Eddystone Lighthouse

“Eddystone is a group of gneiss rocks, daily submerged by the tide, in the English Channel, 9 miles off the Cornish coast, and 14 S.S.W. of Plymouth Breakwater. The frequent shipwrecks on these rocks led to the erection of a lighthouse on them in 1669-1700, but the great storm of Nov. 20, 1703 completely washed it away. Another lighthouse was built in 1706-1709. This was burned in 1755. The next, noted for its strength and the engineering skill displayed in it, was constructed in 1757-1759. The granite was dovetailed into the solid rock, and each block into its neighbors. As the rock in which this tower was built became undermined and greatly weakened by the action of the waves, the foundation of another was laid on a different part of the reef in 1879. Its light is visible in clear weather at a distance of 17 and one half miles."—(Charles Leonard-Stuart, 1911)

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