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Three Men of Eddystone 
Three Men of Eddystone (Cyril Tawney) 
Three brave men to the red reef came Each one made the very same claim That he could make the Eddystone rocks As tame as a bully in the market stocks Two worked with timber one with stone All three with faith and faith alone. 
cho: So drink up one man, drink up all To the trio bold and their towers tall Winstanley, Rudyerd, Smeaton too And one more drop for the Cornish crew. 
Winstanley was the first one's name He'd made a packet at the showman's game And he swore in sixteen ninety-six He'd teach old Neptune a couple of tricks But seven years on, like a bride and groom, The man and his dreams met a watery doom. 
Then merchant Rudyerd's plans were laid Of timber tough his tower was made For fifty years it would not yield To all the might the sea could wield But fire succeeds where tempests fail To write the close of Rudyerd's tale. 
Once more the seamen sailed in fear Till one John Smeaton, engineer Took inspiration from the trees That taper up to beat the breeze With Dorset heart and Devon hide His tower of stone the seas defied. 
Twelve decades later warning came That while the light might shine the same The cunning sea had subtler ways Of cutting short the tower's days Each wave a tunnel small could trace To undermine the rocky base. 
Machines and skills were now at hand To bring the Douglas house to stand One hundred and fifty feet in height Just forty yards from Smeaton's light, Which brick by brick was brought to shore For blushing maids forevermore. 
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