the Bell Rock was almost permanently submerged underwater, it had to withstand fiercer seas and Smeaton’s technique of dovetailing the stones was, albeit only slightly, flawed. Robert’s light would be taller and more sturdily built. The joins between the different floors would be stronger, and the whole tower more substantial. The Commissioners complained, and then, under pressure, let the subject go.
For two years, Robert occupied himself with men and materials. Over a hundred men, many of whom Robert had chosen from previous lighthouse projects, had to be appointed and trained, and many had their own misgivings. Two of the sailors that Robert had been considering heard that they would be working on the Bell Rock and were so terrified by its fearsome reputation that they fled and never returned. As the Commissioners had instructed, a workyard was established at Arbroath and a lighthouse vessel, christened the Smeaton, commissioned to take the builders, joiners, mortar-men and smiths to and from the rock. Robert took an interest in every part of the plans, fixing itineraries, considering workers, examining stones, drawing and redrawing his plans. An early inventory is revealing, both as proof of Robert’s meticulousness and for the sparse equipment used on such an exceptional scheme. The workmen’s tools included 44 pick-axes, 11 stone axes, 9 boring hammers, a smith’s forge, 2 vices, a horse and harness and 236 balls of lead. Robert also noted precisely the five screwdrivers and around 400 different types of nails.
Once he had obtained authority for the start of works, Robert’s letters and orders became even more urgent. Workers, foremen and suppliers were assailed by a daily flurry of demands. Why, he wrote, did they not move faster? Why had he not received a speedier reply to his last letter? Why did it take so long to quarry the stone? Why could the boat not be launched? Why did the weather stay so troublesome? Why was the sea so uncooperative? His writing slipped deeper into illegibility and his grammar, never strong in a crisis, collapsed entirely under the strain. Those who did reply in time found themselves submerged under a further blizzard of correspondence. Whatever his staff did, it appeared almost impossible to satisfy Robert. Impatience remained one of his most troublesome characteristics,