ely formed island, the lowness and whiteness of
its eastern shores, and the wonderful manner in which the scanty
patches of land are intersected with lakes and pools of water, it
becomes even in day-light a deception, and has often been fatally
mistaken for an open sea. After taking the opinion of persons
acquainted with the navigation of these seas, the change was adopted;
the works at the Start Point were commenced early in the summer of
1805; by the month of November the light-room was finished, and the
light exhibited on the 1st January, 1806.

A melancholy story is connected with the completion of the lighthouse
on this fatal island. The principal mason and his assistants being
desirous of returning home, proceeded to Stromness on the mainland of
Orkney, from whence they were most likely to get a passage to the
southward. The party consisted of six in number; and the foreman's
brother, wishing to go directly to his native place, took his passage
in a vessel bound from Stromness to Anstruther, while the rest
embarked on board a schooner bound for Leith.

The vessel sailed with a fair wind early on the 24th December, 1806.
On the following morning they got sight of Kinnaird Head lighthouse in
Aberdeenshire, and had the prospect of speedily reaching the Frith of
Forth; but the wind having suddenly shifted to the south-east, and
increased to a tremendous gale, the vessel immediately put about, and
steered in quest of some safe harbour in Orkney. At two o'clock in the
afternoon she passed the Portland Frith, and got into the bay of Long
Hope, but could not reach the proper anchorage; and at three o'clock
both anchors were let go in an outer roadstead. The storm still
continuing with unabated force, the cables parted or broke, and the
vessel drifted on the island of Flotta. The utmost efforts of those on
board to pass a rope to the shore, with the assistance of the
inhabitants of the island, proved ineffectual; the vessel struck upon
a shelving rock, and, night coming on, sunk in three fathoms water.

Some of the unfortunate crew and passengers attempted to swim ashore,
but in the darkness of the night they either lost their way, or were
dashed upon the rocks by the surge of the sea; while those who
retained hold of the rigging of the ship, being worn out with fatigue
and the piercing coldness of the weather during a long winter night,
died before morning,--when the shore presented the dreadful spectacle
of the wreck