Lightship Archive

List of Daymarks for Lightships 1900-1930

Replacing red flags in 1832, daymarks or topmarks as they were often called, were placed at the top of the mainmast of the earlier lightships to enable their identification from a distance when their hulls lay below the horizon. Painted black, they were made of wooden hoops in the form of a cage, 6 feet in diameter at the widest part. Their height above sea level varied from about 65 to 75 feet. They were discontinued in the early 1930s as more ships came into service with fixed lanterns instead of a mainmast.

Station Daymark Light
Barrow Deep Cylinder W
Calshot Ball W
Calshot Spit Ball W
Cockle Ball W
Cork Ball W
Corton Upper half of ball under ball R
Cromer Knoll Triangle Alt W+R
Cross Sand Two cones points together W
Dudgeon Ball Alt W+R
East Goodwin Inverted triangle over diamond W
Edinburgh Half ball, base upwards (lower half of ball) W
Galloper Two cones, points upwards on main; ball on mizzen mast R
Girdler Ball W
Gull Ball W
Haisbro’ Ball W
Inner Dowsing Small ball over large ball G
Kentish Knock Small ball over large ball W
Leman & Ower Two masts with ball at head of each (until 1912) Alt R+W
Long Sand Diamond W
Lynn Well Two cones with points together W
Mouse Ball G
Nab Ball W
Newarp Three masts with ball at each; 55’ Fore; 75’ Main; 44’ Miz. W
Nore Ball W
North Goodwin Three masts with ball on each W
Outer Dowsing Upper half ball over ball W
Outer Gabbard Inverted cone W
Owers Ball Alt W+R
Princes Channel Ball R
Roaring Middle Ball W
Royal Sovereign Small ball over large ball W
Seven Stones Ball W
Shambles Ball W
Shipwash Ball W
Smiths Knoll Ball Alt R+W
South Goodwin Ball W
Spurn Ball W
St. Nicholas Ball G
Sunk Half ball, flat side down over a ball Alt W+R
Swarte Bank Lantern at masthead (from 1912) W
Swin Middle Lantern at masthead W
Tongue Lantern at masthead, later ball Alt R+W
Varne Ball R
Warner Ball W
Would Diamond W

Details from Admiralty list of lights and time signals; Part I for British Islands – 1913