Smeaton's Tower

On 16th October 1759, Smeaton's lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks (14 miles out of Plymouth) was illuminated for the first time. The original lighthouse has been dismantled and re-erected on Plymouth Hoe.

To mark the anniversary of this pioneering building, it was illuminated by candle-power once again on the evening of 16th October 2009.


The lighthouse featured on British one penny coins until 1970:



Why mention this in a blog about operational research? Logistics. 250 years ago, the lighthouse was illuminated by 24 candles. Three lighthouse keepers had the job of ensuring that these were lit all night, every night. They were dependent on supplies from the mainland, and the lighthouse was notoriously difficult to reach. Sometimes the keepers went for weeks without fresh supplies. So, here's the problem: how did the stock controllers plan for candles, food and supplies for the lighthouse? Apart from fresh fish, there were no other sources of food on the Eddystone Rocks. Sometimes the keepers were starving when boats reached them from the mainland. It makes academic models of inventory management seem ... academic.

And now for something different:



The Keeper of the Eddystone Light

My father was the keeper of the Eddystone light
And he slept with a mermaid one fine night
Out of this union there came three
A porpoise and a porgy and the other was me!
Yo ho ho, the wind blows free,
Oh for the life on the rolling sea!

One night, as I was a-trimming the glim
Singing a verse from the evening hymn
I head a voice cry out an "Ahoy!"
And there was my mother, sitting on a buoy.
Yo ho ho, the wind blows free,
Oh for the life on the rolling sea!

"Oh, what has become of my children three?"
My mother then inquired of me.
One's on exhibit as a talking fish
The other was served in a chafing dish.
Yo ho ho, the wind blows free,
Oh for the life on the rolling sea!

Then the phosphorus flashed in her seaweed hair.
I looked again, and my mother wasn't there
But her voice came angrily out of the night
"To Hell with the keeper of the Eddystone Light!"
Yo ho ho, the wind blows free,
Oh for the life on the rolling sea!

by: Charles Wingate