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Records of a Family of Engineers-Part6_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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a demon of activity in travel. In 1802, by direction of the



Northern Lighthouse Board, he had visited the coast of England

from St. Bees, in Cumberland, and round by the Scilly Islands



to some place undecipherable by me; in all a distance of 2500

miles. In 1806 I find him starting `on a tour round the south



coast of England, from the Humber to the Severn.' Peace was

not long declared ere he found means to visit Holland, where



he was in time to see, in the navy-yard at Helvoetsluys,

`about twenty of Bonaparte's ENGLISH FLOTILLA lying in a state



of decay, the object of curiosity to Englishmen.' By 1834 he

seems to have been acquainted with the coast of France from



Dieppe to Bordeaux; and a main part of his duty as Engineer to

the Board of Northern Lights was one round of dangerous and



laborious travel.

In 1786, when Thomas Smith first received the



appointment, the extended and formidable coast of Scotland was

lighted at a single point - the Isle of May, in the jaws of



the Firth of Forth, where, on a tower already a hundred and

fifty years old, an open coal-fire blazed in an iron chauffer.



The whole archipelago, thus nightly plunged in darkness, was

shunned by sea-going vessels, and the favourite courses were



north about Shetland and west about St. Kilda. When the Board

met, four new lights formed the extent of their intentions -



Kinnaird Head, in Aberdeenshire, at the eastern elbow of the

coast; North Ronaldsay, in Orkney, to keep the north and guide



ships passing to the south'ard of Shetland; Island Glass, on

Harris, to mark the inner shore of the Hebrides and illuminate



the navigation of the Minch; and the Mull of Kintyre. These

works were to be attempted against obstacles, material and



financial, that might have staggered the most bold. Smith had

no ship at his command till 1791; the roads in those



outlandish quarters where his business lay were scarce

passable when they existed, and the tower on the Mull of



Kintyre stood eleven months unlighted while the apparatus

toiled and foundered by the way among rocks and mosses. Not



only had towers to be built and apparatus transplanted; the

supply of oil must be maintained, and the men fed, in the same



inaccessible and distant scenes; a whole service, with its

routine and hierarchy, had to be called out of nothing; and a



new trade (that of lightkeeper) to be taught, recruited, and

organised. The funds of the Board were at the first laughably



inadequate. They embarked on their career on a loan of twelve

hundred pounds, and their income in 1789, after relief by a



fresh Act of Parliament, amounted to less than three hundred.

It must be supposed that the thoughts of Thomas Smith, in



these early years, were sometimes coloured with despair; and

since he built and lighted one tower after another, and



created and bequeathed to his successors the elements of an

excellent administration, it may be conceded that he was not



after all an unfortunate choice for a first engineer.

War added fresh complications. In 1794 Smith came `very



near to be taken' by a French squadron. In 1813 Robert

Stevenson was cruising about the neighbourhood of Cape Wrath



in the immediate fear of Commodore Rogers. The men, and

especially the sailors, of the lighthouse service must be



protected by a medal and ticket from the brutal activity of

the press-gang. And the zeal of volunteer patriots was at



times embarrassing.

`I set off on foot,' writes my grandfather, `for



Marazion, a town at the head of Mount's Bay, where I was in

hopes of getting a boat to freight. I had just got that



length, and was making the necessary inquiry, when a young

man, accompanied by several idle-looking fellows, came up to



me, and in a hasty tone said, "Sir, in the king's name I seize

your person and papers." To which I replied that I should be



glad to see his authority, and know the reason of an address

so abrupt. He told me the want of time prevented his taking



regular steps, but that it would be necessary for me to return

to Penzance, as I was suspected of being a French spy. I



proposed to submit my papers to the nearest Justice of Peace,

who was immediately applied to, and came to the inn where I



was. He seemed to be greatly agitated, and quite at a loss




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