Lighting the way for mariners
Once lifesavers and now iconic along our coasts, lighthouses are impressive feats of engineering with a fascinating history
History of lighthouses, by RG Grant
written BY Rg grant
The Pharos stood largely intact for 1,500 years, until the earthquakes of 1303 and 1323
The story of lighthouses stretches back more than 2,000 years to an astonishing structure built on the north coast of Africa circa 280BC: the Pharos of Alexandria. This was not the first light maintained for the benefit of mariners but its legendary reputation made it a reference point for every engineer who aspired to lighthouse building into modern times. The Pharos was named for the island on which it was built, a strip of limestone lying off the port of Alexandria on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, linked to the land by a causeway. Traditionally, its architect is said to have been a Greek, Sostratus of Cnidus. However, much that was written about the Pharos in ancient times is so dubious or patently untrue – for example, with regard to the power of its light – that it might be tempting to regard the building as mythical, were it not that level-headed Arab observers were able to describe it still standing more than a thousand years after it was erected and that present-day archaeologists have located its remains at the bottom of the sea.
The most impressive feature of the Pharos was its sheer size. It rose in three sections – a cylinder on top of an octagon on top of a square – to a height of approximately 140 metres (450ft). Few structures were built taller than this until the US skyscraper boom began in the early 20th century. The nature of the light at the top of the tower is not known, but whether an open fire or a lantern, its range seems to have been enhanced by a curved mirror. The Pharos was no stripped-down functional building. On the contrary, it was an elaborate monument embellished with statues and sphinxes, no doubt as much an advertisement for the power and wealth of Egypt’s rulers, the Ptolemies, as an aid to sailors in finding the harbour mouth. As a prestige building, it proved an undeniable success, for it was acknowledged in antiquity as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Its durability was almost as impressive as its size. The Pharos stood largely intact for almost 1,500 years, until reduced to ruins by successive earthquakes in 1303 and 1323.
The centuries after the erection of the Alexandrian Pharos saw the triumph of the Roman Empire over an area stretching from the Middle East to Britain. Although the Romans were energetic lighthouse builders, time has erased most evidence of their labours. In Galicia, on the northwest coast of Spain, however, there stands a working lighthouse claiming direct descent from the Roman Empire. The Tower of Hercules light, outside the modern-day town of A Coruña, was probably built in the early second century under Emperor Trajan, who ruled from AD98 to AD117.
The collapse of Roman rule in Western Europe in the fifth century led to a steep decline in technological skills and social organisation. Lights were not maintained and their buildings fell into ruin. European sailors literally entered the Dark Ages. Much of the story of medieval European lighthouses has been lost in impenetrable obscurity. This is, perhaps, not surprising because in most cases the lights consisted of little more than a wood fire maintained by monks or a lantern in a church tower.
italian revival
The revival of Europe’s lighthouse-building tradition from its post-roman collapse began in the maritime city states of Italy. A prime example, the lighthouse known as the Lanterna, was erected to guide ships into the port of Genoa as early as the 12th century. When rebuilt in 1543, this tower attained a height of 76 metres (250ft), or 117 metres (385ft) if the rock on which it stood were included. Like the ancient Alexandrian Pharos, the Lanterna was more than a simple utilitarian aid to navigation, clearly intended to impress every maritime visitor with the wealth and power of the Genoese city state.
No such elaborate structures existed around the coasts of the British Isles. In 1566, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the English parliament passed the Seamarks Act, which entrusted the Brethren of Trinity House of Deptford Strond with erecting “beacons, marks, and signs for the sea” so that ships might “better come into their ports without peril”. Originally a mariners’ association or guild, founded in 1514, Trinity House was to become world famous for its system of lighthouses, but its initial performance in this sphere was lamentable. There is no record of the Brethren having built a beacon for the next 40 years, and even after that progress was patchy. Private enterprise rushed in to fill the vacuum. Any landowner with property on the coast might petition the monarch for the right to build a lighthouse, to be financed by charging dues on ships using the nearest port. The inevitable consequence was a rash of poor-quality beacons around the shores of England and Wales, for which shipowners were required to pay excessive dues. Trinity House itself depended on private entrepreneurs to build lighthouses that it then acquired at a high price. This unsatisfactory situation was allowed to continue into the early 19th century.
Ireland and Scotland did not come within the remit of Trinity House. The first light tower in Ireland was built in the 13th century at Hook Head, east of Waterford harbour, the open fire on its roof tended by monks from a nearby monastery. Little further progress was made until the 1660s, when King Charles II authorised Sir Robert Reading (circa 1640-1689), a member of the Irish parliament, to build a series of beacons at locations including Old Head of Kinsale in County Cork. This gave the Irish a clear lead over the Scots, for in the 17th century there existed only a single lighthouse in the whole of Scotland. This stood on the Isle of May, a rocky menace to shipping at the entrance to the Firth of Forth.
English engineer John Smeaton’s success in taming the Eddystone Rock in southwest England in 1759 marked the beginning of the golden age of lighthouse building. By that time, inspired by the practical rationalism of the European Enlightenment, determined efforts were being made to improve life through the application of science to practical inventions. The growth of trade and productivity was being encouraged not only as a source of wealth but also as the key to the progress of civilisation. The development of the lighthouse took its place as part of this self-conscious march of progress.
numerous shipwrecks
As countries with overseas empires and rapidly expanding maritime trade, Britain and France naturally took the lead in lighthouse building. The urgent need for a reduction in the incidence of shipwreck was self-evident. It is reckoned that by the 1790s more than 500 ships were being wrecked around the coasts of Britain every year. Yet not everyone wanted change. Many impoverished coastal communities depended for their survival upon the plundering of wrecked ships. More surprisingly, sailors often opposed the building of lighthouses, as they were sceptical of all novelties and accepted the heavy loss of life in their profession with fatalistic indifference. However, pressure from the mercantile interest and from naval officers proved decisive. Safety of the seas was seen as necessary for national prosperity and naval power.
The lamentable lack of lighthouses in Scotland was addressed through the establishment of the Commissioners of Northern Light Houses, later renamed the Northern Lighthouse Board, in 1786. In the same year, the Commissioners of Irish Lights were given responsibility for aids to navigation in Ireland. Meanwhile, civil engineering had emerged as a recognised profession. The
Safety of the seas was seen as necessary for national prosperity