Throughout the rank and file of his men he was adored. "I have spoken
with many who knew him; I was his grandson, and their words may very
well have been words of flattery; but there was one thing that could
not be affected, and that was the look that came over their faces at the
name of Robert Stevenson."

Of his family of thirteen children, three of his sons became engineers.
Thomas Stevenson, the father of Robert Louis, like the others of his
family, contributed largely to lighthouse building and harbor
improvement, serving under his older brother, Allen, in building the
Skerryvore, one of the most famous deep-sea lights erected on a
treacherous reef off the west coast where, for more than forty years,
one wreck after another had occurred.

"From the navigator's point of view, the danger of this spot lay chiefly
in the fact that it was so widely scattered. The ridge runs like a
broken backbone for a distance of some eight miles.... In rough weather
the whole of the rocks are covered, and the waves, beating heavily on
the mass, convert the scene into one of indescribable tumult....

"There was only one point where a tower could be placed, and this was
so exposed that the safe handling of men and material constituted a
grave responsibility."

It was necessary to erect a tower one hundred and thirty feet high; "the
loftiest and weightiest work of its character that had ever been
contemplated up to this time....

"The Atlantic swell, which rendered landing on the ridge precarious and
hazardous, did not permit the men to be housed upon a floating home, as
had been the practice in the early days of the Bell Rock tower. In order
to permit the work to go forward as uninterruptedly as the sea would
allow, a peculiar barrack was erected. It was a house on stilts, the
legs being sunk firmly into the rock, with the living quarters perched
some fifty feet up in the air.

"Residence in this tower was eerie. The men climbed the ladder and
entered a small room, which served the purposes of kitchen, living-room,
and parlor....

"When a storm was raging, the waves, as they combed over the rock,
shook the legs violently and scurried under the floor in seething foam.
Now and again a roller, rising higher than its fellows, broke upon the
rock and sent a mass of water against the flooring to hammer at the
door. Above the living-room were the sleeping quarters, high and dry,
save when a shower of spray fell upon the roof and walls