In Salutem Omnium

These large plaques are found at certain points along the South West Coastal Path.

The plaques commemorate the issue of a  rare medal which protected the bearer from being sent to serve at sea by Royal Navy press gangs

 .

 Only a small number of the solid silver medals were made and they were given to men working on the new lighthouse as a sign that they were doing important and skilled work and were to be left alone by the press gangs.

 At the time Britain was fighting the French in North America.

Smeaton's Tower on Plymouth Hoe.

This lighthouse was originally built on the Eddystone Reef (14 miles out from Plymouth) in 1759,

at a cost of £40,000, but was taken down in the early 1880s when it was discovered that the sea 

was undermining the rock it was standing on. 

Approximately two thirds of the structure was dismantled and brought stone by stone to its current resting place on the Hoe.

Now standing at 72 foot high, Smeaton's Tower offers fantastic views of Plymouth Sound and the city from its lantern room which, along with the rest of the building, has been painstakingly restored to its original glory.

People who visit lighthouses shouldn't throw stones.

This is Smeaton's Tower on Plymouth House.

It once stood on the Eddystone Rock (1759 - 1884), 22 kms off Plymouth Sound,

but when the strength of the rock upon which it was built was called into question it was dismantled,

and re-erected on Plymouth Hoe, where it stands to this day.

The Eddystone Lighthouse

Looking south from Plymouth Hoe, along the line of buoys and yachts to the horizon,

you can see, fourteen miles off shore,  the faint outline of the Eddystone Lighthouse,

slowly coming into view as the morning sun burns off the Autumnal mist.

On a clear day you can see for ever ....

.... or at least as far as the horizon, beyond the edge of Drake's Island on the right, beyond the Breakwater lighthouse on the left, and on out to the Eddystone Lighthouse, about 14 miles off Plymouth, 

warning shipping of the treacherous Eddystone Rocks.

This lighthouse is the fourth to have been built on the rocks. 

The first light shone out its warning on 14th November 1698.

Come back tomorrow to find out about the "stump" beside the lighthouse.