On This Day – November 27th

The Eddystone Lighthouse is situated on the dangerous Eddystone Rocks, 9 statute miles (or 14 km) south of Rame Head, Cornwall.

The current structure is the fourth to be built on the site. The first and second were destroyed by storm and fire. The third, also known as Smeaton's Tower, is the best known because of its influence on lighthouse design and its importance in the development of concrete for building. Its upper portions have been re-erected in Plymouth as a monument.

The first lighthouse, completed in 1699, was the world's first open ocean lighthouse.

It was an octagonal wooden structure built by Henry Winstanley. Construction started in 1696 and the light was lit on 14th November 1698. During construction, a French privateer took Winstanley prisoner and destroyed the work done so far on the foundations, causing Louis XIV to order Winstanley's release with the words "France is at war with England, not with humanity".

The lighthouse survived its first winter but was in need of repair, and was subsequently changed to a dodecagonal (12 sided) stone clad exterior on a timber framed construction with an octagonal top section as can be seen in the later drawings or paintings. This gives rise to the claims that there have been five lighthouses on Eddystone Rock.

On 27th November 1703 Winstanley's tower was destroyed without trace during the Great Storm of 1703. Winstanley was completing additions to the structure during the storm. He was never seen again, along with the other five men who were in the lighthouse at the time.

The lighthouse is referenced twice in Herman Melville's epic novel Moby-Dick; firstly at the beginning of Chapter 14, "Nantucket"...

"How it stands there, away off shore, more lonely than the Eddystone lighthouse."

...and in Chapter 133, "The Chase – First Day":

"So, in a gale, the but half baffled Channel billows only recoil from the base of the Eddystone, triumphantly to overleap its summit with their scud."

The current, fourth, lighthouse was designed by James Douglass. Preparations for the site began in 1879, on the South Rock. The light was lit in 1882 and it is still in use today.

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