[Construction of new lighthouse on Fastnet Rock, Co. Cork]

[graphic].

Bibliographic Details
Main Creator:	Ireland. Commissioners of Irish Lights
Contributors:	Ball, Robert S. (Robert Stawell), 1840-1913, photographer
In collection:	Commissioners of Irish Lights Photographic Collection
Format:	Photo
Language:	English
Published / Created:	[Circa 1900].
Subjects:	Lighthouses > Ireland Cork (Ireland : County) Glass negatives > Ireland > 1900-1910
Notes:	Research by our Flickr Commons users identified one of these men – master stonemason James Kavanagh is in the white coat with his back to the camera. According to many sources, Mr Kavanagh “placed every stone of the lighthouse with his bare hands”. Unfortunately, he died before the Fastnet light came into use. Available also as a plastic copy negative and as a plastic copy positive. Additional information about this photograph is available on the National Library of Ireland's Flickr Commons photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/51024376303/ Physical description: 1 glass negative : b&w ; 10 x 12.6 cm. more
Arrangement:	Item

Fascinating Fastnet’s fearless construction workers.

One of Ireland’s most challenging and successful engineering projects, carried out in extremely difficult and hazardous conditions. The Fastnet Lighthouse is iconic for mariners who pass through the waters off the south coast of Ireland, and the subject of many fine photographs. It gives Morning Mary the willies even looking at those men on the structure!

+++ UPDATE +++

A really striking photograph that would stop most of us from moaning about our working environments! Great to identify one of these men – master stonemason James Kavanagh is in the white coat with his back to the camera. According to many sources, Mr Kavanagh “placed every stone of the lighthouse with his bare hands”. Unfortunately, he died before the Fastnet light came into use.

Photographers: Robert S. Ball (Robert Stawell)

Collection: Commissioners of Irish Lights Photographic Collection

Date: Circa 1900

NLI Ref: NPA CIL136

You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie

Comments

ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

Effing fabulous pharos photo!

Posted: 11.03.2021

nilacop

It gives me the willies as well 😀😩!!

Posted: 11.03.2021

ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

Previously ... [https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/8262872235/]

Posted: 11.03.2021

ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

Mr Ball must have been on the old lighthouse (on the left above) to look down on the new one growing.

Posted: 11.03.2021

National Library of Ireland on The Commons

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia] That makes sense! I had an image of him at the top of a mast trying to take the shot as the ship rocked back and forth!

Posted: 11.03.2021

Wendy:

this a wonderful image!

Posted: 11.03.2021

redfox25414

And thank God for them..... because if I was supposed to do THAT job.....the building wouldn't have been built.

Posted: 11.03.2021

ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

Via Trove, this January 1908 description has some good contemporary details, including £84,000 cost and six years to erect - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/229387310?searchTerm=f... ... "... It Is a spot that is most essential to light adequately, for the rock on which the tower stands lies in the direct route of Atlantic shipping passing the south of. Ireland. It Is from this spot that the ships are ''spoken," London receiving direct advice from the rock by means of wireless telegraphy as to what vessels are passing. The new tower, which is of stone, displaces the cast-iron structure erected on the rock so far back as 1848. It took over a year to lay the first twenty courses, the tower consisting of some eighty-nine courses. In all, 2074 stones, weighing from one and a half to three tons apiece, were used, representing a total weight of 4633 tons. The beacon boasts of a total height of 147 feet, with a graceful elliptical curve on its circular face, from the base to the lantern gallery. At the foundation it is fifty two feet in diameter, and is perfectly solid for a height of 48 feet. This solidity is obtained by a marvellous system of dovetailing, by which one stone is grafted Into Its fellows above us well, as Into those on each side of It. This makes tho lighthouse practically one solid mass, and if it were possible to lift the whole structure up and place it on a slant it would not fall to pieces. It is interesting here to note that the granite blocks, of which lighthouses are built are always erected in sections at the quarries to see that the stones accurately fit into one another. The lighthouse-keeper at the Fastnet Rock enters the new tower through a heavy teak door, situated some fifty-eight feet above high-water mark. Just below the entrance hall is a huge water-tank containing 3250 gallons of fresh water. On the first floor are the storerooms, and above this again another storeroom for the oil. The remaining floors— there being eight in all— are given over to the keepers, and are fitted up with every modern convenience for their comfort. On top of the tower comes the lantern, twenty-seven feet in height and seventeen foot In diameter. The light Itself is of the dioptric type, a series of incandescent burners giving a power of 1300 candles. By means of the mirrors this is Intensified, producing a flash of 750,000 candle-power, and capable of being seen twenty miles out at sea. The flash recurs every five seconds."

Posted: 11.03.2021

ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

"[James] Cavanagh personally set every stone", via en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastnet_Lighthouse . Could that be him looking managerial in the pale jacket (and zero safety equipment)?

Posted: 11.03.2021

ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

Fascinating video - vimeo.com/30996458 Edit - droneview by the same fellow - youtu.be/gFFyhdGeQ1A

Posted: 11.03.2021

mrrobertwade (wadey)

Amazing, I've gone off heights so I won't be able to pop along and help

Posted: 11.03.2021

suckindeesel

Animation of the construction techniques used irishlighthouseexperience.com/fastnet_construction.html I'll guess 1902/3 judging by the progress made

Posted: 11.03.2021

suckindeesel

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia] Yes, that's him in the white jacket, according to a Guardian article www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2018/oct/23/seashaken-h... which dates image as 1902. Note the way the blocks dovetail into each other, both at each end and top and bottom. Apparently they were tested for fit before shipping from Cornwall. Not sure if they even used mortar. Looks like a Health and Safety inspector's worst nightmare, as you could fall outwards into the sea or inwards within the structure. Only the cranemen are protected. Looks like the biggest sledge hammer lying there that I've ever seen. Imagine the effort involved for the photographer to carry his plate camera and tripod up all those hundreds of steps. Not your usual leisurely landscape shot.

Posted: 11.03.2021

Carol Maddock

Lovely short film here from RTÉ Archives with reference to James Kavanagh, and showing other contemporary photos that are probably in our collections here at Library Towers, but not yet unleashed via our catalogue.

Posted: 12.03.2021