23. Who was the first person to build a lighthouse on the Eddystone?
From Quiz The Red Rocks of Eddystone
Answer:
Henry Winstanley
Winstanley's lighthouse was built in 1698.
Henry Winstanley was somewhat of a showman and entrepreneur who owned a house at Littlebury in Essex that was a sort of fun house, filled with tricks and illusions. He charged the public one shilling to to see it. He made enough money to buy some ships, and sadly two of them were wrecked on the Eddystone within a few months of one another.
At this time, the Corporation of Trinity House were looking for someone to build a lighthouse, and Winstanley jumped at the chance. This was a man who was no architect or engineer, yet four years later, his lighthouse was built. Work could only take place in the summer and was subject to the tides and weather. Holes had to be drilled into the rock and iron stanchions fixed to hold the tower in place. It's almost impossible to imagine how hard and dangerous this work was. The granite stones for the base were quarried locally and shaped in Plymouth.
In 1697 Winstanley was kidnapped by a French privateer. Fortunately, Louis IV saw that the lighthouse was important to every seafarer no matter from which country, and Winstanley was released.
The light was lit in November 1698, but many defects were found with the building after a hard winter. In effect, the repairs constituted a whole new tower encasing the original one. It was also 40 feet taller. The superstructure was octagonal, built of wood and featured many extras such as a crane, None of it helped the lighthouse to throw off the effects of heavy seas, but of course Winstanley had no idea that the shape was not ideal.