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I seem to have wandered a long way from the subject of the Eddystone, wrote retired lighthouse keeper Harold Taylor. This second relief and first with the 'chopper' brought with it the press, and T.V. Westward came out and did a film which was on the screen that night. After he had gone ashore we were to receive another visit. This was from Clive Gunnel who had done several series of films taking in the coasts of Devon and Cornwall. He was coming out to make a film of the Eddystone.
He was aboard for about 4 hours and most of that time he was filming and most of that time I was the only keeper on screen because both of the others, Mike Hall and Ted Townsend shunned publicity. Unfortunately none of what was shot has ever finished up on screen to my knowledge, because almost immediately afterwards Westward T.V. lost their franchise. Clive seems to do things on Yorkshire T.V. but whether he has put on 'my film' is unknown.
I carried on the system at the Eddystone that I had inaugurated at Sark whereby I designated certain areas for each keeper to maintain, instead of having a work sheet for certain jobs to be done on certain days. The keepers were agreeable and satisfied with it. Being sensible and responsible people, it all worked well. I gave them the option to change any job they thought was in excess of requirement. Mike was quite happy to have the base and quite enjoyed himself down there and took an interest in the ropes.
Ted had opted for the engine room, and came to me one day with a problem about the starter batteries. These had been changed from the lead acid type of my early days and were now alkali Nife batteries. Ted had been there several years and he had been instructed by the other P.K. Vince Pierce, who had been there when the change over took place. He had however treated them exactly the same as Lead Acid, which is completely wrong.
Once I had explained the difference in treatment and found the maintenance books relevant. Ted was enlightened and much happier. In fact later at a Health and Safety course he attended at the same time as me the question came up, and he explained that until I had advised him he had never been told the difference between the two types of battery.
I had a couple of engine failures whilst I was there, both fairly quick upon each other.
This I blame on poor maintenance schedules by Trinity, possibly because of the anticipation of closing the station down. It was also to a certain extent the Bolshi attitude of the Blackwall staff. For some unknown reason, there was a specific letter stating that the Keepers were not entitled to change the fuel filters on the engines and must wait for the arrival of a Mechanic on station.
When the first engine stopped and we could not find a cause, I suggested checking the fuel filter. Ted looked aghast and referred to the letter which I did not then know about. I said it was ridiculous, as we had looked for all other causes and could find none.
Much against everyone else's advice I proceeded to do the necessary, finding that the fuel filter was virtually none existent, having crumbled away with the presence of water. After replacement the engine worked fine, then another engine fell over a few days later and I went through the same procedure, with the same findings.
I think one of the possibilities which prejudiced Blackwall against keepers doing these little jobs was that in the first place they were very strong Union wise and they saw it as taking some of their 'perks' away. They were on a very good thing and had been ever since I had been in the job. Their Subsistence and travel facilities started as soon as they left home, and they were entitled to draw full subsistence for three weeks before it was reduced.
This meant that now helicopter reliefs were two weeks apart they were on full subsistence all the time they were away. It also meant that for the smallest job they were almost assured of over two weeks. Despite our new pay increases this subsistence still exceeded our daily rate.
In fact at one point I had suggested that our Union desist in asking for pay rises which were being blocked by the Government, and asked that we were paid subsistence for our periods on Rocks. Blackwall people could also ask to be withdrawn after three weeks on a station. The other reason for Blackwalls' objection was of course that there had been some ridiculous bungling at times.
Perhaps I was the cause of one such piece, but it never made the light of day. You may recall on my first visit to this station in the 60's I illustrated how through stupidity, Blackwall had made a mess of installing the water pump. When I went back, the pump was still making the same racket. I saw that now there was a certain amount of spare piping on station so I set out to cure this.
I believe I understood the cause. Having completed the work, although I had cured the racket, the pump now seemed to work less efficiently, although I had not actually touch the pump itself. I therefore sent away for new liner parts to the pump. When they came Ted offered to put them in. I mistakenly informed him how when the pumps were first installed they had worked very stiffly, and the liners had to be filed out before the mechanism worked freely.
It worked on the Archimedes worm screw principle. Some time later he came to me; I was working elsewhere. He stated that he had filed a lot away but still could not get the job boxed up and working. I decided to go and see what the problem was. When I took the pump apart I found that where the liners were to bed down was filled with rust.
When I cleared this, the liners fitted, but because Ted had filed so much away, they were too slack to allow the pump to work efficiently, but it was no use putting the old ones back as they were now much to slack as the rust, in pushing them forward had worn them down. We were back to square one.
I had discovered earlier a stupid and unnecessary practice, which had been going on ever since the two keepers had been on station. Whether it was created to quell boredom or was just following suit through ignorance I do not know, but Vince had been on station fairly soon after I had left 16 years ago and they were only following instructions. Let me explain.
There were eight oil tanks in the floor above the engine room each holding 220 gallons of fuel. they were sealed at the top. They were all coupled by a system of pipes which went through a complicated switching system, the unfortunate result of which was that no tank could be emptied lower than 100 gallons, despite the fact that they had pipes coming out below that level.
It was the height at which the switching level was based that prevented this. The tanks were also set up in two banks of four, only one tank in each bank having a fuel meter. The fact that these meters were set for different gravities of fuel was no particular handicap this only caused confusion in measuring.
The practice that was in operation, was that each Saturday morning the tanks were levelled down to read the capacity. After this with a small hand pump fitted into the system, all the fuel was transferred to leave as many full tanks as possible.
The reason for levelling down to take the measurement was because of a new system of reporting stocks to the depot every Saturday morning. What they were doing was so futile when all they had to do was wait till all one bank were down to a level from which no fuel would freely flow.
They would know the quantity therein and work on the other bank. If they knew that all the tanks had been filled they knew the amount in the three tanks without a measure. Then working on the tank with a gauge it was quite a simple task of addition and subtraction without all the wasted manual time of pumping from one container to another.
Because of the bother with the water in the fuel filters I tried to ascertain when the tanks had last been sumped, but they appeared not to know how it could be done as they were sealed at the top, and the extreme bottom cock on the tanks was level with the floor.
I explained that when I had been there before a length of plastic pipe had been supplied fitted to a flange that could be coupled to this bottom cock. This flange was ultimately found but only a short section of pipe. This was difficult as it meant that one could only drain off water into a shallow bowl, whereas before what we had done was to take the end of the pipe outside the door of the room and drain it into a bucket on the stairs. In the end I drained off about six gallons of water from each tank.
By virtue of all their pumping, they would have been disturbing all this. If they filled the engine room header tank at the same time a certain amount of this suspended water would percolate to that tank. In fact I believe it was because I had found water in the tank that I had made further explorations.
I had another problem in the oil store. There was a continual presence of oil on the floor. Having taken over the maintenance of this floor, I first thought I had discovered the cause when I found that regular treatment of the tank valves had not been kept. This resulted in them all leaking slightly. When I found the correct material, I swear that the tubes of injection stuff had not been touched since I had left 16 years before.
Having cleared this problem I still found I had oil on the floor. There were a lot of engine spares including a spare engine crank case stored in an awkward corner. When, with difficulty I got it all cleared out I found a sealed oil drum of an out dated engine oil in the corner which was leaking from a tiny pin hole. By turning the drum upside down I cured this problem.
I understood that as there had been an instruction issuing a new oil number for ordering oil, they had stopped using it, although for years it had been the oil used. I put it into service, and many moons later I discovered I was right, all that had happened was that its catalogue number had been changed but it was in fact the same material as was now issued.
Later on we had another failure on one of these engines. We had already been given notice of the imminent closure, and they were obviously not prepared to spend any money on maintenance. The engine stopped and would not run although to all intents and purposes it was prepared to fire. Suddenly I twigged that it was showing similar tendencies to a new second hand car my brother had bought. This broke down on the first long journey, the A.A. could not get it going, took it to a garage, who could also not get it going.
After having spent about a week on it replacing almost everything without success they suddenly found that the stuffing in the silencer had shifted and was blocking it. With this in mind I removed the silencer and ran the engine quite successfully, although nearly deafening myself in doing so. Fortunately we had a spare silencer on station which I fitted and all worked well. At this time of day Trinity were prepared to pay special diminutive fees for call out duty. I had claimed them on the other two breakdowns but they had been refused.
On this occasion I persisted and made a claim which they paid, adding a special commendation for carrying out the work.
At the time of the first helicopter relief, I discovered there was large hotel at Plymouth Airport, called The George, so next time I booked in there. What a disaster, I think it was late October. The landlord was away and some deformed cretin in charge.
The place was filthy and the accommodation definitely third class including a broken wash basin in the bedroom. I believe I was the only person in for drinks, the food was poor, and in the morning I had to go into the kitchen for breakfast, which I helped this 'object' produce. You can guess I never stayed there again.
However I must have fallen on my feet somehow, because I contacted someone, who allowed me to park my car in their garden not far away. I seem to think they were a retired teacher or a relative of one. I believe they were incapacitated in some way.
This made it very easy for me, because I found useful accommodation in Plymouth, I would drive out to a Super Market close to the Airport where I did my shopping I would then deposit it at the Airport and go and park the car for the month. The day I left the Eddystone I was very disappointed not to be able thank them personally, but they had gone to a sick relative. I was able to leave a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates.
With the impending closing of the station, Tarrant the Superintendent had promised all the other keepers who had been on the station that he would endeavour to get them any station they wished. This did not include me as I had only just arrived on station. Vince went to the Royal Sovereign, Mike Semmens went to the Longships, and Ted went to Lynmouth. Mike Hall went to Sark. I remember he asked me where would be good places to go. I knew of his interest in birds and nature generally.
I had suggested there or Bardsey. The other keeper was Les Harriman from Withernsea, but I do not remember where he went, it may have been Inner Dowsing. Tony Beddard and Brian Clayton replaced Ted and Mike Semmens. They both came on the overlap reliefs. Gordon Phillips was made acting P.K. for the short time remaining.
He was an amateur radio fanatic, and brought off some equipment to cope with his hobby; setting up a quite illegal and against establishment, station, although later it was well written up in Trinity's' magazine. What annoyed me was to find that he had stripped out parts of the building to help his quest and bolted them on the outside of the building making it difficult to close storm shutters.
However I settled that when I returned for my last turn. Another man who wheedled his way in, was presumably a mate of his by the name of Walker, who was also related to the then editor of Flash. His station was Portland Bill, but he managed to get himself posted for the closing down relief. Fortunately I was ashore, although it did prevent me obtaining some prized mementos of the place I had spent six years of my life on.
I do not believe the actual date for the closure was fixed at the time I went ashore, if it had been I might have taken a liberty. Certainly whilst ashore I was suddenly offered or directed to Bishop Rock Lighthouse. Over a period I had been taking my gear ashore as closing was that imminent. I was not sorry to leave as the only competent keeper remaining had been Mike and he was on the move.
There ends Harold Taylor's tour of duty at the Eddystone Lighthouse, around June 1981.
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