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Records of a Family of Engineers-Part12_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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fled. It was humorously observed of this vessel that she was

in danger of making a round turn and appearing with her keel



uppermost; and that she would even turn a half-penny if laid

upon deck.' By two o'clock on the morning of the 15th July



this purgatorial vessel was moored by the Bell Rock.

A sloop of forty tons had been in the meantime built at



Leith, and named the SMEATON; by the 7th of August my

grandfather set sail in her -



`carrying with him Mr. Peter Logan, foremanbuilder, and

five artificers selected from their having been somewhat



accustomed to the sea, the writer being aware of the

distressing trial which the floating light would necessarily



inflict upon landsmen from her rolling motion. Here he

remained till the 10th, and, as the weather was favourable, a



landing was effected daily, when the workmen were employed in

cutting the large seaweed from the sites of the lighthouse and



beacon, which were respectively traced with pickaxes upon the

rock. In the meantime the crew of the SMEATON was employed in



laying down the several sets of moorings within about half a

mile of the rock for the convenience of vessels. The



artificers, having, fortunately, experiencedmoderate weather,

returned to the workyard of Arbroath with a good report of



their treatmentafloat; when their comrades ashore began to

feel some anxiety to see a place of which they had heard so



much, and to change the constant operations with the iron and

mallet in the process of hewing for an occasional tide's work



on the rock, which they figured to themselves as a state of

comparative ease and comfort.'



I am now for many pages to let my grandfather speak for

himself, and tell in his own words the story of his capital



achievement. The tall quarto of 533 pages from which the

following narrative has been dug out is practically unknown to



the general reader, yet good judges have perceived its merit,

and it has been named (with flattering wit) `The Romance of



Stone and Lime' and `The Robinson Crusoe of Civil

Engineering.' The tower was but four years in the building;



it took Robert Stevenson, in the midst of his many avocations,

no less than fourteen to prepare the ACCOUNT. The title-page



is a solid piece of literature of upwards of a hundred words;

the table of contents runs to thirteen pages; and the



dedication (to that revered monarch, George IV) must have cost

him no little study and correspondence. Walter Scott was



called in council, and offered one miscorrection which still

blots the page. In spite of all this pondering and filing,



there remain pages not easy to construe, and inconsistencies

not easy to explain away. I have sought to make these



disappear, and to lighten a little the baggage with which my

grandfather marches; here and there I have rejointed and



rearranged a sentence, always with his own words, and all with

a reverent and faithful hand; and I offer here to the reader



the true Monument of Robert Stevenson with a little of the

moss removed from the inscription, and the Portrait of the



artist with some superfluouscanvas cut away.

I - OPERATIONS OF 1807



[Sunday, 16th Aug.]

Everything being arranged for sailing to the rock on



Saturday the 15th, the vessel might have proceeded on the

Sunday; but understanding that this would not be so agreeable



to the artificers it was deferred until Monday. Here we

cannot help observing that the men allotted for the operations



at the rock seemed to enter upon the undertaking with a degree

of consideration which fully marked their opinion as to the



hazardous nature of the undertaking on which they were about

to enter. They went in a body to church on Sunday, and



whether it was in the ordinary course, or designed for the

occasion, the writer is not certain, but the service was, in



many respects, suitable to their circumstances.




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