Mobydisc said...
The BBC made a documentary series a few years ago called Wonders of the Industrialised World or something like that. I am pretty sure a lighthouse like the one in the bottom photos was one of the wonders. They had to take the bricks out in little boats and the labourers were paid something like one pence a day. Heaps of them drowned as most of them couldn't swim too well carrying a brick or stone on their back.
Are you sure about that?
The documentary I saw was about the building of the lighthouse on Bell Rock and they were pretty successful, but could only work for a few months a year. One of the important things that the engineer did was build a structure on stilts that would let them stay there during a high tide, so they didn't have to waste much time travelling back and forth each day during the season they could work. It even held up during their winter, which seems pretty remarkable.
I think there were a few deaths when they got swamped, but not really that many.
