3-028-170 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Completion of the Wolf-Rock Lighthouse: putting the keepers on the Rock, 1870. Rough seas off the Isles of Scilly. On Christmas Day, '...Mr. Douglass, Mr. Beazeley, two mechanics, and the three lightkeepers, all succeeding in getting on the rock; and the lighting up on Jan. 1 was ensured...[However,] Mr. Douglass stayed too long, while the sea was rising rapidly...warned by the calls of the men in the landing-boat, he came down. The time, however, had passed; the boat was then unable to approach the rock...There was no option...except to remain on the rock or attempt the hazardous process of being hauled through the surf with a line. No person unused to such works would have cared perhaps to choose the latter alternative; but Mr. Douglass and his people, who had often carried their lives in their hands in the discharge of their duty, never hesitated. Their remaining on the rock would have caused...a considerable difference to the limited stock of provisions. So each man in turn, fastening the line securely around him, and watching the opportunity for a receding sea, leapt into the surf, Mr. Douglass himself following last...the little vessel made the best of her way to Penzance, followed by the hearty cheers of the party on the rock'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.