A depiction of John Rudyerd's wooden lighthouse. It replaced Henry Winstanley's construction, built between 1696 and 1699 and destroyed in the Great Storm of 1703, when Winstanley and others died in its collapse. Rudyerd's replacement became the first successful offshore-rock lighthouse in the world until it was destroyed in 1755 by a fire that started in the lantern. It was then superseded by Smeaton's tower, of which the upper wooden part also burnt in 1770. This was in turn replaced by the stone portion later re-erected on Plymouth Hoe after the completion, beside it, of Douglass's new tower in 1882. There are four men-of-war, identified by Colonel John Lovett in 1708 as the 'Roebuck', 42 guns, on the left, together with the 'Charles Galley', 36 guns, the 'Swallow', 32 guns, and the ketch 'Aldborough', 24 guns, on the right. All were ships which attended on the construction of the lighthouse, while those beyond bear the flags of the countries who contributed financially to the project. Plymouth Harbour is visible in the background.