A GRIM LIGHTHOUSE STORY.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1381, 31 March 1884, Page 2

A GRIM LIGHTHOUSE STORY.

*, While rendering all honour to heroes of great enterprises, such as Winstantley, Rudyesd, and Simeaton, we must not forget that they were only three men, while hundreds of men were engaged in the hazardous work, and had daily to exhibit the heroism of dangerous labour. It was a grand and heroic conception to build a lighthouse on the Eddystone, but what shall be said of the men who first of all tried the experiment of dwelling in the horrible isolation of that stormbeaten edifice, cut off from the rest of tho world, uncertain whether the building would stand the test of storm, deafened by the roar of the waters, which sometimes would shoot right over the lantern, or dash headlong against the lighthouse with fearful violence, canning every part to vibrate as though the whole fabric were instantaneously going to pieces? It is recorded that only two men attended the lighthouse built by Eudyerd, and that one of them was seized with sudden illness and died. It was in the roughest time in the year, and although the survivor hoisted a signal of distress no boat could reach tho rock. What to do with the dead body he did not know. At first he thought he would throw it into the sea, but he was hindered by the fear lest the friends of tho deceased might chai-ge him with the crime of murder. For a whole month the weather continued boisterous, and for that whole month the solitary survivor kept the light all night not what his comrade could no longer share the duty, watch by watch, with him, and for that whole month he kept the body of the dead man, although it had fallen into horrible corruption. Can any more terrible strait be concern d than that in which the brave fellow was placed ? All we know is that in almost every great work of public utility involving hazardous labour, if one or two men have come to the front and left their names for the admiration of posterity, there have always he«n a hundred obscure heroes who had lived and died and left no sign, but without

whose strong nerves and great hearts tho3e works would never have been accomplished.—From " Heroes of Britain in Peace and War."