The topic of today's video is... A lighthouse So... Yeah... You've read the title and I know it doesn't sound like the most catchy or most typical of topics -- you don't see the trending tab for weird nautical-beacon-related content after all. But trust me, the quest to try and prevent shipwrecks and attempt, but not always succeed in saving people's lives in horrible conditions, DOES have more than its fair share of interesting stories And also, if you're subscribed here, maybe you like nautical stuff? I... I dunno In any case... This is the story of the Eddystone lighthouse. But first, and as usual... I think we need a little context, and that context is the reason the lighthouse needed to be there in the first place -- The Eddystone Rocks. The Eddystone Rocks -- also sometimes known as the Plymouth rocks by locals -- are... Surprisingly, a bunch of rocks near Plymouth. More specifically, they are a massive outcrop of VERY tough rocks 14.5 kilometres off the coast of Devon -- where the English Channel meets the Atlantic ocean. They are entirely submerged at high tide and were, and kind of still are, AN ABSOLUTE PAIN IN THE... arch-board?! (Yeah, sure...) (Well, let's go with that...) (For mariners in history...) As they are not only in a position between many countries and their colonies that had trade routes, and not only in a position that means they are often surrounded by rough weather from the Atlantic, but also to add insult to... well... CATASTROPHIC MARITIME DISASTER The reef is also in the way of Plymouth... Okay, that sounded a bit anticlimactic. Maybe Plymouth itself is, but this city was in history, and kind of still is today, QUITE a major maritime harbour and trading port. So... Um... Where were the rocks again? Oh yeah... er... Right in the middle of the entrance to the harbour So, brilliant! The captain of the rather famous May flower, which left the city for the new world in 1620, wrote about the rocks in his log and called them: (Side note: This is why they're called Eddy stones, 'cuz of constant eddies) (Er, anyway) So... um... yeah. According to some: HUNDREDS of vessels have sunk because of this reef and perhaps THOUSANDS have died. Not only are there many confirmed instances of ships hitting these rocks and then sinking, but also stories of people sticking to the French coast to avoid them... so badly that they hit stuff over there instead and sink :( So...It's pretty obvious by this point -- and through my explanation -- that something REALLY ought to be done to stop all this; and that "something" is in the title -- It's... a lighthouse! doing that might be a bit harder than you'd expect, but the TRUE instigating force for this lighthouse was the sinking of the Snowdrop and then later the Constant near the stones in 1695. Both of these ships sank with HORRIBLE losses of life and upon hearing of the news of the second sinking on Dec-24, an inventor, painter, engraver, and the owner of both ships -- one Henry Winstanley -- was VERY angry as to why such a vicious reef was not marked at all. Upon hearing the reef was too dangerous to mark, he decided something along the lines of: "BLOODY HELL, if you want a job done, you've got to do it YOURSELF!" and decided to attempt to design and build a lighthouse on that very reef, which would make it the first-ever lighthouse fully exposed to the open sea... IN THE WORLD! Despite his lack of... actually knowing what he was doing, he soon managed to strike a deal with the Trinity House Corporation -- the body in charge of all UK lighthouses -- and construction on his lighthouse began the following summer, on July 14, 1696. And... in the first year things went smoothly. However... Some of you may have noticed that this English construction in the channel... is happening during the Nine Years' War between France and... about everyone else, including England. So quite sensibly during this time the corporation instructed that the construction site should be GUARDED, as to avoid any potential...er... eventualities? This role was fulfilled in the summer of 1697 by the HMS Terrible -- rather appropriately named in this case, as from July 12 to 14, heavy fog forced the ship to cease its duties and during this brief window of vulnerability... A French privateer vessel sailed up to the tower, stripped the workmen's clothes off apparently...(wait...wha..) took Winstanley aboard, destroyed his work, and took him back to France with the ship... Brilliant! The King of France, Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, soon heard of these happenings and... although he could have understandably kept Winstanley for his own benefit as some sort of bargaining chip... (I mean he was fighting a WAR!) he was actually rather displeased at these events. He threw the kidnapper in the Bastille prison in Paris... and immediately decided to let Winstanley go and finish his lighthouse, saying: "France is at war with England, and not with humanity." Well... He didn't actually say that, he said whatever the French was for that... But point still stands though... When Stanley returned to the Eddystone rocks probably miffed that he got grieved in real life but nevertheless finished the lighthouse, and by the Nov 14, 1698, it was lit for the first time. The tower was octagonal and stood originally at about 24 Metres high. Primarily made of wood with a granite base and lit by candles, it was also covered in ornate decorations and looked a little something like... Yeah, that's not you... It doesn't look practical and as a surprise to NOBODY except Winstanley... The 24-metre tower was often completely covered by the 28-metre waves around the reef. The first winter it suffered a great amount of weather damage -- with the lantern glass panels being smashed... and the Keepers inside observed that the tower shook so violently they thought it might be washed away (hint! hint!) Due to this, it had to be greatly redesigned and basically rebuilt... with a 36,5 metre tower this time. With more ornate decorations and a cool gallery for throwing stones at the French if they ever tried taking prisoners again Despite this initial failure, the impractical design, and the subsequent wear and tear over the next few years No ship was actually wrecked on the rocks during this time... So... it did its job, I guess. Many contemporary and local people voiced their opinions on the ECCENTRIC design of the Eddystone lighthouse, but this seemingly had no effect on Henry. He was ever confident in his design, he often went out into the channel to visit it, and even at one time wished he could be inside the lighthouse during... and "I quote": So um... Can you guess what happens next? Yeah, within five years of completion... the storm of the century hits England. Daniel Defoe, a writer at the time and author of "Robinson Crusoe", Wrote that: ... But I'm going to try anyway... England is hit by a week-long cyclone -- one which they never really usually get; which their Infrastructure is not designed for; and which they are not in any way prepared for, especially considering accurate-ish weather forecasts won't be around for another two hundred years? Thousands of chimneys in London are blown down, often hitting and killing people, and even killing the Bishop of Bath and Wells -- Richard Kidder... The storm of the time was attributed to God's... hatred... or wrath against sin...... Uh...If that's at all true, then he must have done something really wrong to die like that! Also blown down were: 400 windmills and tens of thousands, quite possibly a hundred thousand or more trees, with four thousand in a single woods alone! Some of the spires of King's College Chapel in Cambridge were also blown off, and the lead from the Roof was blown off Westminster Abbey. The Queen had to shelter in the basement to Avoid falling Chimneys, which... as we've seen have claimed many lives. She was fine, though. Probably because she could move in all directions, whereas the bishop can only move diagonally. (This is such a stupid joke XD) Ships returning from Wars fought on the continent were also wrecked Estimates put lives lost with those between 2,000 and ... 15,000 people! And... Can you guess where Winstanley was during all of this? Yeah... In his lighthouse, as he had wished. By the time the storm had passed, a ship was sent out to investigate as to why the Eddystone light had seemingly gone out... They arrived at the rocks and found that there was virtually nothing left of the tower. And the keepers and Winstanley were never seen again. Adam Hart Davis says in his book on the matter: Okay... so that's a bit harsh, but probably actually quite true. Two days after this tragic but somewhat inevitable occurrence on Nov 29, 1703, The Winchelsea, having survived the Vicious storm, made its way up the channel with the delivery of tobacco from Virginia. The crew believed that they were off course, as they couldn't see features that they should have been able to in their predicted position. Specifically, the light of the Eddystone lighthouse. Within minutes the Winchelsea had hit the once more unmarked reef, broken in two, and of the 30 crew on board... only TWO people survived! It reminded everyone after years of no fatalities and then suddenly 28 all at once, that an unmarked reef was... VERY LETHAL, and showed everyone that a need for lighthouse on those rocks was greater than ever. In 1706, after the numbers of wrecks climbed to what Martin Boyle calls in his book: "Epidemic proportions" A Mister John Lovett acquires a 99-year lease on the rocks and attempts to mark it once more with a lighthouse, in doing so commissioning a Mr. John Rudyard to actually design and build the thing, which is why the third one is known as the Rudyard lighthouse. Because calling them all the Eddystone lighthouse would get confusing faster than... a forced comparison to something else i've got no idea... Rudyard was born in modern-day Staffordshire, and he was not a professional lighthouse builder or architect. He was a property owner and fabric merchant... Because... that went so well last time?! Well as it happens... It did, as this new lighthouse was built with the help of shipbuilders that employed many tried and tested techniques to ensure it could survive the waves, such as waterproofing from tar; and overlapping wood panels; and a shape that reduced in diameter as it rose, reducing pressure from the waves and making it more stable. Hey look! Sensible design! That's a change! In fact, this design built on the same spot as the previous two, and reaching up to around 28 meters above the sea outlived both the leaseholder who died in 1710, a year after completion, but also John Rudyard as well, who died within a year of his wife on the Nov 20,1718. In fact this lighthouse in this very isolated and at times, brutal watery position lasted for 46 years! Until Dec 02, 1755, It was destroyed in a less brutal, but somewhat more strange way for a lighthouse -- through fire. At some point in the night the light at the top of the tower had caught the roof alight, which quickly spread and worked its way down. Despite the keepers trying to fight it, the tower was quickly engulfed by such a big fireball it was visible from the shore and for miles around... (Wait... isn't that what it's supposed to do? Hmm...) The lighthouse was unable to be extinguished and despite being in the middle of the ocean... burned for nearly a week afterwards... The three keepers who had to flee the burning tower, including a Mr. Henry hall who we'll get to later, were rescued off the rocks and taken to Plymouth to be treated for their burns by one doctor Edmund Spry. According to his accounts, Hall, who was at the time 84 or 94 (depending on who you listen to), talked with "a hoarse voice, scarce to be heard" with which he had told the surgeon about how he had just swallowed some mo... molten lead... (wait... what?!) The doctor had basically the same reaction you probably did just now and as me researching this at 2:09 in the morning, that: that's IMPOSSIBLE! He's dumb, that's dumb, and he's probably just making it up! Or is he's 94\84 and is probably just a bit mad! Those sorts of thoughts. After all it seems impossible to survive something like that if it happened at all... In fact, Henry could even EAT and DRINK and seem to be getting better, which made it even more unbelievable that liquid lead from the molten roof could be ingested. This didn't go on for long ,by the way, and he took a turn for the worst and died on the Dec 8. Soon after he "expired", which is Spry's words not mine, an autopsy was performed to that... to cut a long story short, Revealed he wasn't in too great a shape, apart from the fact he was dead... The major find, though, was a piece of lead reportedly found in his stomach that weighed exactly 238 Grams, which would likely be the lead he accidentally swallowed and validates the story. It's understandable if you still don't quite believe such an outlandish tale, as it is just that. Outlandish But that unfortunate event does seem to be generally accepted by the Eddystone Literature, whether books, websites, plaques... Whatever. I do want to get this video out in 2017 sometime, so I won't go in-depth. But just because it's crazy... doesn't necessarily mean it didn't happen. I mean, hell, look at half the stuff on my channel for examples of that. So... I recommend you do your own research and even come to your own conclusion. You can even state your conclusion down in the comments, and you can have an intelligent discussion about that I mean if you want, you don't have to... The piece of lead extracted (get it?) from his stomach currently resides in the national museum of scotland, for some reason... Henry Hall got a plaque in the middle of a Plymouth roundabout for his death and Doctor Spry went on to tell the Royal Society of what had happened, who probably didn't believe a word of it, which spurred him on to conduct experiments involving molten metals... and DOGS to try and replicate what had occurred. I mean it's... like... pointless on multiple levels, because not only is it causing suffering and the whole sort of humanitarian thing, but you can't even use the results he came to --- WE DON'T KNOW THEM, so we can't use them to go: "Oh hey! He might have survived", or "This is all ma... WHAT THE HELL IS THAT NOISE?! (TOO-LONG-A-TANGENT ALARM blares) Okay... okay. I get it, we'll get back on track... Just... (Alarm dies down) S' right, where are we supposed to be? Ummm... So we talk about the guy... Soo.... We're on here I think... Oh yeah, um... talk about fire. Let's get... let's get back to that then. So... what had probably become a familiar feeling to the inhabitants of Plymouth that they had felt three times over 57 years was felt once more -- the old one (lighthouse) is gone or can't do its job as well as it should, so another one needs to be built... and so the leaseholder of the rocks -- the man who had bought the lease from John Lovett's family in 1713 -- a Mr. Robert Weston, was put under pressure by the various shipping organizations whose ships were being wrecked on the reef and through that was convinced of the need for a new lighthouse. He sought his acquaintance Lord Macclesfield for help, and through him was recommended to contact a 31-year-old civil engineer by the name of John Smeaton Before long, Smeaton was commissioned for this new... FOURTH, Eddystone lighthouse, and by the Aug 13, 1756, construction was underway on this new tower, now dubbed, for obvious reasons... Smeaton's Tower Now, he was well aware of the history of the rocks, having researched it himself, and went to considerable lengths to ensure this new tower would be the strongest, hardest Toughest, most enduring one yet, and he did this in a number of ways. Firstly, he took this step forward the Rudyard lighthouse had made --the tapering profile -- and inspired by an oak tree, adapted it into a lighthouse design which like the tree, had a lower centre of mass and increased stability. Like ^this^ You may recognize this as the iconic shape of basically any lighthouse around the world. Well... now you know where it came from. He also reinforced the foundations, cutting steps into the hard Eddystone rock for the stone blocks to sit in the stones blocks to sit in. The stones themselves were shaped so that they fit together in what is known as a dovetail joint -- a joint which is usually reserved for wood and furniture, but he used it here to make DOUBLE and TRIPLE sure they could not and WOULD NOT come apart. This cross-section shows how all the stones on a single layer were interlocked and as you can see this is like a puzzle box, where you can't easily remove any of the pieces. You've seen this pattern, before by the way, in the pavement behind the Henry Hall plaque for some reason... Presumably the plaque was added later, as if it is part of Hall's commemoration then... they've got the wrong lighthouse.... In addition Smeaton also helped develop
what is known as hydraulic lime, a form of adhesive or mortar that set like you would expect, but with water causing the hardening. It doesn't take a genius to tell how that might be useful when you build a lighthouse. In Aug, 1759, Smeaton's Tower had practically been finished, it stood at 22 meters tall and in the end cost around £40,000, or £7.1 MILLION in today's money, but did save money in the long run with the wrecks it prevented. Oct 16 saw the Lantern and the 24 candles in it lit for the first time, (Yeah, apparently, 24 is all they needed) and with those the new 4th lighthouse was complete, just in time for the usual rough winter. And... it survived it, and the next one, and the next one, and the next one... In fact, John Smeaton had built such a sturdy lighthouse that it lasted twice as long as the previous 3 COMBINED. All the way to 1882, A whopping 123 years! And in those 123 years, both Smeaton and the Lighthouse had become pretty famous. Smeaton for his work as a civil engineer... Hell, he invented the term civil engineer... But also smeaton's tower had become very popular as well. It was the David Tennant of the Eddystone lighthouses if you will, and had become somewhat of an icon in the Plymouth area. So what do you think happened to this one? Another fire? Weather? Lightning? The Kraken? Well... not exactly. Smeaton had built a fine lighthouse, the issue was with the rocks it was standing on. A survey of the Eddystone rocks conducted in 1877 noted some suspicious cracks. And quite worryingly, thanks to the underlying erosion, the lighthouse started to rock from side-to-side when large waves hit the base. Which... Yeah, you don't have to be smeaton to tell that probably isn't supposed to happen Well... what to do? I suppose It's time for a lighthouse number five... Except, this was no longer 1697, this was Victorian times, and engineers had many more tools at their disposal, and many, many more ways to solve problems. As a result, soon after the findings, an idea was put forth that Since the reef was the problem here, instead of just adding a lighthouse. They should instead remove the reef. How? Well, blow it up! Yeah, make sense on paper and in the badly composited approximation for a Youtube video kinda way, but for the first time in recorded history... turns out explosions aren't that practical. To clear the reef to a sufficient depth for basically all ships would involve dealing with a one square mile area of rock, and dislodging, moving, and disposing of 1.75 MILLION tons of the stuff in total. That's nearly a third of the great pyramid of Giza! Also, that would cost around £500,000 , or 53.5 MILLION pounds today! Turns out building a lighthouse is actually WAY cheaper, so I guess that answers that question. The funds for this new fifth lighthouse were acquired by June, 1878, and the designs were drawn up by engineer James Douglas Leading to this one having the informal nickname: the Douglas lighthouse But there was a problem, all the eddystone lighthouses up to this point, one through four, had been built on the same spot, on the largest rock of the reef, the only one big enough to actually support such a lighthouse. But this spot was occupied by the Smeaton lighthouse that was being replaced, and needed to stay there until completion Otherwise the rocks were undefended. so they had to build it somewhere else on the reef and that meant building a base from scratch. To do this, Douglas used a process called a "cofferdam", Where you sink a hollow tube down to the sea floor or construct one down there, then drain it and get the workers to pack material into it, Stone, rock, rubble, concrete... you name it. Now, you may think that this method of construction sounds pretty risky and very vulnerable to potential storms or flooding. Once that was done, which took about a year or so, he could actually start building the lighthouse, and he was under a considerable amount of pressure while he did it. The construction was a matter of National interest and the first stone was laid in a publicized ceremony by the prince of Wales... No, not that one I mean he's old, but he's not quite that old... The other one... the other, other one... Yeah, yeah, sure, him. Also known as Albert Edward, future king of the united Kingdom, albeit under a slightly different name. (Edward VII) He laid the first stone, so it's a pretty high-profile lighthouse at this point. But how did Douglas ensure that this lighthouse lived up to these expectations? Well, to put it simply... He took what had gone well before and he made it better. His lighthouse was 41 metres tall, 19 taller than Smeaton's, and was built from 2171 stones that were not only larger and interlocked with the others on its row, as Smeaton's had, but also the rows directly above it and below it as well. The walls at the bottom were eight and a half feet thick and the Lantern was much brighter than before and could be seen from 17 miles away The last stone was laid also by the prince of Wales in the summer of 1881 and not long after on the 18th of May ,1882, the New Douglas Tower was opened by Prince Albert Ed... Ed... Ed... (Wait... What?!) The same guy?! Wow, he must have really liked lighthouses or something, I don't know. In the end, It had cost £59,250, nearly £19,000, or about two million in today's money... LESS than the original estimate, but more importantly the Eddystone rocks were once again guarded. But the job isn't yet done, Smeaton's Tower was still there and the problem -- Erosion around the base could only get worse as time went on, so logically they should probably demolish it, right? I mean, so it doesn't so it doesn't do... do...So it doesn't do that, basically, yeah. Except... NO! As I mentioned earlier Smeaton was quite notable and popular by this time, 90 years after his death. I mean he isn't called celebrated by Wikipedia for nothing and, Hell, he's mentioned in popular songs to this day! Albeit as a weird ryhme for policemen... So logically there would be a great public outcry against the Demolition of his most popular work -- The lighthouse So what to do, If it couldn't stay, but it couldn't be demolished? Well turns out there is a third way... He just moved it, instead block by block over the course of two years. ^HERE^, to this rather nice park on the mainland, (pleased don't make a joke about this name in the comments) and re-erected it as some sort of tribute to the late engineer. You can even climb it today It's got a pretty cool view and on a good day you can see the Douglas tower off on the horizon, though you might need a good optical zoom for that, But moving it there in the first place was much easier said than done -- Smeaton had built such a bloody strong lighthouse it caused so much hassle trying to prise the blocks apart again. the workers reported that the experimental mortar was as hard, if not harder than GRANITE! It was so hard for the victorian workers that When I say they moved it, I actually mean they moved MOST of it, because they gave up with the base due to the immense difficulty and... It's still there, 280 years later, alongside its successor. As you can see that lasted as well, apart from the addition of a new light, a helipad on the roof, and complete automation since 1982, meaning it requires no lighthouse keepers anymore. That's the state of affairs today. In 2005, the Douglas Tower overtook the Smeaton predecessor in terms of duration and today it stands visible from up to 41 kilometres away. Standing over the Eddystone rocks to try and prevent it from claiming any more lives. Of course it won't be 100% successful, we still get the old ships sinking from being washed into the rocks or heavy fog, or refusing to turn because of honour or something... Which ACTUALLY happened look it up And it won't be 100% successful in the future of course. But at least we can say we tried very, very, Very Very VERY hard. And THAT is the story of the Eddystone Lighthouse It is... Well... Until we decide to build another one...
That was wonderful! I've always wondered how they build lighthouses out in the ocean like that~ Thanks for sharing.
I've been following Zepherus for a while, after discovering him by chance a while ago. He's really really good at this stuff. He clearly does his research.