[Paddlewise] "The Lighthouse Stevensons" by Bella Bathurst

Just a note about a book I've recently finished reading that may interest a
few of you.  I wouldn't have known about it but for my reading The
Economist, a British news magazine which frequently compares best seller
lists of various nations.

It seems that this book, like the earlier "Longitude" by Dava Sobel, is a top
ten best seller in Britain but virtually unknown over here in the colonies.
Since the Economist writer compared the two favourably and I quite liked
Sobel's work, I endeavored to find a copy here in Toronto.  After several
weeks, I found one and haven't been disappointed.

Since many kayakers, like myself, are interested in the sea, sailing, maritime
history and the like, I figured some of you would like to know of this book.

It deals with the history of four generations of Stevensons who were responsible
for designing and building many lighthouses around Scotland from the late
eighteenth century until the twentieth.  Included in their number are Robert Louis
Stevenson, who abandoned the practice to turn to writing such novels as "Kidnapped"
and "Treasure Island".

It is a fascinating look at the lives of the men who were forced to create a branch of
engineering, quite literally, from scratch.  The tangles with the wreckers (those who
profited from shipwrecks), the government bureaus, the Royal Navy and almost
everyone else are incredible.  This surely is the Dilbert Management of the nineteenth
century.  The risks taken by the builders in constructing lighthouses in the teeth of the
unforgiving sea are riveting.  The number of times that they awoke to find months
of work washed away by a single storm would make lesser men give up and walk away.
They persevered and their work survives to this day, still standing against the worst the
North Atlantic and North Sea can throw at them.

The story basically ends in the eighth chapter.  The ninth is more of an aside - a discussion
of the lives of the keepers who manned the lighthouses.  It is certainly interesting and serves
to break the myth of the lighthouse keeper's as a solitary profession.

The epilogue would sound familiar to many readers on this list - discussions of safety and the
problems of "idiot with a key" syndrome where boaters in modern times quickly find themselves
over their heads with lots of technology but no skills to fall back on.

Overall, a good read.  If you sigh at the sight of a lighthouse like I do (I once almost put a
sailboat on the rip rap surrounding the light at Annapolis harbour in the Chesapeake trying to
get the perfect photo), you should seek out this book.

Mike

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