was not after all an unfortunate choice for a first engineer.

War added fresh complications. In 1794 Smith came 'very near to be
taken' by a French squadron. In 1813 Robert Stevenson was cruising
about the neighbourhood of Cape Wrath in the immediate fear of
Commodore Rogers. The men, and especially the sailors, of the
lighthouse service must be protected by a medal and ticket from the
brutal activity of the press-gang. And the zeal of volunteer
patriots was at times embarrassing.

'I set off on foot,' writes my grandfather, 'for Marazion, a town
at the head of Mount's Bay, where I was in hopes of getting a boat
to freight. I had just got that length, and was making the
necessary inquiry, when a young man, accompanied by several idle-
looking fellows, came up to me, and in a hasty tone said, "Sir, in
the king's name I seize your person and papers." To which I
replied that I should be glad to see his authority, and know the
reason of an address so abrupt. He told me the want of time
prevented his taking regular steps, but that it would be necessary
for me to return to Penzance, as I was suspected of being a French
spy. I proposed to submit my papers to the nearest Justice of
Peace, who was immediately applied to, and came to the inn where I
was. He seemed to be greatly agitated, and quite at a loss how to
proceed. The complaint preferred against me was "that I had
examined the Longships Lighthouse with the most minute attention,
and was no less particular in my inquiries at the keepers of the
lighthouse regarding the sunk rocks lying off the Land's End, with
the sets of the currents and tides along the coast: that I seemed
particularly to regret the situation of the rocks called the Seven
Stones, and the loss of a beacon which the Trinity Board had caused