[Illustration: BUILDING THE FASTNET TOWER.
Showing derrick for setting the stones into position.]
This illustration gives a striking idea of its height.]
The new design came at an opportune moment. Another inspection of the existing tower by Mr. C. W. Scott, the present engineer-in-chief to the Commissioners, revealed a parlous state of affairs. Halpin’s building was on the verge of collapse. Many of the plates in the upper stories had worked loose under the poundings inflicted by the seas, and in many instances the bolts holding the fabric together were sheared. Repairs had to be made hastily to enable the old tower to hold out until the new lighthouse was erected.
Before the work was commenced, the designer, as a result of further investigation, decided to increase the diameter of his tower to 52 feet at the base. The lowest courses did not comprise complete rings of masonry, but were anchored at the points where the circle was broken into the face of the cliff, so as to form an integral part thereof, as it were. The depth of this partial ringwork is 26 feet, at which level the first complete ring of masonry was laid. Thenceforward the tower is solid throughout its thickness for a further height of 30 feet, except for a central circular space forming the water-tank, which holds 3,250 gallons of water. From this point the masonry structure rises gracefully to a height of 88-1/8 feet to the lantern gallery. The lighthouse is divided into eight floors, affording living-rooms for the keepers, storerooms for oil, fog-signals, provisions, coal, etc.
The lighthouse, the landing-stage, and other appurtenances, are executed in Cornish granite throughout. The blocks were fashioned from picked stone of fine, close, hard grain, and ranged up to 4 and 5 tons in weight. The method of construction followed the approved lines of to-day, in which each stone is dovetailed into its neighbour, above, below, and on either side. As the stones were cut and fitted in the Cornish quarries, they were set up and fitted course by course. Then, when they had met the approbation of the engineer deputed for this duty, they were numbered and given other identification marks, so that upon reaching the base at Rock Island, upon the Irish mainland, within easy reach of the Fastnet, they could be despatched in rotation to the site, to be set in position.