"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 ... had to be called
out of nothing; and a new trade (that of light-keeper) to be taught,
recruited and organized."
Bell Rock was only one of twenty lighthouses Robert Stevenson helped to
build, but it was by far the most difficult one ... and even to-day,
after it has been lighted for more than a hundred years, it still
remains unique--a monument to his skill.
Bell Rock was practically a reef completely submerged at full tide and
only a few feet of its crest visible at low water. To raise a tower on
it meant placing a foundation under water, a new and perilous
experiment.
"Work upon the rock in the earliest stages was confined to the calmest
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