“The Committee have, indeed, no hesitation in giving it as their opinion, that the greater part of the losses which occur, even from the Coquet Island, as far as the Murray Firth , arise from vessels either actually striking upon, or from an over-solicitude to keep at a distance from, this fatal rock. To the latter cause, there is great reason to believe, from many concurrent circumstances attending her loss, and from parts of her wreck being washed ashore near Buchanness, his Majesty’s ship York, of 64 guns, fell a sacrifice, with all her crew. Indeed, if the number of vessels is calculated, which, within these last ten years, have been cast away within the above-mentioned extent of coast, they will be found to amount to more than one hundred.
“That the erection of a light-house upon the Bell Rock would obviate many of these dangers is sufficiently evident, and merchants, as well as seafaring men, trading to the east coast of Scotland, as well as to the north of England, are alike interested in the accomplishment of this desirable object.
“In a national point of view, the advantages that would result from it are incalculable; but none more forcible need be adduced, than that of its serving as the direct means of preservation to the invaluable lives of numerous British seamen.
“All these considerations induce your Committee to give this measure their full approbation; and that such a necessary object has not been sooner attained, must rather have proceeded from the supposed difficulty of the execution, than any hesitation as to the expediency of it.
“Your Committee, in reply to that part of the letter of the Commissioners, in which the Traffickers of Leith are required to signify, in the event of their concurrence in the measure, whether they will support the application of the Commissioners by petition to Parliament, have again to state, that giving, as they do, their full approbation to the expediency of erecting a light-house on the Bell Rock, they can have no hesitation in joining in any petition to Parliament to that effect. But the funds of this Incorporation being appropriated to specific purposes, no pecuniary aid can be afforded by them as a Society.
“To so great a national benefit as this will certainly prove, they will contribute, by willingly submitting to a tax on all shipping passing the Bell Rock, provided the duty so imposed does not exceed that laid on for any light in England, whose situation may bear resemblance to that to be erected upon the Bell Rock.