Lightvessel stations of Great Britain

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;[6] 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;[7][8] the East Goodwin lightvessel was used during one of Guglielmo Marconi's early experiments in radio transmission in 1896.[9] 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.

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".[10]

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.[11]

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.[12]

The remaining UK lightvessels have now been converted to unmanned operation and most now use solar power.

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

Name	Image	Position	Characteristic	Vessels employed
Foxtrot 3		🌍 [13]	Fl W 10s	LV93 (from 2001 until 2003), LV17[14]
East Goodwin		Goodwin Sands 🌍	Fl W 15s[15][16]	LV93 (from 1947 until 1953), Lightvessel no. 21
Greenwich		🌍	Fl W 5s[15][17]	Light vessel no. 5[18]
Sandettie		Sandettie Bank 🌍	Fl W 5s[19]	Sandettié (from 1978 until 1989)
Sevenstones		🌍	Fl(3) W 30s[15][20]	Sevenstones Lightship (1841) (from 1841 until 1879), Lightvessel no. 50 (from Sep 1879 until 1883)
Sunk Inner		🌍 [21]	Fl(5) 15s
Varne		Varne Bank 🌍 [22]	Fl R 5s[15]	Varne, Lightvessel no. 21 (from 1980)

Name	Position	Operator	Sea	Vessels employed	Notes
Sunk Centre	🌍 [23]
Mersey Bar	🌍 [24]	Mersey Docks and Harbour Company	River Mersey	Alarm[25] (from 1913 until 1960), Planet[26] (from 1960 until 1972)
Barrow Deep	Barrow Deep		Thames Estuary
Black Deep	Black Deep		Thames Estuary		Station established 1889[27]
Brake	Brake Bank			Lightship no. 38[28] (from 1930 until 1940)	Station established 1930, replacing Gull LV station, due to narrowing of the navigable Gull Stream[29]
Bull	Bull Sand	Humber Conservancy Board	Humber	Spurn[30] (from 1959)
Calshot Spit	Calshot Spit		Southampton Water	Lightvessel no. 78[31] (from 1914), Lightvessel no. 50 (from 1943 until 1951), Light vessel no. 16[32]
Channel	🌍		English Channel	Planet, Light vessel no. 3[33]
Cockle	Great Yarmouth		North Sea	Light vessel no. 88[34] (from 1936)
Cork	Harwich			LV86
Corton	Lowestoft		North Sea
Crosby	Crosby Channel	Mersey Docks and Harbour Company	Liverpool Bay
Inner Dowsing	Inner Dowsing		North Sea	Light vessel no. 16[32], Light vessel no. 95[35], LV93[36] (1998)	The last manned lightship station, replaced by the Dowsing lighthouse in 1991.[37]
Outer Dowsing	Outer Dowsing		North Sea	Outer Dowsing[38]
Dudgeon	Dudgeon Shoals 🌍 [39]		North Sea		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.[40]
Edinburgh Channel	Edinburgh Channels		Thames Estuary	LV86[41]	Station established 1889 replacing the S.W. Longsand buoy[27]
English and Welsh Grounds			Bristol Channel	Light Vessel 72, Light vessel no. 55
Falls	🌍 [39]		Strait of Dover
North Folkestone Gate			Strait of Dover		Discontinued 1919[42]
South Folkestone Gate			Strait of Dover	LV75[43]	LV75 attacked on station and sunk by German bombers in July 1940, with the loss of two crew members, Jack Wade and Harry North[44]
Formby	Formby Beach	Mersey Docks and Harbour Company	Liverpool Bay
Galloper	Galloper Shoal		North Sea	LV93[36] (from 1954 until 1974)	Station first established by the Admiralty in 1803 to protect the fleet during the Napoleonic Wars;[4] replaced by buoy 1977[45]
Girdler	Girdler Shoal		Thames Estuary		In 1884 the Girdler lightship was rammed and sunk by Indus; no lives were lost.[46]
Gull	Goodwin Sands		North Sea	Lightship no. 38 (from 1929 until 1930)	Marked the Gull Stream: station first established by the Admiralty in 1809 and taken over by Trinity House in 1826.[47] Narrowing of the channel led to Gull being replaced by Brake LV in 1930[29]
Gunfleet	Gunfleet Sands	Trinity House	Thames Estuary		Replaced by Gunfleet Lighthouse in 1850.
Haisborough	Haisborough Sands		North Sea	Light vessel no. 3[48], Lightvessel no. 68[49]
Humber		Humber Conservancy Board	Humber	Light vessel no. 91[50] (from 1937 until 1942)	Maintained by Humber Conservancy Board.
Kentish Knock	Kentish Knock		North Sea	Light vessel no. 3[33], Lightship 2000, Jenni Baynton[51] (from 1949 until 1953)
Smiths Knoll	Smiths Knoll 🌍 [39]	Trinity House	North Sea
Leman and Ower		Trinity House	North Sea
Longsand	🌍 [52]	Trinity House	Thames Estuary
Morecambe Bay		Trinity House	Morecambe Bay	Breeveertien, LV94[53]
Mouse		Trinity House	Thames Estuary	Lightship no. 38
Nab	Nab Rock	Trinity House	The Solent		Replaced by the Nab Tower in 1920.
Newarp	Newarp Banks	Trinity House	North Sea	Light vessel no. 44, Lightvessel no. 21[54] (1972), LV83[55] (1967)
Nore	Nore	Trinity House	Thames Estuary	LV86[56] (from 1941 until 1942)	The world's first manned lightship, 1731.
North Goodwin	Goodwin Sands	Trinity House	North Sea
North West		Mersey Docks and Harbour Company	River Mersey	Good Intent[57] (from 1813)
Outer Gabbard	Outer Gabbard 🌍 [39]	Trinity House	North Sea	Light vessel no. 3[33], Jenni Baynton[51] (from 1962 until 1965), Lightvessel no. 50[58] (1911)
Owers	The Owers, off Selsey Bill	Trinity House	English Channel	Light vessel no. 3	Replaced with a beacon. LV Owers now a wreck in Tel Aviv harbour.
Royal Sovereign	Royal Sovereign Shoals	Trinity House	English Channel	Lightship 2000[59]	Replaced with Royal Sovereign lighthouse 1971.
Selker	Selker Rocks 🌍 [60]

• 
  Drawing of the Nore lightvessel by William Lionel Wyllie circa 1900
• 
  Lightvessel on Crosby station during WW2

• Shambles (the Shambles Bank, off Portland Bill)
• Shipwash (North Sea, off Harwich)
• South Goodwin lightvessel replaced the land based South Foreland Low lighthouse, also known as Old St Margaret's Lighthouse. On 25 October 1940, the South Goodwin Lightship was bombed by the Germans and sunk. The replacement lightvessel, LV90 sank on 27 November 1954 when cables to her two sea anchors broke in a hurricane-force storm, the worst storm in two centuries. 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.[61][62][63]
• Spurn (Spurn Head). Maintained by Humber Conservancy Board. A former Spurn lightvessel is preserved at Hull Marina.
• Swin Middle (Swin Channel, Thames Estuary)
• Tongue (Tongue Sands, Thames Estuary)
• Lynn Well (entrance to The Wash); replaced with a LANBY (Large Automatic Navigation BuoY) September 1973
• Would (North Sea)