As I worked my way through Claire Harmon’s biography of Robert Louis Stevenson, I noted that Stevenson mentioned he had read The Lighthouse by R. M. Ballantyne, first published in 1865.
Intrigued by the title, I discovered it was a novel based on The Bell Rock Lighthouse strategically located on a rock that can be seen at low tide, but at high tide is hidden by some 16 ft of water. This rock is located 12 miles out in the North Sea off Scotland’s East coast. The Bell Rock Lighthouse, built on that rock, protects access to both the Firth of Forth (Edinburgh) and Firth of Tay (Dundee).
Given that RLS’s family is the engineering family who built most of the Scottish Lighthouses among them the Bell Rock, I decided it was worth a read. Should you like to know more about this famous engineering family, The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst is a good read.
Preferring biographies and military history, preferably Scottish/British, I don’t often read a novel, preferring narratives about things that actually happened. But Ballantyne’s The Lighthouse was a pleasurable exception.
With no bookshop within a couple hundred miles, I “stepped” into Amazon and soon located a copy. It was a real treat. In fact, I had a hard time putting it down.
I have in fact a wee bit of knowledge of the Bell Rock. My wife is from Dundee. Also I have been both to and through Arbroath many times over the years, and I have seen the light (pun intended), This all made Ballantyne’s work all the more interesting.
It was both interesting and edifying to find signs of a Christian faith shining through in this tale of the Bell Rock Lighthouse’s construction.
Some of the author’s characters are aware of the Creator, the power of terrible storms and then the quiet lapping of the waves upon a rock.
The author obviously understands the power of the Bell Rock’s light and its comparison to an even more important light.
I share the final paragraph.
“In time Ruby found it convenient to build a top flat on the cottage, and above this a small turret, which overlooked the opposite houses, and commanded a view of the sea. This tower the captain converted into a point of lookout, and a summer smoking-room,—and many a time and oft, in the years that followed, did he and Ruby climb up there about nightfall, to smoke the pipe of peace, with Minnie beside them, and to watch the bright flashing of the red and white light on the Bell Rock, as it shone over the waters far and wide, like a star of the first magnitude, a star of hope and safety, guiding sailors to their desired haven; perchance reminding them of that star of Bethlehem which guided the shepherds to Him who is the Light of the World and the Rock of Ages.”
And possibly most importantly, The Lighthouse has a happy ending.
Happy reading!