As to the practical arrangement, the Engineer visits all the Light-houses annually, and Reports to the Board upon the various works and operations connected with the different Light-houses,--the conduct of the light-keepers,--and also upon the stores and supplies required for the ensuing year,--and these, when approven of, are authorised and ordered by the Commissioners. All accounts for supplies are laid before the Board, and paid twice in the year.
At each ordinary Light-house, a Principal and an Assistant Light-keeper are appointed, whose salaries are respectively L. 45, and L. 35 _per annum_, besides a piece of ground, not less than 10 acres, with fuel, a suit of uniform clothes every three years, and some other small perquisites. At the Bell Rock, there are four light-keepers, three of whom are always at the Light-house, while one is, by rotation, on shore at the establishment at Arbroath for the families of the light-keepers. Their salaries are respectively L. 63, and L. 57, 15s., and for each of the two ordinary Assistants L. 52, 10s. with provisions for themselves while at the Rock, and apartments for their families ashore. The light-keepers act under certain Instructions, and make Monthly Returns to the Engineer’s office, copies of which will be found under Appendix, No. I.
[Sidenote: Shipping of the Establishment.]
The shipping belonging to the Light-house service, besides attending boats, for visiting Light-houses on insulated situations, consists of a vessel of about 50 tons register, which is chiefly employed in attending the Bell Rock, to supply the house with necessaries, and relieve the light-keepers in their turn. For general service, another vessel of 140 tons is kept, which carries oil and other stores for the lights, together with fuel and necessaries, for the use of the light-keepers, and artificers, with their implements and apparatus, for making repairs at the different stations. The Engineer makes his annual voyage of inspection in this vessel, which is provided with cabins suitable for the reception of such of the Commissioners as may occasionally visit the Light-houses.
This duty has been undertaken by various members of the Board. In the Summer of 1814 a Committee, consisting of Mr Hamilton, Sheriff of Lanarkshire, Mr Erskine, Sheriff of Orkney, and Mr Duff, Sheriff of Forfarshire, with the Engineer, made a voyage to inspect the different Light-houses already erected, as also the most prominent of the stations on the coast, suggested for the erection of Additional Lights. They sailed from Leith in the Yacht, having for their companion Mr Walter Scott, and having visited the Light-houses on the Isle of May and Bell Rock, with the establishment at Arbroath, and that upon Kinnaird-Head in Aberdeenshire, they next landed at Sumburgh-head in Shetland, on which a Light-house has since been erected. Returning southward, they visited the Light-houses on the Start Point of Sanday, and the Pentland Skerries in Orkney. Then steering westward, they landed at Cape Wrath, one of the projected Stations for a Light-house. They next touched at the Light-house on Island-Glass, one of the Harris Isles. From thence they proceeded and landed upon the Rock called Skerryvore, lying off the Island of Tiree, and were satisfied of the practicability of erecting a Light-house there. Having visited the Light-house on Ennistrahul, on the coast of Donegal, one of the Irish Lights, and inspected their own establishments on the Mull of Kantire and Isle of Pladda, the Commissioners landed at Greenock, after a voyage of nearly seven weeks.