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This is retired lighthouse keeper Harold Taylor's story of the 12 months he spent on Bishop Rock, one of the Scilly Isles, from July 1981.
I do not think I had any choice in the matter, but I was intrigued to go to a different station. This meant travelling by car overnight to Penzance Depot. There was no longer a Superintendent here, as it now came under East Cowes. Neither was there a depot ship.
There was District Clerk and assistant, and a Wharf Bosun. Walter Boyd, now acted as administrator over the heliport reliefs and thought he was God. The D.L.F. head quarters for the whole district was now here administered by Mike Crisp who had been on the Eng. in Chiefs office, but for convenience had demoted himself. MacDonald Jones ran his department from here also. Most of his staff were local.
The guest house we were advised to use was not that marvellous and I think we all vowed never to use it again, apart from the church bells across the street. I think we must have chosen practice night. I decided to go to the old favourite pub, The Dock, but all had changed. I got into conversation with a fellow who was obviously attracted and becoming attached to one of the barmaids.
I learned later that he was the father of the two girls who had recently been lost on a tragic sea accident. The vessel was called the Union Star. She had got into difficulties of the Cornish coast. The girls and some others had been rescued, but the cox'on of the lifeboat in my opinion made a foolhardy gesture to rescue more in a impossible position, and the ship came down on the lifeboat.
All the lifeboat crew and the crew of the vessel were lost including those who at one time had been rescued. Several people witnessed the careless loss of life, but chose to say that at the specific time they turned away and did not see what happened. It was always my opinion that those who were initially rescued by the Lifeboat, and subsequently lost their lives should have been compensated by the R.N.L.I.
I went off to the Bishop via Sennen Heliport, which had been created in the grounds of the cottages allocated to the keepers of that light, although now only two houses were occupied. The other two were turned into Amenity houses. The wharf bos'n was appointed to be responsible for the smooth running of operations, but he was an 'old woman' and a pain in the arse.
The Longships, Wolf Rock and the Seven Stones Light Vessel were done first before we embarked for St. Mary's in the Scilly Isles. When we landed I met up with the other keeper Tristan Sturley who was going out and lived in the isles. It had been a twenty minute trip so far and we also had to land another keeper McGovern on Round Island during the trip. So we were in for about another twenty minute trip.
Once aboard I met up with the third keeper who was Davy Jones, I am not sure off hand whether he was from the Pool or one of the permanent staff, however I only saw him the once. Tristan was a very sensible and accommodating sort of cove, but Davy was entirely the opposite. Seeming to want to keep to himself and adopt what can only be described as anti-social behaviour.
The lighthouse I found to be a peculiar sort of place because it had been built in two stages. Having been enlarged at the same time that the last Eddystone was built. In fact the same engineer was engaged on the two projects. The lower part of the tower was accessible by fairly steep iron ladders with rope hand rails.
Strong metal ties showed where the extra thickness of stone had been bolted through the masonry. Higher up, from the kitchen level the rest of the tower was reached by stone steps. This indicated where the alterations had been made. Later modernisation had been achieved to the inconvenience of the keepers.
I will take you through the place floor by floor. The base contained the water storage tanks in the floor, and again what once had been a toilet was turned into a rope locker. A large deep freeze was also on this floor as was stored all the engine oil. The next floor up was the main fuel oil storage place.
Several large tanks were around the walls and one final one in the middle of the room. There was also an electric fuel distribution pump. The next floor was the lower engine room and work shop. There were two generators here and the window to the room had been specially constructed to keep the sea out and allow cooling air in. It was an unbearably hot and noisy room when in operation. The next floor had a multiple of uses.
There were three oil tanks which gravity fed to the engine room below. All the rubbish was also kept here. There was also a gas powered shower and the Elsan bucket. This was a surprise to me because whilst on the Eddystone I understood that there was to be fitted a more up to date multrator system to what we had.
When I questioned the lack of this I was told that what had been fitted was some form of digestor system which entailed 'crapping' on some sort of silk screen, covering it with earth and adding a powder which digested the waste into a sack or bag, which was then intended to be taken ashore. After trials the keepers had rejected this contraption as it meant them carrying on relief about a hundredweight of soil to feed the machine and a similar amount to take ashore..
The next floor was the kitchen, which had been modernised to everyone's disadvantage. The room was not as wide as the floors below. The table was in the middle of the room and fixed benches were on the far side of it.
Because the food storage cupboards had been removed from the floor below for modernisation, their replacements were arranged round the room above head height over the bench, because these projected out into the room the same width as the bench, the only way to get at the shelves was to stand on the table, which was a bit disconcerting if you were having a meal and you needed to get to the cupboard.
In the case of short people of course this was necessary at any time. There was gas cooker provided for use. The chief danger of this was that it had an extractor hood set so low and out so far that one was in danger of injuring ones head in the effort of producing a meal.
The floor above this was the bedroom which consisted of the usual curved bunk arrangements and storage cupboards, not only for the keepers, but station stores as well. One useful addition was an electric storage heater, which was fine in winter but not so clever in the summer. This served a duel purpose.
Since modernisation and the installation of additional equipment we were on 24 hours radiation of electricity. As we produced during the day, far more than we needed, the storage heater was used to absorb the extra electric power and make a more economic use of the engine. So the storage heater powered by day cutting out at night when the light came on.
The next floor was the sitting room, although that is really a euphemism. It used to have a fire place, or range and might have been the original kitchen. The weight tube I think used to go down through the centre of the room, but as the lens was now driven by electric motors the tube had been removed.
In this room was another storage heater, three radio transmitters and the T.V. set. The most important piece of furniture. The shelves were lined with books and more food cupboards. There was the normal shipping band transmitter and a new apparatus for V.H.F. communication as well as a special set for communicating with the helicopter. Since the introduction the V.H.F radio there had been an insistence that we keep a twenty four hour radio watch.
This was very difficult to achieve in reality, as the watchman could be engaged anywhere about the building. The annoying situation with all this stuff being in the 'sitting room' meant that if one was trying to entertain oneself with the tele, you would be interrupted by all sorts of idiots transmitting on the radio.
On top of which we also had a Sea Watch Radar contraption that interfered with reception. They subsequently also introduced a V.H.F telephone link, which whilst very handy also led to a lot more interruption.
The next floor was the Service room. Due to the lack of space below, here were two small engines designed to give us our daylight power, but during the time I was there they never worked and no visiting mechanic was able to do better. Also there were two compressed air engines for the fog signal.
There was so little space that the air tanks for this system were suspended from the ceiling like Pterodactyl eggs. The R.T. Batteries were also here. Up the next flight of steps was the lens, which was a monstrous construction. Being the original lens about 12 feet high and ten in diameter.
There were in fact two lens. The original intention from the wick lamp days being, that in clear visibility one lens was lit, but in poor visibility both were used. In electrification they had utilised this to the effect that the main light was exhibited low down, and in the event of a power failure, the battery light would illuminate the top lens. On this floor we also kept the toilet bucket. The object being ease of use. Use the bucket and throw the contents out into a passing wind.
Continued in part 2.
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