The Savannah morning news., 1901-07-17
ENGLISH LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS.
Severe and Amusing Incidents of
Their Service.
From the London Mail

From the London Mail.
During the storms that rage inter
mittently around our coast in winter,
the landsman's mind turns in sympathy
toward those who in ship or lifeboat
are fighting the waves for dear life.
But how often does he give one
thought to the men who immune them
selves to the lighthouses that stud our
coast line?
Il would rather spend my life in a
penal settlement than be a lighthouse
keeper" declared a man to the writer
after a visit to the Bishop Lighthouse.
off the Cornish coast. "A convict does
see little of the world he lives in,
but lighthouse keeper sees nothing
but dreary expanse of water. 1 am
not surprised that many OF them
should lose their mental balance"
The visitor to the Bishop Lighthouse
did not overcolor the picture. 1t was
only the other day that one read of
the Longships Lighthouse, also off the
coast of Cornwall. having been COM
pletely isolated for many weeks in
consequence of fearful storms. The
keeper had been reduced to smoking,
coffee, hops and tea leaves, though for
tunately, they had not wanted for food.
The keepers of the famous Eddystone
Lighthouse not infrequently find them
selves in similar predicament. In a
gale the waves that buffet themselves
against the wonderful monument to the
engineering skill of the country are
of such stupendous magnitude that
they rise to hight of two hundred
feet, and sweep right over the lantern.
To those cooped up inside the sound
of these waves is like that of bat
terry of guns at close quarters. "At
such times the house shakes like a tree
with a man on the top of it," was the
graphic DESCRIPTION of one who spent
many years of his life there.
The new Eddystone is the roomiest
and most comfortable of all our rock
lighthouses. A sectional view of it
shows the various compartments, COM
mencing at the bottom with the water
tank, then the entrance, the two oil
receptacles, the storeroom, the crane,
the living apartment, the low light, the
bedroom and the service room, in the
order named. Formerly only two keep
ers were employed in the lighthouse,
but a grim incident resulted in their
number being increased. One of the
Two men died. So fierce ran the seas
that the remaining keeper could not
get the body of his late comrade to the
shore. For a month the tempestuous
weather continued, and for a month
the surviving keeper lived alone in
that solitary place, with the body as
his only companion. He was afraid to
cast ii into the waves for he might be
accused of murder.
Keepers of rock lighthouses do not
last long. The incessant pounding of
the waves against the building, the
loneliness, the want of fresh air and
he n
nervousness that is sometimes pitiful
to behold. They require a fortnight S
leave every six weeks, but this liberal
allowance does little to improve their
physical state. A medical man whose
duty 1t is to pay periodical visits to
one of these lighthouses confesses that
there is no remedy for the ills peculiar
to the keepers, except retirement.
The utter isolation of the silent SEN
tinels of our coast is we'll illustrated
by the case of the Bishop Lighthouse
aforementioned, which stands right out
in the Atlantic. Not once in a year is
it calm enough for the superintendent
to land his stores at the lighthouse
steps. They have to be hauled up by
means of a windlass from above. A
visitor bold enough to visit the place,
is admitted in a similar way. He
places one foot in a moose at the end
of rope, which is thrown down to his
boat, and, gripping the rope firmly
above his head, he is drawn up to the
"see off," as the plinth around the
lighthouse is called. Thence he climbs
up a perpendicular ladder to the door
of the house.
Superstition adds a terror to the life
of the men in this lighthouse, for the
first structure was washed away bodi-
ly. and the keepers believe that the
rock is haunted. A fear of different
kind keeps the men of Muckle Flugga
Lighthouse-the most northern point
of Scotland-on the tenterhooks of a
terrible suspense. On three occasions
the huge black rock on which the light
house stands has been shaken by an
earthquake
There is something comical, though
characteristic of the stiffnecked Scot
in story which comes from neigh
boring lighthouse. which is in charge
of two different families. They live
on a desert island. From year end to
year end they never see a visitor, ex-
cept the man who brings their stores.
Eighteen months ago the heads of the
two families quarrelled, and ever since
they have ceased to speake
At the shore lighthouse of Ushinish
the keepers family has to travel forty
miles to kirk" 1t is no reflection
on their piety to add that they are not
regular attendants.
A lighthouse keeper receives maxi
mum wage of f75- a year, out of which
he has to supply his own rations. These
consist of such unappetizing edibles
as timed beef and hard biscuits, usual
ly washed down with weak tea and
condensed milk. No intoxicating
liquors are allowed.