The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-12-10 00:00:00

THE CALF ROCK LIGHTHOUSE.

second is the laying and wielding together of this stone
in large and perfectly-fitted blocks. When we mention
that a block of Aberdeen granite is not much more
than twice the weight of its bulk in water, and when
we add that, according to the computation of Mr.
Alan Stevenson, the sea occasionally strikes upon the
Skeeryvore lighthouse at a maximum registered force
of six thousands pounds per square font of the surface
exposed to its fury, it will be conceded that "no tale
of polar adventure, of subterranean struggle, or of
military self-devotion, can more justly demand our
sympathy than the records of successful conquest from
the sea, and of the conversion of the hidden dangers of
our shores into the guides and safeguards of our
mariners." When, as often happens, the shutters and
windows of houses upon land rattle and shake under
pressure from the tempest, many of us are in the habit
of congratulating ourselves that we are not on board
ship and exposed to the full sweep of the hurricane at
sea. Few sympathetic thoughts are, however, be-
stowed at such moments upon the lonely keepers who
are watching the warming 13mps in some dangerous
tower far out in the main, while the thunder of the
waves drowns the human voice, and the solid fabric
which shields them quivers and vibrate; as though
stricken with an ague fit.

The Cork Correspondent of The Ttmes writes under date
December 3:—

, 'The six occupants of the wrecked lighthouse on the
Calf Rock, off the south coast of Cork, have not yet
been lescued, but definite information as to their pre-
sent condition has at last reached the mainland by
means of an airtight India-rubber bag.
The principal keeper of the lighthouse has sent a
communication to Captain Boxer, the inspector of
Irish lights, who has been directing the attempts that
have been made to remove the men. He gives full
particulars of the disaster, and describes how he
and his colleagues are situated on the rock at the pre-
sent moment. During the past week repeated
Fo
ttempts have been made to relieve the men, but they
ave all proved unavailing. Two gunboats—the Sea
orse and the Amelia—are every day cruising about
here ; but in such waters it is quite out of their
wer to get near enough to the rock to render the
;nen any assistance. The only boats that can at all
approach close to the rock are those belonging to a
an named O'Shea, a resident on Dorsey Island, who
18 contractor for supplying- the men with weekly fresh
provisions, and who has a thorough knowledge of
the many contrary curients, that circle round the
rock. _

. Captain Boxer is quite sure, now that the westerly
winds have changed to northerly, that he will with his
assistance be able to rescue the men immediately from
their present perilous position.
The appliances on the rock, hitherto used for
enabling keepers to go ashore and return, have all
shared the same fate as the tower. They consisted of
a gaff, 63 feet in length, with a mesh attached. By
means of these appliances a person wishing to go
ashore could be dropped into a boat at a considerable
distance from the rock.
The Calf Rock light and the Fastenet light, which
also suffered very severely during the late gales, are
the most important on the south coast of Ireland,
being the chief guides to vessels arriving from America.
With the exception, perhaps, of the Wolf on the Coast
of Cornwall, there is not on the shore of the United
Kingdom a lighthouse which has to breast fiercer or
heavier seas than those which strike on the Calf Rock.
The tower was 150 feet high, and Captain Boxer says
that he has often seen waves break upon it which have
gone into the air twenty feet higher. Strong currents
from the north and south rush together just at Calf
Rock, producing even in the calmest summer weather
such a ground swell that it makes it extremely danger-
ous to try to effect a landing on the rock. In 1868
seven men attempted it, and neither the boat they
rowed in nor the men themselves have ever since been
seen.
In shape the rock resembles an egg, the edges being
worn away by the waves, until the whole surface
became quite conical. It measures all round at low
water-mark about 100 yards. The tower was built in
1852, and was composed of brickwork bound by iron
casings. The base of it originally was five feet thick,
and the top twelve inches. In 1867 a tremendous sea
struck the tower and carried away half the balcony.
Thirty feet of the lower part of the tower was then
13trengthened by blocks of concrete, the iron casement
by which they were bound being rivetted to the build-
ing standing already. This portion of thirty feet is
all of the structure now remaining, the other portion
having been washed away on Sunday last. There are
also on the rock two small houses built of concrete,
one being used as a kitchen, and the other as a store-
room, and these two buildings are still intact.
The names of the men at present on the rock are :
Thomas Fortune, chief keener; John Young; assistant
keeper; John Harrington, helper; John Byrne, of
Kingstown, mason; and John Kelly and John Lowry,
labourers. Byrne was sent down six weeks ago by the
Irish Light Commissioners for the purpose of filling
up a chasm in the rock with concrete, the object in
view being to improve the means of landing.
Mr. Fortune wrote a letter on Tuesday last to Mr.
Duggan, one of the keepers who happened to be on
shore when the disaster occurred, but it did not
reach him until to-day. In the letter Mr. Fortune
says
"I am just going to give you a short sketch of the
storm on Saturday night, and tell you how miracu-
lously we escaped, but I trust I shall be able to give
you a verbal account of it to-morrow. At half-past
three o'clock on Sunday morning Lowry, one of the
labourers, and I went to bed, the rest of the men being
in boura previously. I was only lying down for a
quarter of an hour when the sea struck the tower
heavily three or four times. Thera were flashes of
,lightning at the same time. At four o'clock the whole
•of the lantern was blown clear off. I jumped out of
lbed on the instant, ran and closed the lantern and
:balcony doors. Then I roused all hands, and we
.stored away on our bodies as much biscuits as we
could. After I saw Lowry and Kelly safe in
the west house, Jack Harrington, Byrne and I
secured everything in the tower, closing all doors,
and boring holes through the woodwork to allow
water and air to pass freely through. We were
engaged at this work until eight o'clock on Sunday
morning, when another fierce storm came. At half-
past eight o'clock three landings of the tower were
blown completely off. The rush of water was near
shutting the three of us outside the door of the tower.
We then made for the west house as best we could, I
being the last to desert the old ship. After being an
hour in the west house we agreed to try and make for
the kitchen, it being the strongest in our opinion of
any of the houses. We succeeded in getting there,
although the sea and wind were all this time most
terrific. We have stuck to that shanty ever since' and
thank God it did not deceive us. We were without
fire until ten o'clock last night, being in our wet
clothes all through. I need not mention that every-
thing in the way of bedding and personal clothing
went with the tower. However, we do not complain
about sleep, as we can do very well without it until
we get home. Now we are, thank God, in first-rate
order after our supply to-day."
As soon as a favourable opportunity arises Captain
Boxer will make a decisive effort to rescue the men,
but considering that they are quite safe on the rook,
and provided with a sufficient supply of food and
clothing, though without any bedding, he does not
think it necessary to run the risk at present of losing
life in taking them off.
It is said that the lighthouse will not be rebuilt on
the Calf Rock, and that it may be built on either of
the Bull and Cow rocks which are within a couple of
miles of it. In about a month a temporary light will
be erectetel on the south-western point of Dursoy
Island. I

The Cork Correspondent of The Tunes telegraphed on
Monday:—
" The six men still remain on the Calf Rock, but it is
expected that to-morrow or next day will see them
rescued. The wind still blows from an unfavourable-
point, and the sea round the rock is still agitated. A
number of Dursey islanders with one of the keepers of
the Calf Rock, named Duggan, who was fortunately
on shore when the disaster occurred, went out in three
small boats. Duggan had for eight weeks been Pre-
vented by adverse winds from leaving the rock, and for
three weeks had been prevented by the same cause
from returning. The boats took with them mat-
tresses and bed clothes encased in air-tight Indiarubber
bags; also one bag of provisions. The latter bag was
successfully conveyed to the sufferers, but owing to the
weather the boatthen had to come back to Dursey
Sound with the beds and bedding still on board. A
letter came from the Rock to the boat to-day, and in
it the chief keeper, Fortune, applied for some
stimulants to keep up the drooping spirits of the men.
In response to this four bottles of brandy have been
procured, and these will, if possible, be sent to the
Rock to-morrow. The suspense to the sufferers must
be featful, and especially to the three workmen, who
are not so well used tu,underg3ing privations as keepers
Fortune, Young, and 'Harrington."

Coax, Tuesday Night.

The Calf Rock is still occupied by its six unfor-
tunate occupants. At the present time there is no
immediate prospect of their being rescued. The wind
blows hard from the south-west, and the sea around
the rock is consequently at its worst. No boat could
go out to-day near the rock. It was impossible to cross
from Dursey Island to the mainland, a distance of
about a quarter of a mile. From the keeper's letter
yesterday it would appear that the men on the rock are
getting disheartened and weak. It was owing to the
latter circumstance that they could not draw the bed-
ding xi) the rock on Monday. However the keeper
writes that the bedding would be useless to them, as
they had no place where they could put it. In reply
to a request made for stimulants bottles of brandy
were obtained, but they could not be sent to the rock
to-day owing to the storm. Keeper Duggan, who
was on shore when the disaster occurred, says that if
they had two days ot good weather the men could be
rescued by the islanders.

The following is an extract from the official record
of the relief operations :—" December s.—At 8.30 a.m.
sent two boats to Calf Rock with 421 b. of mutton,
potatoes, water, and other provisions; also six beds
and eight blankets. Mutton and provisions landed,
but neither water, potatoes, beds, nor blankets were
landed owing to the heavy sea running round the rock.
The boats returned at two p.m. Received a letter
form principal keeper. Keeper stated that the men
wanted brandy. Sent for it to Castletown, and it was
brought back by messenger about One a.m. on Decem-
ber 6." The keeper adds that they have only ten
days' supplies. The greater portion of their supplies
must, therefore, have been swept away, as there were
1001 b. of preserved meat in store when the storm
struck the lighthouse.

In a leader noticing the recent destruction of the Calf Rock
Lighthouse, the Daily Telegraph says :
Until a comparatively recent date the submarine
rocks and outlying shoals which girdre the coasts—
about twenty-eight hundred miles in extent—of Great
Britain and Ireland were hidden sources of danger and
of constant anxiety to homebound mariners. Mr.
Findlay, in his "Description and List of the Light-
houses of the World," tells us that the North Fore-
land Light, established in 1636, was the first that shot
forth its warning ray from any point or headland in
the British Islands. It was succeeded, in 1680, by a
tower on the summit of St. Agnes Island, in Scilly, and
by a red fixed light erected about the same time
at Hunstanton ; but, speaking summarily, there
were but two-and-thirty lights, all told, upon the Eng-
lish coast even so late as the commencement of the
present century. It was not until 1786 that the Board
of Northern Lights was constituted by Act of Parlia-
ment to provide greater security for ships which had
to skirt the dangerous and rock-bound coast line of
Scotland. The first Irish light flashed forth front the
south-east point of the Hill of Howth in 1671, and
down to the close of the eighteenth century there were
only four other Irish lighthouses—those at Duncannon
Fort, Poolbeg, Balbriggan, and Copeland. Practically
speaking, the magnificent system of sea-lights now
studding the coast of these storm-lashed islands owes
its origin to the Tiinity House, iihich took a fresh
start in 1796; to ithe,Bon.rd of Northernulights,
created in 1786; and to the Ballast Board in Ireland,
which dates from the commencement of this century.
What must have been the additional perils of naviga-
tion when the British Channel was without any lights
may be imagined by those who read the long list of
ships which struck upon these hidden monsters of
the deep. previous to the erection of the mcdern struc-
tures. The first requisite of the sea tower is the,selec-
tion of the heaviest stones for its basis, and the

41`0/ 1-0 •Nf " rl# 11"--i4it
-THE- STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER:

CENSUS OF VICTORIA, 1881.

The following figures are the result of a tabulation
direct from the Householders' Schedules, and may be
accepted as final. The population as now given
exceeds by 3,761—viz., 1,797 males and 1,967 females
—and the inhabited dwellings exceed by .67 the totals
published in the approximate tables of the 23rd
May last, which were compiled from the Enu-
merators Summaries.
An estimate of population, made up from the Census
Returns:of 1871, added. to the excess of births over
deaths, and of arrivals over departures by sea occurring
between the period of that census and that of the
census of 1881, would give the following numbers :
Males, 507075; females, 422,356; total, 929,431 ;
or—males, 54,992; females, 12,093; total, 67,085
more than the actual numbers returned at the latter
census._