The Light on the Hudson

by Dana Ferry

published by Ithaca Press

The First Eddystone Lighthouse

It was the age of sail in 17th century England. Located fourteen miles out to sea from Plymouth were the Eddystone Reefs, the deadliest on the coast of England. Also known as the “Widow Maker”, this area was a graveyard for countless ships and their hands. Only fifteen lighthouses stood on all the shores of England and Wales. When an entrepreneur by the name of Henry Winstanley resolved to build a lighthouse on these reefs, his idea was called preposterous but the need was imperative.

In the summer of 1696 Winstanley began his endeavor. A barnacle-encrusted rock, thirty feet wide, would house the foundation. Winstanley and his men, with their supplies, left Plymouth daily at high tide in a rowboat. The trip to the Eddystone Reefs took three hours of excruciating paddling against the wind. Two or three hours a day spent on construction at low tide, was all the men could hope for. Additional problems were whether the cement used would hold the stones together under the constant battering of the salty sea. Perhaps Winstanley did question his attempt at such an undertaking. The Eddystone Light took four years to complete. One evening in November 1698, Winstanley lit the candles in the lantern room triumphantly.

Winstanley was lauded a hero and was recognized by the king for his accomplishment. Four years later, Winstanley replaced the rickety outside ladder with an indoor staircase, a gallery was added around the lantern room and an extra bedroom was put between the kitchen and lantern room. Winstanley developed a crane to lift provisions from ships and created a swing for visitors to arrive with ease, from a boat to the door of the lighthouse.

The success of the Eddystone Light was proven in due time. After five years, not one ship had collided with the rocks. Yet a storm was about to seize Plymouth. On November 26, 1703, winds that devoured homes, ships and sailors were likened to a cyclone. The salt spray from the sea, stuck itself to hedges and grass. Sheep ate the grass, but could not drink enough afterwards. That same evening, Winstanley, his boatman and keepers were at the Lighthouse. The storm’s vehemence took the entire lighthouse and the people within. No trace of wreckage was ever found.

Winstanley built the first in a series of Eddystone Lighthouses. In 1706 and again in 1759, another lighthouse was constructed on this site. John Smeaton, the builder of the 1759 lighthouse, referred to Winstanley’s notes through the construction and that lighthouse remained for 130 years. Today, the Douglass Lighthouse, completed in 1888, stands in as the Eddystone Lighthouse; only it is located on a different rock, twenty yards away. No one, not even the skeptics, can deny the necessity of a lighthouse near the reefs. Based on the evidence, someone should have considered building one much sooner than Henry Winstanley did.

For more information on the Eddystone Lighthouse, visit www.DanaFerry.com.