A conversation at the Bell Rock….

A rock known as Inchcape, is part of a long and treacherous reef lying some 12 miles east of Dundee Scotland. Inchcape is in the path of ships transiting the North Sea and approaching either the Firth of Forth (Edinburgh) or the Firth of Tay (Dundee). It has been a hazard to navigation since people began traveling the North Sea in boats.

At low tide the rock can be seen above the surface of the sea. At high tide it is covered by some sixteen feet of North Sea water. You see (pun intended) the problem. Obviously some type of warning device was needed to alert mariners to the hidden danger. 

What is known as The Bell Rock Lighthouse was designed and built by Robert Stevenson an engineer with D.&T Stevenson of Edinburgh. It was built on the actual submerged rock with construction starting in 1807. The Bell Rock Lighthouse was first lit in 1811, and has operated continuously since. In the 14th century the Abbot of Arbroath Abbey had a warning bell installed on the rock, hence the name “Bell Rock.” 

But I digress.

Construction on a location that is underwater except at low tide, one might conclude would be problematic. The completed Bell Rock Lighthouse is 35 meters tall, 42 ft in diameter at its base, tapering to 15 ft at the top. It is constructed of “dovetailed masonry” (stone) from quarries near both Dundee and Aberdeen. It is an engineering marvel, listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Industrial World.

To accomplish the work, construction workers were berthed on the Phyros, a wooden ship moored not far from the construction site.

There were then, and there are now violent storms in the area of the lighthouse construction.

Which brings us to a conversation between two workers who were resting on the rock during a break in their work. The two were Ruby Brand, a young blacksmith from Arbroath who was sitting on a ledge observing the waves of the now quiet sea. He was joined by Robert Selkirk, the principle builder, an older, quiet man. As they rested on the rock ledge observing the now peaceful water which just some hours before had been a raging torrent with twenty to thirty foot waves.That last storm had lasted several days to the point the men aboard Pharos had feared for their lives. 

As they sat, Ruby and Robert were contemplating that calm, peaceful sea lapping against their rock.. Let’s listen in on their conversation….

Ruby said; “It is indeed a glorious sight. “If I had nothing to do, I believe I could sit here all day just looking at the waves and thinking.”

“Thinkin’?” repeated Selkirk, in a musing tone of voice. “Can ye tell, lad, what ye think about when you’re lookin’ at the waves?”

Ruby smiled at the oddness of the question.

“Well,” said he, “I don’t think I ever thought of that before.”

“Ah, but I have!” said the other, “an’ I’ve come to the conclusion that for the most part we don’t think, properly speakin’, at all; that our thoughts, so to speak, think for us; that they just take the bit in their teeth and go rumblin’ and tumblin’ about anyhow or nohow!”

“Ruby knitted his brows and pondered. He was one of those men who, when they don’t understand a thing, hold their tongues and think.

“And,” continued Selkirk, “it’s curious to observe what a lot o’ nonsense one thinks too when one is lookin’ at the waves. Many a time I have pulled myself up, thinkin’ the most astonishin’ stuff ye could imagine.”

“I would hardly have expected this of such a grave kind o’ man as you,” said Ruby. 

“Mayhap not. It is not always the gravest looking that have the gravest thoughts.”

“But you don’t mean to say that you never think sense,” continued Ruby, “when you sit looking at the waves?”

“By no means,” returned his companion; “I’m only talking of the way in which one’s thoughts will wander. Sometimes I think seriously enough. Sometimes I think it strange that men can look at such a scene as that, and scarcely bestow a thought upon Him who made it.”

“Speak for yourself, friend,” said Ruby, somewhat quickly; “how know you that other men don’t think about their Creator when they look at His works?”

“Because,” returned Selkirk, “I find that I so seldom do so myself, even although I wish to and often try to: and I hold that every man, no matter what he is or feels, is one of a class who think and feel as he does; also, because many people, especially Christians, have told me that they have had the same experience to a large extent; also, and chiefly, because, as far as unbelieving man is concerned, the Bible tells me that ‘God is not in all his thoughts.’  But, Ruby, I did not make the remark as a slur upon men in general, I merely spoke of a fact,—an unfortunate fact,—that it is not natural to us, and not easy, to rise from nature to nature’s God, and I thought you would agree with me.”

“I believe you are right,” said Ruby, half-ashamed of the petulance of his reply; “at any rate, I confess you are right as far as I am concerned.”

As Selkirk and Ruby were both fond of discussion, they continued this subject some time longer, and there is no saying how far they would have gone down into the abstruse depths of theology, had not the conversation been interrupted by the appearance of a boat rowing toward the rock.”

From: The Lighthouse by R.M. Ballantyne (1868)

Ruby and Robert’s conversation points to their awareness of a powerful creating God. A thought brought to mind by the power of nature in the powerful near deadly storm of just a short few hours before to the now softly lapping waves of this peaceful moment.

I, nor you the reader,will probably find yourself in a position to be threatened by the power of a storm at sea and then be able to appreciate the same water gently lapping your feet. Or, as Ruby and Robert did, to think about the all-powerful God who created all we have before us.

Like Robert and Ruby,, I sometimes wonder….it sometimes just takes a tree, or a bird, a cloud, and of course the sea if I find myself in the old country.

Like Ruby and Robert, I’m also good at sittin’ and thinkin.” I could probably be a member of Rudy and Robert’s conversation club. Sometimes I take written notes, sometimes I break my digital media rule and type a note in my Evernote journal. Sometimes I have such great thoughts I’m convinced I will remember them…and then I don’t. And I always  hope they will come back. And sometimes they do.

Usually I find there are no other club numbers available for discussion when it comes to thinkin’, so I’ve become  good at doin’ it myself.

Sometimes I feel like I should write it down…like now.

Ruby and Robert’s conversation brought to mind a time when we were staying in a rented home a short walk above Ardmucknish Bay in Western Scotland. 

Ardmucknish Bay is described as “a wide, scenic inlet of the Firth of Lorn located near Benderloch, north of Oban in Argyll and Bute Scotland. Known for tranquil, sandy shores…”  We found it to be just as described, “tranquil.” Our rented house sat across a road and just above the beach. We greatly enjoyed morning coffee and peaceful evenings just sitting and looking out over that “tranquil” bay.

Then one day the weather turned stormy. I found myself drawn to the turbulent beach. I walked down and marveled at what just a few hours before had been so peaceful. I wondered how that could happen so quickly.

Then a Lee Ann Womack lyric from her year 2000 hit song, I Hope You Dance came to mind. The words “I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,” seemed to fit my moment.

Just like Ruby and Robert, the turbulent then peaceful waves got me to thinkin.’

When you see marvelous things, be a thinker.

Think about Who brought them to be.

Go stand beside the ocean….I hope you still feel small.

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