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In producing this monogram, no attempt has been made to make this a complete history of all aspects of manned light vessels in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as this has been done before, notably in a recent book, “Guiding Lights”, by Dr Anthony Lane. This volume is in the form of a fleet list of all manned light vessels that have been operated by – Trinity House – The Commissioners of Irish Lights – The Northern Lighthouse Board – The Humber Conservancy Board – The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, in the period from the early nineteenth Century to 2006. It is laid out in sections, one for each authority, comprising all the vessels that have been operated by that authority, a list of the stations operated by each authority, a list of all the surviving vessels and their current status, and representative photographs and drawings. I have given basic details for each of the vessels, but have taken the decision not to include details on the optics, or fog apparatus as I could not find enough accurate detail on this for each authority. Although the first recorded light vessel was placed at the Nore in 1732 with others following at Dudgeon in 1736, Owers in 1748, Newarp in 1790, Goodwin in 1795, Sunk in 1802, with an Irish light vessel being positioned in Dublin Bay in 1735. I have started the listings at 1806 for Irish Lights, 1823 for Trinity House, 1820 for the River Humber and 1813 for the River Mersey. "Light Vessels of the United Kingdom" is published by the W.S.S Small Craft Group. Copies available from Tony Holtham, 5 Rogate Drive, Estover, Plymouth, Devon, PL6 8SY, United Kingdom. Price is £14 sterling including postage UK, and £16 for overseas postage surface mail. Publication date December 2006. |
