The May light was at that period what is called a “private light”--the right of levying dues on shipping being vested in the Duke of Portland, who was owner of the island. There were many private lights in England, but the Isle of May was the only one that still remained in Scotland, and the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, believing it to be advantageous that so important a light should be placed under public management, so as to secure for the shipping a better light, and exemption from the high passing tolls charged by the proprietor, entered into treaty with the Duke of Portland for the purchase of his rights. This negotiation resulted in the introduction of a Bill into Parliament in 1814, authorising the purchase of the Isle of May, with the right of levying toll, for the sum of £60,000.
So soon as the property came into the hands of the Commissioners they erected a new lighthouse, and on the 1st of February 1816 the old coal chauffer was discontinued, and a light from oil with reflectors was exhibited in its stead. I am enabled from an old plan in my possession to present the reader with two sketches of the original chauffer light of the Isle of May.
Fig. 6 is an elevation of the building, with the tackle for raising the fuel to the top, and its inscription stone over the door bearing the date 1635. Fig. 7 shows the building in section, with its stone winding staircase and vaulted chambers, the whole structure apparently being so designed as to be perfectly proof against fire--a precaution very necessary for a building dedicated to such a purpose, for it is recorded that no fewer than 400 tons of coal were annually consumed in the open chauffer on its top.
It was, as I have said, one of the best coal-fires in the kingdom, and three men were employed to keep the bonfire burning, so that its inefficiency as a light was not due to any want of outlay in its support. But its appearance was ever varying, now shooting up in high flames, again enveloped in dense smoke, and never well seen when most required. When Mr. Stevenson visited the island, with a view to its purchase by the Commissioners, he was told by the keeper, that in violent gales the fire only kindled on the _leeward_ side, and that he was in the habit of putting his hand through the _windward_ bars of the chauffer to steady himself while he supplied the fire with coals, so that in the direction in which it was most wanted hardly any light was visible. Nothing can be worse than any variableness or uncertainty in the appearance of a light. Better far not to exhibit it at all than to show it irregularly; and the coal lights were so changeable and destitute of characteristic appearance as to be positively dangerous. This indeed was too sadly proved by the loss of H. M. ships ‘Nymphen’ and ‘Pallas,’ which on the 19th December 1810 were wrecked near Dunbar, the light of a limekiln, on the coast of Haddington, having been mistaken for the coal light of the Isle of May. Fortunately only nine of their combined crews of 600 men perished; but the vessels, valued at not less than £100,000, became total wrecks.