Time to revisit the Bell Rock as the last in depth blog on this was several years ago. That article detailed the tradition that the rock was once home to a warning bell that the Abbot of Arbroath had placed there to warn of the reef's danger to passing shipping. Robert Southey worked up the legend that a Dutch poet had cut down the bell and suffered death as a result. (The post can be read here.) Time now, I think, for little more sober history about the place, and in particular its beginnings.
The Name of the Rock
David Miller in Arbroath and its Abbey (1860, p. 244) states that the modern alternative name for the rock, Inchcape, is a distortion of older Inch-Scape. The word scape is Scots term for a straw bee-hive, suggesting that the reef reminded early mariners of this shape. By extension, it was latterly named Bell Rock because of this natural shape rather than the dubious legend that a bell was physically placed here. Nevertheless, this story is by no means watertight either.
Early History
The following is gleaned from Alexander McBain's Arbroath Past and Present (1887). A map published in France in 1583 shows the perilous sea route between the undertaken by King James V which led him from the Forth, via Orkney, to the Firth of Clyde and Galloway. Accompanying the chart is a description of the features and dangers, including the following notice of the east coast, where we can recognise the names Fifeness, Redhead and Inchcape:
Entre Finismes et nommé Redde, xii mille à l'est sud estdu costé de la dicte pointe Redde, gist un danger appelé Inchkope.
The Building of the Lighthouse
To build the lighthouse, the engineer Robert Stevenson was engaged and made his first survey in 1800. On his first surveying visit to the rock evidence of its destructive power could be seen there. An assortment of washed up items was found: a bayonet, a shoe buckle, coins, a cannon ball, all evidence of wreckage. On a visit to the rock on 7th August 1807, Stevenson was accompanied by Peter Logan, a foreman builder, and five assistants. They remained there for three days, drawing a survey chart for moorings and preparing for the workmen who would shortly arrive The latter comprised a body of twenty-four men and departed for the rock the following week after a special kirk service. The foundation was laid on Sunday 10th July 1808. The men lived on board a ship, the Smeaton, anchored to the rock.
On one occasion the Smeaton broke free and left the full complement on the Bell Rock. They had two boats, but not all of them would have been able to fit into them. As they were pondering what to do, and amid rising panic, the Bell Rock pilot, a man named James Spink, appeared in his vessel and was able to rescue all the men. His act earned him a pension from the Northern Lighthouse board.
There were unfortunate accidents as the work proceeded. The first casualty was an eighteen year old sailor named James Scott. He and Thomas Macurich, the mate of the Smeaton, were in a boat making fast a hawser to a floating buoy. A loose chain suddenly caught the boat and upturned it Macurish managed to cling on to the boat, but the younger man was drowned. It was a further tragedy for the family as his father at the time was a prisoner of war being held by the French.
A second victim was killed ashore. William Walker was employed in the yard at Arbroath, from where the materials were shipped for building the lighthouse. He was killed by an accident, though the details are sketchy. More is known about the sad circumstances of the third death. A young blacksmith named Charles Henderson was working with one other fitting up the light room under the direction of James Dove. When Dove ordered both men to ascend one evening as light was fading, they playfully dashed to see who could get down first, but Henderson fell from the rope ladder into deep water and was never seen again.
On 6th July 1810 the last course of the lighthouse was laid in the work yard and five guineas were rewarded to the work men to have a celebration drink and dance with their families. Building operations were finished on the rock on 4th August. The commissioners for the Northern Lighthouse Board visited the lighthouse in the following January and the light soon went into permanent commission. The total cost of building was £61, 331 9s 2d.
Ships Claimed by the Bell Rock Reef
the new lighthouse obviously dramatically reduced the loss of life in an around the area. On 28th May 1876 the schooner Ruby, of Dundee, was wrecked on the rock, but all the crew were saved. A ship from Settin, the barque Ferdinand Brumm, carrying timber, went ashore on the bell rock. Again, thankfully, all the crew were saved. The ship was towed off the reef on 14th September, two days after the accident, and beached in West Ferry Bay.
During World War I the light was, for the most part, switched off to avoid being used as a navigation mark by prowling German U boats. On 28th October HMS Argyll, a Royal Navy ship of the Devonshire class, ran aground on the rock in the early hours of the morning. A fire broke out and there was substantial damage to the hull, but luckily two other vessels were at hand. HMS Hornet and HMS Jackal managed to free the stricken ship without any single life being lost.
Internet Resources
http://www.bellrock.org.uk/ - A reference site for the Bell Rock lighthouse.
The Northern Lighthouse Board page about the lighthouse.
Some Sources
John Adam, Aberbrothock Illustrated (Arbroath, 1886).
J. M. McBain, Arbroath, Past and Present (Arbroath, 1887).
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