Lightship Archive

The last of the pre-war vessels, No. 95 was handed over to Trinity House by Philip & Son Ltd., at Dartmouth on 31 June 1939 for service at the OUTER GABBARD station on 1 September. Her stay there was short, however, for enemy air attacks caused her withdrawal on 10 April 1940. A move to the west coast followed where she served for the remainder of the war at the ST. GOWAN station off Milford Haven, one of the few Trinity House vessels to operate throughout the hostilities.

After the war she was moved back to the east coast to become once more permanent vessel at the OUTER GABBARD between 1949 and 1955. After three years at the SUNK (9.55-7.58) she was moored at the KENTISH KNOCK for a spell, leaving there in September 1963.
Thereafter she was used as a temporary ship at a large number of further stations, including the VARNE and the GALLOPER. At the former she suffered one of her greatest tests, dragging her anchor in a violent storm up to the very edge of the Varne Bank off Folkestone on 1 December 1966. Enduring very heavy seas, the Dover lifeboat managed to take off the seven crew but the lightship’s master ‘Lofty’ Bate, who had returned below to cover a broken port hole, tripped on leaving and fell head first into the lifeboat, luckily being caught by one of the crew. He was awarded the BEM for his efforts. A few days later the vessel was recovered and taken to Harwich for preparation for service at CROSS SAND.

LV95 was the first ship to serve at the new FALLS station when it was established in 1972. In August 1975 she was towed back to Swansea again to serve as a temporary vessel. During 1976 she spent a short time back on the ST. GOWAN station. Temporary duty at the SEVEN STONES followed in 1978 while acting as the Swansea spare and the vessel was then transferred back to Harwich in 1980, where she became a prototype for the automation of lightvessels. In that year Nos. 93,94 and 95 were taken in for conversion, the last-named completed by Sealink at Holyhead on 10 June 1982. As the new technology initially often required maintenance the original lightsmen’s accommodation was retained in these ships. In the course of her further service No. 94 was the victim of a collision and was subsequently sold but the other two performed very well. As an automatic vessel ALV95 remained at Harwich as a spare throughout 1983 afterwards spending most of 1984-7 at the SHIPWASH.

When consideration was given to solar power as an energy source it was No. 95 that was chosen for the trials. In this solarised form the vessel was initially placed at INNER DOWSING in June 1995 and transferred to SOUTH GOODWIN in early 1997. Moving past the millennium, consideration was given to refitting these 90-series ships, but the fact that as part of their conversion for automation a lot of their interior compartments had been filled with plastic foam meant the cost was too great and they were sold in 2004. This work had originally been carried out to prevent them sinking if they were involved in a collision.

One criticism offered by outsiders was that the lightsman’s life was a lonely existence where you never went anywhere. While I never met any serving men who agreed with this philosophy it certainly cannot be said of the ships for LV95 was probably more-travelled than most.