Trinity House? Well, to many people that implies "something to do" with lighthouses, etc.
Few people realise what "that something" entails, though. For instance, the servicing of lighthouses keeps a fleet of nine specially built ships, with skilled crews, hard at it year in and year out.
Lighthouse tenders are a special class of ship of anything from 100 to 250 feet long and a draft of 10 to 15 feet. Of necessity these ships must be small and handy on account of the restricted zones they have to manoeuvre in. It must be understood that lighthouse tenders have to go into places that all other ships are warned to keep clear of. These tenders are manned by a Captain, two Navigating Executive Officers, two to three Engineer Officers, a Boatswain, Carpenter Coxswains, Deck and Engine room ratings, Wireless Ratings, Cooks, Stewards, Boys etc. to a total of from 30 to 40. Special quarters are provided on board for Lighthouse Keepers, lightship men (and sometimes Mechanics) being taken to or from their stations, in addition to the quarters of the ship's company itself.
Rock lighthouses have to be supplied with everything they need by these ships and these men, working in small boats. Fresh water has to be delivered in nine gallon casks, oil in five gallon drums, coal in hundredweight sacks, paints in tins, cotton waste in bales, lamp cylinders in crates, incandescent mantles in cartons, ropes, cleaning stores, stationery, food clothes, machinery wireless equipment, granite stones (up to two tons in weight) for fabric repairs and scores of other incidentals all have to reach the lighthouses by boat and manpower. At times, weeks of waiting are necessary before the required stores, or men, can be landed safely. The actual landing conditions differ according to the various lighthouse situations. In some cases men and stores are hove up out of the boat by means of a rope rove through a block or tackle at the top of the lighthouse and then down to a winch on the landing or in a winch-room in the tower. This means a journey (for men and stores) rather like the flying trapeze act, especially in bad weather, when one may be under water one moment and then jerked skywards the next.There is another method of transport, by mast and derrick, from a lower level i.e. a landing platform or jetty, just above high water mark. This means a journey up in a bowline and then a circular tour until the derrick swings one over the landing before being deposited on the platform itself. All the time this work is going on a very careful watch has to be kept for sudden rising seas, which may run over the landing platform and take men and stores overboard.
I have known four men to be washed off rock lighthouses, but only two were rescued.
Years ago I was washed off a rock lighthouse myself in Ceylon. Fortunately a native saw me go and as another wave deposited me on the rocks, winded and spread out like a starfish, he jumped from his place of safety and sat on me to prevent my being washed away again.
THV Mermaid attending Wolf Rock Lighthouse
It sometimes happens that a sick or injured man has to be removed from a lighthouse. The patient has to be lashed to a stretcher and brought down circular stairs (all lighthouse stairs run corkscrew fashion inside the tower) to the entrance door whence he must be lowered many feet on a rope to the landing platform. From there the man has to be hoisted up on a derrick and swung out clear of the rocks and lowered to a boat which may be rising and falling 10 feet on the seas. As this boat has to be kept clear of the rocks or landing platform, the boat has to use an anchor and line or a line to a buoy over the stern, thus part of the journey may necessitate the men having to be pulled into the boat by a steadying line, often at an angle of 45°, even then the patient may be swinging about in an alarming way. The boat's crew have to catch this man and ease him down as gently as possible into the boat. Once there he will be covered up and kept dry, as spray will probably be breaking over the boat. Then as soon as the boat can be got clear of the rocks and landing she will head for the ship, which will have to be waiting at a reasonable distance from the lighthouse.
A lee side has to be made and possibly oil pumped over the side so that the boat (with the patient still lashed to his stretcher) may be hoisted in the davits with as little jolting as possible. Once the boat is up at the davit heads the patient will be carried to the Officers' mess which is turned into an emergency hospital on such occasions. By this time the ship will be steaming to the nearest port to obtain medical aid which will have been requested by radio telephone. This whole operation is disturbing enough when one is in good health, but the feeling of the man in the stretcher can be better imagined than described. You can also imagine the anxiety of those who have to remove a sick man under these circumstances. On one occasion I had to lash a sick man to myself in the bowline, when transferring him from the lighthouse landing to the boat, as he was in such a state of nerves that he could not face the journey on the derrick by himself. It sometimes happens that no relief is possible at a rock lighthouse for weeks on end and food runs short. Week after week the lighthouse tender stands by for a chance to get supplies to the lighthouse. Kites and rocket guns have solved the problem on more than one occasion of getting a line from ship to rock but even these aids depend on whether it is possible to lower a boat or not. I hope that very soon autogyros will be able to deliver urgent supplies to such places.
During hostilities it became necessary, when working at lighthouses either landing men or stores, for the ship to steam up and down instead of anchoring or making fast to a buoy, on account of the possible attentions of enemy submarines or aircraft. Gun crews had to stand by the whole time ready to shoot off ensuing aircraft that meddled with "our lawful occasions".
We even had to carry machine guns and rifles in the boats under certain conditions.
Not very long ago a whole boat's crew was lost at a rock lighthouse; through a sudden wave or wash (probably caused by fast moving ships out of sight) enveloping the boat and swamping her. The approaches to most rock lighthouses are very dangerous, owing to tides, eddies and submerged rocks. Infinite patience, keen judgment and an inborn boating instinct are necessary before a man can hope to pilot a boat in and out of such places successfully. After a lifetime spent in such work, I am certain that fishermen who have had a certain amount of naval training make the finest boatmen for lighthouse work.
Senior Officers assessing wreck
Lightships, like lighthouses have to be supplied with men and stores by these tenders. In fine weather the tender usually makes fast astern of the lightship by a hawser and pumps oil and water from her storage tanks to those of the lightship. Men, coal, food, stores etc. have to be transferred by boat. It is possible to effect the relief of a lightship when it would be absolutely impossible to relieve a rock lighthouse. A lightship has "sea room" and is not in close proximity to rocks. Providing a boat can be lowered and hoisted it is, generally speaking, possible to relieve a lightship. The Tender may not be able to make fast astern, but by providing a lee for her boat and pumping oil overboard she will probably be able to change the men and provide food.
Tenders also have to tow lightships from repair yards and depots to their appointed stations. This is a tedious task, as all the hawsers - either wire or rope - have to be "man-handled" many times and in cold weather this means torture, literally. Should bad weather be encountered the tender has got to stick to her lightship in tow, as the lightship has no means of propulsion and is helpless alone - unless of course anchored. On one occasion when we had a lightship in tow end exceptionally heavy weather was encountered, the lightship lost her rudder, eleven ships were in distress all round, but our lightship was brought safely into port after taking two days and a night on what should have been less than a twelve hour journey. On that occasion the engineers and engine room and Stokehold staff had to be battened down below. The tender had her bridge ladders swept away by seas. The lightship Master said afterwards that on several occasions he thought the tender had gone down.
THV Siren towing Royal Sovereign Lightvessel
Wrecks too have to be dealt with by lighthouse tenders. First located by "sweeping" by means of two ships or boats with an under water sweep-wire or rope between them or by echo-sounding instruments etc., next buoyed or marked by special wreck marking vessels. Then comes the process of removing the wreck by explosives. Charges of tonite are either placed in the wreck by divers or swept in by boats. Once the charges are laid the boats withdraw to a safe distance and then fire the charge or charges by electricity. In shallow water, pieces of wreckage are hurled into the air and care has to be taken to keep well out of range. Hundreds of fish are sometimes brought to the surface by the explosions - some dead, some (the larger ones) stunned. Gulls and other sea birds will gorge themselves so much that they cannot fly. Some wrecks may take several seasons to disperse, or should they be old wooden vessels days only will suffice to clear the channel of the submerged danger. Whichever it is, it is all part of the work of a lighthouse tender and her crew.
Buoyage? Well, that means keeping channels, wrecks, rocks and other dangers marked so that ships may pass in safety. Many buoys are lighted, that is to say they exhibit a light giving a recognized code of flashes (white or coloured). Others carry a bell which can be heard in fog, while others have a deep toned whistle. The very special (and very heavy) ones carry a light, a bell (automatic) and a whistle. These buoys weigh about 12 tons, are over 30 feet in total length and have to be secured on their stations by heavy chain and "sinkers" weighing up to five tons. To place one of these buoys "on station" the lighthouse tender has to use one or more of her derricks (tested up to 20 tons). Fine weather is needed for this work, as 12 tons has to be treated with a good deal of respect when the ship is rolling, for once 12 tons starts a pendulum roll it gets beyond a joke! All buoys of course are not so heavy or so large, but whatever their shape or character they have to be handled with care and moored properly, for all ships rely on these "milestones of the sea".
All buoys are examined closely and painted yearly and their moorings overhauled. Their assigned positions are checked by shore marks or sextant angles. Every time a lighthouse tender passes a buoy, a lighthouse, a lightship or even an unlighted beacon, the officer of the watch will look at it through a telescope to make certain that everything is as it ought to be. When overhauling moorings - either buoy or lightship ones - entangled mines have to be watched for carefully.
I have picked up two mines on chain cables and, believe me, I know what having every hair at attention means!
At least two of our ships, a steamer and a lightship have been lost through heaving a mine up on their cables. Many years ago a whole boat's crew was lost through a wreck that was being dispersed by explosive charges blowing up suddenly. She had a cargo of gelignite, but nobody knew that until too late. Needless to say, since then even more stringent precautions are always taken to ascertain from the owners of the wreck the precise nature of her cargo.
THV Vestal alongside a buoy
Not very long ago a Pressman told me that he thought our job too monotonous. Well, in addition to ordinary Trinity House work such as I have described I have served through two world wars, been in a revolution, a native rising, been blown up, shot up, had my ship sink under me by the enemy, survived a Russian convoy (when six out of eight ships were sunk), been ashore in a ship, been run down in another, been gassed, wounded, underneath a ship's bottom in a gas buoy, tackled a couple of madmen (one armed with an axe), rescued a few people from drowning, taken supplies to a leper camp, tackled a cat with rabies that had cleared a ship's upper deck, taken part in several naval reviews and a victory parade. Monotonous? Well, I leave it to you, but all these things have happened to the writer.
A Trinity House Service Officer