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Records of a Family of Engineers-Part18_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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having in tow the six principal beams of the beacon-house,

together with all the stanchions and other work on board for



fixing it on the rock. The mooring of the floating light was

a great point gained, but in the erection of the beacon at



this late period of the season new difficulties presented

themselves. The success of such an undertaking at any season



was precarious, because a single day of bad weather occurring

before the necessary fixtures could be made might sweep the



whole apparatus from the rock. Notwithstanding these

difficulties, the writer had determined to make the trial,



although he could almost have wished, upon looking at the

state of the clouds and the direction of the wind, that the



apparatus for the beacon had been still in the workyard.

[Saturday, 19th Sept.]



The main beams of the beacon were made up in two separate

rafts, fixed with bars and bolts of iron. One of these rafts,



not being immediately wanted, was left astern of the floating

light, and the other was kept in tow by the SMEATON, at the



buoy nearest to the rock. The Lighthouse yacht rode at

another buoy with all hands on board that could possibly be



spared out of the floating light. The party of artificers and

seamen which landed on the rock counted altogether forty in



number. At half-past eight o'clock a derrick, or mast of

thirty feet in height, was erected and properly supported with



guy-ropes, for suspending the block for raising the first

principal beam of the beacon; and a winch machine was also



bolted down to the rock for working the purchase-tackle.

Upon raising the derrick, all hands on the rock



spontaneously gave three hearty cheers, as a favourable omen

of our future exertions in pointing out more permanently the



position of the rock. Even to this single spar of timber,

could it be preserved, a drowning man might lay hold. When



the SMEATON drifted on the 2nd of this month such a spar would

have been sufficient to save us till she could have come to



our relief.

[Sunday, 20th Sept.]



The wind this morning was variable, but the weather

continued extremely favourable for the operations throughout



the whole day. At six a.m. the boats were in motion, and the

raft, consisting of four of the six principal beams of the



beacon-house, each measuring about sixteen inches square, and

fifty feet in length, was towed to the rock, where it was



anchored, that it might ground upon it as the water ebbed.

The sailors and artificers, including all hands, to-day



counted no fewer than fifty-two, being perhaps the greatest

number of persons ever collected upon the Bell Rock. It was



early in the tide when the boats reached the rock, and the men

worked a considerable time up to their middle in water, every



one being more eager than his neighbour to be useful. Even

the four artificers who had hitherto declined working on



Sunday were to-day most zealous in their exertions. They had

indeed become so convinced of the precarious nature and



necessity of the work that they never afterwards absented

themselves from the rock on Sunday when a landing was



practicable.

Having made fast a piece of very good new line, at about



two-thirds from the lower end of one of the beams, the

purchase-tackle of the derrick was hooked into the turns of



the line, and it was speedily raised by the number of men on

the rock and the power of the winch tackle. When this log was



lifted to a sufficient height, its foot, or lower end, was

STEPPED into the spot which had been previously prepared for



it. Two of the great iron stanchions were then set in their

respective holes on each side of the beam, when a rope was



passed round them and the beam, to prevent it from slipping

till it could be more permanently fixed. The derrick, or



upright spar used for carrying the tackle to raise the first

beam, was placed in such a position as to become useful for



supporting the upper end of it, which now became, in its turn,

the prop of the tackle for raising the second beam. The whole



difficulty of this operation was in the raising and propping

of the first beam, which became a convenient derrick for



raising the second, these again a pair of shears for lifting

the third, and the shears a triangle for raising the fourth.



Having thus got four of the six principal beams set on end, it




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