Bell Rock Lighthouse: Signal and Guide to Fishermen and Travelers

I’ve always been interested with lighthouses even before I watched this documentary film that’s why it wasn’t hard or boring for me. I’ve always wanted to go to a lighthouse and see how it flashes lights towards the sea. It’s amazing how it saves many lives of people and even animals that live underwater. I find it wonderful learning how to build a lighthouse, well, technically. This Bell Rock lighthouse was built in a rock, a very dangerous rock according to people who came across it. The man behind this rock, Robert Stevenson, built this rock between 1807 and 1810.

And it’s amazing that this certain lighthouse still stand even to this day! Awesome, indeed! The history of Bell Rock was amusing and interesting as well in my opinion. How many ship wrecks had happened there before, I had no idea. Robert Stevenson, a man full of dreams, wanted to pursue building a lighthouse on Bell Rock. Although many people were against his plan, he stayed determined and thought of many ideas how to build a lighthouse without the waves crashing the base. That was one of the disadvantages since the lighthouse will be built in the sea.

He based his idea to some already built lighthouses and hired almost sixty men to work on this project. They went to the sea, with a steady ship floating not so far away from the rock, they went with the ships to the rock and started digging for the base of the lighthouse. One thing I noticed about this story, the laborers were all religious men. They pray before and after working which is very admirable. The going back and forth routine has been a disadvantage to Stevenson as he were already behind time working with the base of the lighthouse. He decided, together with his men, to build a beacon in the rock which they can stay to.

They started with the beacon not long. The question would be how long will it stay standing? Storms can sweep away the beacon and they were still behind schedule. Fortunately, there weren’t any super storms during the days they put the pieces one by one. The workers stayed loyal to Stevenson as he instructs them to do so. Of course, more dilemmas had befallen to Stevenson as his workers didn’t want to work during the Sabbath days. Some of them had lost faith to him and that made Stevenson’s task harder. They believed that doing work on a Sabbath is against God. It’s disrespectful and disloyalty.

They continued working for him though despite the lack of faith. Another dilemma came, two of the men died (not consecutively) while working. Their bodies weren’t found at all. It diminished the worker’s self-esteem as they work with the lighthouse in the Bell Rock while still staying in the beacon. After all the difficulties relating to the building of the lighthouse in Bell Rock, they finished after three years with pure diligence and teamwork and of course, faith to God. However, Robert Stevenson, the man behind this magnificent project, had continued facing problems which seemed to be beyond his limit.

Unfortunately, his twin and a daughter had died of whooping cough. That was the sad part here. If I were in his shoes, I’d probably die of depression. That was tough. But Stevenson was a tough man from the start. Even though he had a huge loss on his part, he still continued with the Bell Rock Lighthouse project. His work became his only focus. And after they finished it, it’s as if they have produced a work of nature. Something deeper in the lighthouse has touched many people’s lives. It was also considered as a tourist spot. Kudos to Stevenson for it!

On the other hand, John Rennie, whom Stevenson had asked opinions about before, ranted that Stevenson didn’t deserve his popularity since he was the one who suggested about the curve base of the lighthouse which wasn’t true at all since Stevenson was there all the time and he based it through another’s work. A lighthouse serves as a signal, a guide to all the fishermen and to all the travelers using the sea as their way of commuting. It serves as guidance for everyone who wants to go home and take the right path. Same for what happened to Stevenson and what he had went through by building this lighthouse on a risky rock.