Lightvessel stations of Great Britain

File:Calshot Spit lightvessel.jpg

The history of the many lightvessel stations of Great Britain goes back over 250 years to the placement of the world's first lightship at the Nore in the early 18th century.

A lightvessel station is a named position at which a lightvessel was placed, rather than a particular ship; individual vessels were often transferred between different stations during their existence. Stations themselves were occasionally changed, especially during wartime, when lights were only displayed in response to specific shipping needs.

History

The world's first lightvessel was the result of a business partnership between Robert Hamblin, a former barber and ship manager from King's Lynn, and David Avery, an investor.Naish, J. M. Seamarks: Their History and Development, Stanford Maritime, 1985, {{ISBN|978-0-540-07309-2}}, p. 107 In 1730 the pair secured a government licence to moor a ship, with a prominent light affixed to it, to serve as a navigation aid at the Nore in the Thames mouth. Hamblin and Avery intended to profit from the vessel by collecting a fee from passing merchant vessels. The licence was opposed by Trinity House, which considered that it possessed a monopoly on construction and maintenance of navigation aids in British waters. After extensive legal dispute the licence was revoked in 1732 and Trinity House assumed direct responsibility for the proposed lightship; Hamblin and Avery were granted nominal lease revenues in exchange.{{cite book|title=The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1865|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=624|year=2013|isbn=9781108054911}} The Nore lightship commenced operations in 1734.{{cite book |last=Marcus|first=G.J.|title=Heart of Oak: A Survey of British Sea Power in the Georgian Era|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1975|pages=[https://archive.org/details/heartofoaksurvey0000marc/page/53 53–54]|isbn=0192158120|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/heartofoaksurvey0000marc/page/53}}

A second lightvessel was placed at the Dudgeon station, off the Norfolk coast, in 1736, with others following at Owers Bank (1788) and the Goodwin Sands (1793). While the Admiralty opposed the 1802 Sunk lightvessel, claiming it would aid enemy ships, it soon afterwards placed three vessels of its own to protect the fleet during the Napoleonic Wars; they were taken over by Trinity House a few years later. Many others were commissioned during the nineteenth century, especially off England's east coast and the approaches to the Thames, where there were many treacherous shoals.

File:Lv-Nore.jpg

Following their acquisition of the Admiralty ships, all English and Welsh lightvessels were maintained by Trinity House, with the exception of the four vessels in the approaches to the River Mersey, which were maintained by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board until 1973, and those in the Humber Estuary, which were the responsibility of the Humber Conservancy Board.

=Communications and safety=

Communication with lightvessels proved to be a major problem for Trinity House; lightvessel crews were well-placed to observe ships in distress, but could not always alert lifeboats on shore. After a series of shipwrecks, an experiment was conducted whereby a nine-mile undersea cable was run from the Sunk lightvessel in the Thames Estuary to the post office at Walton-on-the-Naze. This was intended to commence in 1884, but was plagued by delays;{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1884/may/16/board-of-trade-telegraphic-communication |title=BOARD OF TRADE — TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH LIGHT VESSELS |work=Hansard |date=1884-05-16}} the trial was unsuccessful as the cable repeatedly broke.

As a result of a motion brought forward by Sir Edward Birkbeck, a Royal Commission was established to look at the issue of 'electrical communication' and gave its first Report in 1892;{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1892/apr/26/coast-communications |title=COAST COMMUNICATIONS |work=Hansard |date=1892-04-26}}{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1893/mar/21/communication-with-lighthouses |title=COMMUNICATION WITH LIGHTHOUSES |work=Hansard |date=1893-03-21}} the East Goodwin lightvessel was used during one of Guglielmo Marconi's early experiments in radio transmission in 1896.{{cite book|last=Baker|first= W. J.|title=History of the Marconi Company|publisher= Routledge|year= 1998| isbn= 978-0-415-14624-1|pages=39–40}} The world's first radio distress signal was transmitted by the East Goodwin lightvessel's radio operator on 17 March 1899, after the merchant vessel Elbe ran aground on the Goodwins, while on 30 April that year, the East Goodwin vessel transmitted a distress signal on its own behalf, when the SS R. F. Matthews rammed it in a dense fog. Safety was further improved by the development of more powerful lamps and through the replacement by foghorns of the gongs previously used as fog signals.

=Crew=

Until the second half of the 20th century, all Trinity House vessels were permanently manned. An 1861 article in the Cornhill Magazine described lightshipmen as being paid 55 shillings a month (in addition to drawing 1 shilling and sixpence a week "in lieu of 3 gallons of small-beer"): the vessels were supplied, and the crews relieved, once a month. It was also noted that "a general tone of decent, orderly and superior conduct" was observed, that the men were "very respectable [...] swearing and profane language are [...] prohibited" and that every man was supplied with a Bible as well as "a library of varied and entertaining literature".{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dbkCAAAAIAAJ |title=Light-Vessels |publisher=The Cornhill Magazine |volume=III |year=1861 |page=39}}

By the start of the 20th century, Trinity House lightvessels had a crew of 11, of whom seven (a master and six ratings) would be on active duty at any one time. It was an extremely demanding and dangerous profession, and it would take 15 to 20 years of service to be promoted to master.{{cite book |url=http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.64/chapterId/1506/Trinity-House.html |title=Trinity House |publisher=portcities.org |access-date=2008-09-02}}

=Replacement=

The majority of British lightvessels were decommissioned during the 1970s - 1980s and replaced with light floats or LANBY buoys, which were vastly cheaper to maintain: in 1974 at the time of Trinity House's original development project, lightship annual running costs at £30,000 were ten times those of the LANBY.{{cite book |author=Rowlands, D. |url=http://vads.ac.uk/diad/article.php?title=310&year=1974&article=d.310.39 |title=Points of Reference |publisher=Design |volume=310 |year=1974}}

The remaining UK lightvessels have now been converted to unmanned operation and most now use solar power.{{cn|date=November 2021}}

Vessels

Unlike lightships in the United States and other parts of the world, Trinity House lightvessels were usually unpowered and needed to be towed to or from their position. In order to act as effective daymarks they were painted red, with the station name in large white letters on the side of the hull, and a system of balls and cones at the masthead for identification. The first revolving light was fitted to the Swin Middle lightvessel in 1837: others used occulting or flashing lights. White lights were preferred for visibility though red and very occasionally green (as with the Mouse lightvessel) were also used.{{cite book |editor=Miltoun, F. |url=http://www.kellscraft.com/ShipsandShipping/ShipsandShippingCh11.html |title=Ships and Shipping |publisher=Moring Ltd |year=1903 |chapter=11}}

It is likely that photographs on various websites showing named lightvessels, may appear to be structurally different to comparable records on other web pages due to the fact that the particular vessel might have been withdrawn from a station after photographing and being towed away for drydocking, overhaul and possible direction to a new station and therefore a different lightvessel would have been substituted at the named station on withdrawal of the previous lightvessel. This has been most evident on those vessels that have been withdrawn and shipped to another port at home or abroad to become a floating museum, floating restaurant, 'clubhouse', etc. Scarweather LV and Helwick LV have for instance changed their rôle in their lifetime and their appearance on various records varies considerably.

England

=Active stations=

The following are active stations at which Trinity House still maintains unmanned lightships, which also act as weather stations.

class="wikitable"

!Name

!Image

!Position

!Characteristic

!Vessels employed

=Former stations=

class="wikitable"

!Name

!Position

!Operator

!Sea

!Vessels employed

!Notes

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110224827|notes=Established 1878;"Nautical Notices", Nautical Magazine, v. XLVII (New Series), No XI (Nov 1878), 1031 later replaced by Roaring Middle LV}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109780100|notes=Station established 1889"Notice to Mariners", Board of Trade Journal, v7 (1889), 617-618}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109780479|notes=Station established 1930, replacing Gull LV station, due to narrowing of the navigable Gull Stream{{cite web |url=https://www.thurrock.gov.uk/history-on-river-thames/gull-lightvessel-38 |title=The Gull, lightvessel 38 |work=Thurrock Council |access-date=2021-12-02}}}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109838084|notes=The last manned lightship station, replaced by the Dowsing lighthouse in 1991.{{cite web |url=http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.64/chapterId/1506/Trinity-House.html |title=Trinity House |work=portcities.org}}}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109865773|notes=Dudgeon was the second lightvessel to be established, with a patent granted to David Avery in 1736.Naish, J. (1985) Seamarks: their history and development, Stanford, p.108 LV63 was on station when bombed by the Luftwaffe on 29 January 1940. Only one crew member, John Sanders, survived. The incident was the subject of a 1940 British Government propaganda film, Men of the Lightship.{{Cite video |people = David MacDonald (Director); Alberto Cavalcanti (Producer) |title=Men of the Lightship |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309856/ |medium = Film (35mm, 24 mins, black & white) |publisher=GPO Film Unit |date=1940}}}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109877153|notes=Station established 1889 replacing the S.W. Longsand buoy}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110026779|notes=Part of wartime Folkestone Gate Channel defences; discontinued 1919US Navy Hydrographic Office (1919) Index to Notices to Mariners, 1-52, p.177}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110026840|notes=Part of wartime Folkestone Gate Channel defences. LV75 attacked on station and sunk by German bombers in July 1940, with the loss of two crew members, Jack Wade and Harry NorthCarter, G (1974) The Battle of Britain: the Home Front, Mason & Lipscomb, pp.190-1}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109913077|notes=Station first established by the Admiralty in 1803 to protect the fleet during the Napoleonic Wars;Renton (2001) Lost Sounds: the story of coast fog signals, Dundurn, p.148 replaced by buoy 1977Defense Mapping Agency (1977), Notices to Mariners, p.5}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109914087|notes=In 1884 the Girdler lightship was rammed and sunk by the screw steamer Indus; there were no deaths.{{cite web |url=https://www.wrecksite.eu/docBrowser.aspx?830?5?1 |title=Girdler Lightship loss |website=The Wrecksite |access-date=2024-12-01}}}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109921655|notes=Marked the Gull Stream: station first established by the Admiralty in 1809 and taken over by Trinity House in 1826.Stevenson (2013) The World's Lighthouses: From Ancient Times to 1820, Courier, p.124 Narrowing of the channel led to Gull being replaced by Brake LV in 1930}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109924236|notes=Replaced by Gunfleet Lighthouse in 1850.}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109937111|notes=Maintained by Humber Conservancy Board.}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110249343|notes=Unattended gas lit "lightboat", established 1909}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110249955|notes=In the middle of fairway of Barrow Deep, 9m SW of Barrow Deep LVImray and Kettle (1917) Pilot's Guide for the River Thames: The South-east Coast of England, and the Strait of Dover, Imray, Laurie, Norie & Wilson, p.24}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110044348|notes=Replaced by the Nab Tower in 1920.}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109818924|notes=The world's first manned lightship, 1731.}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110082609|c2+=, off Selsey Bill|notes=Replaced with a beacon. LV Owers now a wreck in Tel Aviv harbour.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109859319|notes=Replaced Bar Flat LV; replaced with buoy 1919Admiralty, Notices to Mariners 348, 1919}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110110547|notes=Replaced with Royal Sovereign lighthouse 1971.}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110072592|notes=Replaced South Foreland Low lighthouse. LV69 was sunk on station, probably by a mine, in October 1940.{{Cite web |url=https://goodwinsands.org.uk/the-disappearing-lightship/ |title=The Disappearing Lightship |work=Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust |date= |access-date=2021-12-20}} The replacement, LV90, sank on 27 November 1954 when cables to her two sea anchors broke in a hurricane-force storm. The ship ran onto the Goodwin Sands close to the Keller Gut and turned on her side. The seven crew members perished, the only survivor being Ronald Murton, an ornithologist from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The wreck of the ship can still be seen at low tide. The next replacement ship was decommissioned and was towed away on 26 July 2006.{{Cite web |url=http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.123/Crew-of-the-South-Goodwin-light-vessel.html |title=South Goodwin Light Vessel |website=portcities.org |date= |access-date=}}{{Cite web |url=https://trinityhousehistory.wordpress.com/tag/south-goodwin-lightvessel/ |title=South Goodwin Lightvessel Trinity House History |website=trinityhousehistory.wordpress.com |date=27 November 2014 |language=en |access-date=2017-07-27}}{{NHLE|num=1070066|desc=ST MARGARET'S OLD LIGHTHOUSE, St. Margaret's At Cliffe |accessdate=2017-07-27}}}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110207883|notes=Established 1802; replaced 2007 by Sunk Centre as part of a new Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS).}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q109647775|notes=Established as part of TSS in 2007. Decommissioned 2021.}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110209798|notes=Established 6 December 1912{{citation |title=The Nautical Magazine |volume=88 |year=1912 |page=360}}}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110219894|notes=The first revolving light was fitted to the Swin Middle lightvessel in 1837.{{cn|date=December 2021}}}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110111125|notes=Replaced with a Lanby in September 1973.}}

File:South_Goodwin-1.JPG|South Goodwin on station in 2006

File:Nore light vessel RMG PV1973.jpg|Drawing of the Nore lightvessel by William Lionel Wyllie circa 1900

File:The Royal Navy during the Second World War A16960.jpg|Lightvessel on Crosby station during WW2

Scotland, Isle of Man

Lightvessels in Scotland and the Isle of Man were maintained by the Northern Lighthouse Board, with the exception of those maintained by the Clyde Lighthouse Trust and by the Dundee Port Trustees. Of the NLB vessels, only the North Carr was crewed.

class="wikitable"

!Name

!Position

!Operator

!Sea

!Vessels employed

!Notes

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110244041|notes=Established 1877. First lightship in Europe to be fully automated, 1971; discontinued 1984.{{cite web |url=https://www.dundeemaritime.co.uk/Abertay |title=Abertay Lightship |work=Dundee Maritime |date= |access-date=2021-12-22}}}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q22000040|notes=Replaced by Maughold Head Lighthouse in 1914.}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110245192|notes=Uncrewed "lightboat". Established 2 June 1905US Navy Hydrographic Office, (1906) Notices to Mariners, nos 1-52, p.355}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110244210|notes=Wartime station; established c. 1944US Navy Hydrographic Office (1944), Supplement to British Islands Pilot: the western coast of Scotland from Mull of Galloway to Rudh' Re and off-lying islands, Volume 4, p.2}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110244243|notes=Established 1868. Replaced by buoy in 1905Riddell, J.F.(1979) Clyde Navigation: A History of the Development and Deepening of the Clyde, John Donald, p.98}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110244233|notes=Original crewed lightship replaced 1882 by unattended, gas lit vessel built by Blackwood & Gordon."Launches - Scotch". The Marine Engineer, Feb 1, 1882, 254 Removed 1915}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110245863|notes=Uncrewed "lightboat" stationed near Scalpay;{{cite map|publisher = Ordnance Survey|title = Map of Skeirinoe lightvessel (via National Library of Scotland maps API|url = http://nls.tileserver.com/?lat=57.84&lng=-6.55&zoom=13|edition = Popular Edition (Scotland)|year = 1920–1930|scale = 1:253 440|access-date = 2011-08-13}} established 1906.}}

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110446648|notes=Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine has a small scale coloured General Arrangement (1923) from Builder (Clyde Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. Ltd. hull #249, 60 ft [183 m]).}}

File:Bahama_Bank_Lightship.jpg|The Bahama Bank Lightship, date unknown

File:North_carr_light_ship_1988.jpg|North Carr lightship in 1988

Wales

File:Former_Breaksea_lightvessel.jpg in 1978.]]

File:Bateau feu Scarweather.jpg

Former Welsh lightships were maintained by Trinity House. Remaining substitute navigational aids still are.

class="wikitable"

!Name

!Position

!Operator

!Sea

!Vessels employed

!Notes

{{Wdtable row/lvstation2|qid=Q110536438|notes=Replaced by a LANBY, then a lightfloat and currently a lighted buoy with RACON radar facility}}

Helwick (off Worms Head)
Milford Haven Lightvessel
Scarweather (Swansea Bay; replaced with buoy 1989)
St Gowan (off Pembrokeshire coast). The station once carried the name St Govan, i.e., spelling change

References

External links

Category:Lightship stations

Lightvessel stations of Great Britain

History

=Communications and safety=

=Crew=

=Replacement=

Vessels

England

=Active stations=

=Former stations=

Scotland, Isle of Man

Wales

See also

References

External links