Lightship Archive

Guiding Lights

The Design and Development of the British Lightship from 1732

From time immemorial to coasts of Britain have caused many a shipwreck, but it was to be the sixteenth century before attempts began to be made to arrest this needless loss of both ships and men by the construction of the first lighthouses.

It was soon realised that these new seamarks were not enough, for ships were still lost on sandbanks, often far offshore, where lighthouses could not be built. As a result, lightships were introduced to warn of many such hazards around the coast. At first these were primitive wooden craft which used tallow candles for light. Sperm whale and later Colza oil soon provided an alternative illuminant and a mechanised means of rotating the light was installed during the Victorian Era. During the last century, oil gave way to electricity and brighter lamps became possible. Technology advanced in parallel to replace the bell and gong with air foghorns of tremendous power. All these improvements gradually made the conditions of work more comfortable for the crews that spent their long sojourns aboard until automation removed the need for lightsmen on the vessels in the 1980s.

Guiding Lights is the story of the lightvessels that have protected our coast since 1732 and the great variety of innovative engineering that has gone into their development. Largely unknown to the general public and taken for granted by the seafarer, they still remain important to the safe navigation of our inshore waters.

Publisher: Tempus, Stroud | Year: 2001 | Author: Anthony Lane

The Kent Coast Gravesend to Margate Through Time

Besides having a fascinating geology, the North Kent Coast bears the marks of most periods of our history. The Romans built their fort at Reculver, and the abbey that later occupied that site had direct links with Canterbury Cathedral. The Dutch raided Queenborough and Sheerness in 1667; there was the famous Mutiny at the Nore in 1797; and prisoners were kept in wooden hulks at Sheerness from various other conflicts after that. The offshore waters were known to almost every sailor in the maritime hall of fame. 

Sir Francis Drake, Sebastian Cabot, Lord Nelson, Sir John Franklin and others all sailed from London or Chatham. Commencing at Gravesend, this book makes a journey, sometimes over water, but also across the marshes and through the harbours, villages and industrial estates that constitute maritime Kent, to eventually arrive at Margate, reflecting on the many changes that have occurred over the last hundred years.

Publisher: Amberley, Stroud | Year: 2014 | Author: Anthony Lane

Isle of Thanet Through Time

Dependent originally on fishing and farming, Margate and Ramsgate benefited as limbs of the Cinque Ports during the Middle Ages, shipping grain to London and elsewhere. Growth was, however, slow until an interest in sea-bathing arose in the eighteenth century, when, to Margate’s great benefit, Benjamin Beale invented the first bathing machine with a modesty hood. After that, hoys, paddle steamers and railways brought a stream of visitors that rapidly became a torrent. After the last war, easier foreign travel allowed people to bathe elsewhere, causing Margate to lose many hotels and other amenities. Mods and rockers did not reverse that trend and Manston aerodrome enjoyed some notoriety with the USAF in residence. Successes included the Hovercraft service to Calais and the enlargement of Ramsgate harbour. Thanet’s cliffs, beaches and sea air remain attractive today, though. This delightful book shows some of the changes.

Publisher: Amberley, Stroud | Year: 2013 | Author: Anthony Lane

Front Line Harbour

A History of the Port of Dover

Made famous by its position, the port of Dover has proved of great importance to the nation in war and peace over many centuries. A Roman stronghold, it became a major Cinque Port after the Norman Conquest. Following the murder of Thomas Beckett at Canterbury in 1170, it became a place of transit for many pilgrims, encouraging Henry II to improve the remarkable castle we know today. 

Henry VIII and Elizabeth I made great efforts to improve the often threatened harbour, where, in 1660, Charles II returned to Dover to re-establish the monarchy. In the past, in peacetime, the town welcomed monarchs and statesmen from all over the world who arrived by sea. 

The Admiralty Grand Harbour provided a base for the Dover Patrol and a receiving station for more than a million wounded in the First World War. Similarly, in 1940, the major part of the British Army retreating from Dunkirk was landed at Dover. 

This highly illustrated book describes the development of the harbour over the last 500 years and its associated shipping activities, commercial and naval, particularly the cross-Channel ferries, which have considerably increased in size and number in recent times to cater for the enormous number of passengers, cars and trucks which nowadays cross to and from France. Dover remains on the Front Line in road communications with Europe.

Publisher: Amberley, Stroud | Year: 2011 | Author: Anthony Lane

Thames-side Kent Through Time

Commencing at the Nore, Thames-side Kent follows the course of a ship inward bound, presenting a nostalgic study of the southern bank of the River Thames as far as the county of Kent extends, the mouth of the River Darenth, also known as Dartford Creek. Countless vessels of all sizes have travelled along these thirty-one miles of water over the centuries, some to one of the many wharves that lined the river but the majority to the earlier vast expanse of the London Docks.

In spite of a massive expansion of population, the Kent riverside still has remote places and large areas of salt marsh. In contrast, above Gravesend, there has been, and still is, major development through Northfleet to Greenhithe and Dartford, with Bluewater shopping centre and Ebbsfleet station catering for a multitude of shoppers and high-speed rail travellers. Hence the Dartford Bridge and tunnels remain heavily congested but the river above Purfleet stays largely empty of traffic.

Publisher: Amberley, Stroud | Year: 2011 | Author: Anthony Lane

Kent Ports and Harbours

Kent Ports and Harbours charts the changes that have occurred over the last 400 years to the Kent ports and their associated shipping industries. It covers the development from naval dockyard to commercial port that took place at Chatham and Sheerness, along with the growth of the well-known seaside towns such as Margate and Ramsgate which expanded as the paddle steamers reduced the dangers of sea travel.

Starting with the sailing vessels fishing or carrying small cargoes and finishing with the modern ferries, tankers, car carriers and container ships of today, this highly illustrated book emphasises the variety of seafarers, craft and harbour environments that can be found in Kent waters.

Publisher: The History Press, Stroud | Year: 2010 | Author: Anthony Lane

Calamity Corner

The Wrecks of the English Channel

For over five centuries, the English Channel’s eastern approaches have been the busiest stretch of sea in the world. The route from London and the ports of northern Europe has seen more shipwrecks than almost any other part of the coastline and the area is well known for its shifting sands, narrow sea lanes and rapidly changing weather patterns. From the Goodwin Sands to the offshore hazards of northern France and Belgium, these sandbanks have caused many a ship to founder.

Calamity Corner illustrates just how this stretch of coast, on both sides of the Channel, is so treacherous and gives us an idea of the sheer number of ships that have been lost here in the past few centuries, and tragedies, as well as triumphs of man over nature. Anthony Lane gives a truly local flavour to the maritime disasters from Kent through Sussex and the French and Belgian coasts where the North Sea funnels into the narrow English Channel.

Publisher: Tempus, Stroud | Year: 2004 | Author: Anthony Lane

Maritime Kent

Kent has a long coastline and this, together with its position as the English county closest to Europe, has meant that it has a long history of seataring. It also has a long record of facing attack from hostile shores. The coast has therefore been heavily fortified, but while in periods of conflict the defences have always stood the test, in the much longer periods of peace a very varied maritime culture has developed.

Men have fished from the Kentish shores and ports since the earliest days. Their closeness to France has meant that an increasingly important ferry service has evolved which has now made the Dover-Calais route the busiest in the world. As important as it has been for the military to guard the coast in war, it is equally necessary that such busy coastal waters are watched today. The Coastguards fulfil a vital role in this respect.
While the many large ships which pass through these waters carry increasingly sophisticated electronic equipment to aid navigation, the lighthouses, lightships and buoys are still required as points of reference.
Marine pilots use both electronics and these long established aids to provide the safest passage into the important ports of Dover, Sheerness, Chatham and London. In berthing those ships and assisting them in difficulties the very important tugs are always there. All these aspects of the maritime environment are described and illustrated in this volume.

A section on monuments is included to recognise some of those who made the county famous and those who died in its defence. Finally, for those who remember with nostalgia the seaside piers of Kent, most are illustrated.

Maritime Kent describes the history of these different aspects of seafaring over the last two hundred years. The large number of photographs included, more than half of them taken by the compiler, show how the ships have changed, and how the lives of the mariners have altered.

Publisher: Tempus, Stroud | Year: 2000 | Author: Anthony Lane

Shipwrecks of Kent

Kent has witnessed the passing of ships since the beginning of recorded history. The Romans landed there, and armed vessels from Spain, Holland, France and Germany have threatened its shores. As London became the major seaport of the realm, the maritime trade of the nation passed through its coastal waters. With so many ships passing along the coast of Kent, inevitably there have been many shipwrecks, particularly on the infamous Goodwin Sands and the outlying banks of the Thames estuary. Some of these have been tragic in nature, while others have included an element of comedy.

This compilation of 200 photographs, drawn from many sources, provides a reminder of many of the more famous wrecks in the area. It also includes some not so familiar disasters from the past and describes some strange coincidences that have occurred over the last two centuries. Simplified charts are included to give an idea of the perils of the coastline and also the effectiveness of the German mining campaign in the Second World War.

In addition to ships that got into difficulties, lifeboats and their crews that helped to rescue men under the most awful conditions of weather have a special place in this pictorial account. Famous rescues like the Northern Belle and Indian Chief are recorded, and modern disasters, such as the explosion and sinking of the Texaco Caribbean, which set in motion a programme for safer navigation of the crowded English Channel, are given special coverage.

The result is a portrait of the battle between men and the sea. In many cases it was the sea that won. It is also a tribute to those of the lifeboat service who risked their lives so that others in distress might be saved.

Publisher: Tempus, Stroud | Year: 1999 | Author: Anthony Lane

Lightships: Their Design, Development and Diversity

British Lightships – Their Design, Development and Diversity

Lightships guided ships of all nations past offshore reefs and sand banks that posed extreme hazards to navigation, where lighthouses could not be built. This book describes their design, construction and evolution over more than two centuries of service to the point where electronic navigation aids such as radar and GPS rendered them largely obsolete. Built originally of oak and teak, they progressed through iron hulls to steel; their lights burnt whale oil, colza oil, then paraffin before electricity gave the greatest brightness. Fog warnings were given by bells, gongs, reed horns and sirens before reaching maximum power with the diaphone, which could be heard for up to ten miles. Examples are shown of these features, most of which resulted from major scientific and engineering advances made by our predecessors in the 19th century. By their efforts the sea lanes around Great Britain were made far safer for navigators.

Publisher: Amberley, Stroud  | Year 2024 | Authors: Anthony Lane & Martin Augustus

Unusual Sisters - The story of trinity house light vessels 78 & 79

This is the story of two small ships that provided warning lights to shipping entering the River Thames and Southampton Water from the First World War almost until the end of the last century. Regularly passed by the largest ships afloat but diminutive in comparison they were often over-looked by maritime historians. Nowadays they are virtually forgotten; one was a war casualty and the other, still in existence, is a victim of neglect.

Unusual Sisters tells the story of Trinity House Light Vessels 78 & 79 two almost identical vessels completed in 1914 and intended as channel markers.  It illustrates their technical development and histories with stories from crew members who served on them.

Available from the authors at www.sailingimages.co.uk

 

Privately Published  | Year 2024 | Authors: Anthony Lane & Martin Augustus