Collectibles

Item Description

This is the story of two men, born centuries apart; each with a unique dream involving lighthouses, and each with the fortitude to make their dreams come true.

The year was 1695, Henry Winstanley was a London entrepreneur and visionary extraordinaire. He was also quite eccentric. His home, full of hidden passage ways and carnival delights, became a popular public attraction. After losing two of his ships to the Eddystone Rock, he charged down to the authorities and demanded why, when the Rock was causing wrecks left and right, nothing had been done.

They told him the Eddystone was impossible to mark: it was only 30 feet across and barely rose out of the waves at high tide with a 30 degree slope. Not to mention, it was 14 miles out in one of the world's roughest seas. Winstanley's reply: "I will build a lighthouse!" Skeptics said it couldn't be done. Winstanley didn't hear them -- he was busy drawing up plans.

He and his crew fought freezing wind and rain and high seas to build the tower. Three months after its completion, they returned to find the keeper going insane, the lighthouse literally falling down around him.

But Winstanley was not daunted. He utilized all he'd learned from his first attempt and built another tower right over the previous one. For five years, not one wreck occurred at Eddystone.

Critics complained the tower was top heavy; but Winstanley said it could survive any storm. In fact, he said that his one crowning wish in life was "to be in the lighthouse during the greatest storm that ever was."

Someone should have told him to be careful what he wished for.

He was making repairs on the lighthouse when it did hit -- the greatest storm ever recorded in English history. The storm ripped apart much of London. Not one ship remained floating in the Port of Plymouth. And the Eddystone Lighthouse? Gone - along with Henry Winstanley.

His vision, courage, and tenacity lived on in a remarkable way through subsequent lighthouses at Eddystone. In all, there were five -- each one incorporating lessons in engineering from the previous --  until the final tower was built of stone in 1882 and still stands today. Winstanley set a precedent that lighthouses could be built in "impossible" locations.

It is Winstanley's Eddystone, and all that it stands for, that was chosen to commemorate Harbour Lights ten year anniversary.

Fast forward to 1991 when an entrepreneur and visionary named Bill Younger (also a bit eccentric, it has been said) decided to build a company honoring his lifelong passion: lighthouses. Skeptics raised their eyebrows. Bill got busy. He named the company Harbour Lights, and introduced its first line of lighthouse replicas.

The size is 8" in height with the base 4" wide. This is a very fragile piece and should be handled with care.

Item Special Note

HL #636, Harbour Lights 10 Year Anniversary Limited Edition, introduced January 1, 2001. Serial #6622. In original box.