| A Light on the Sea | |
A short history of the Lightvessel |
What is a Lightvessel ?
Lightvessels - also called lightships - are ships bearing a navigation light. They are usually anchored near shoals, reefs or rocks, and some quite far offshore on positions where actually a lighthouse would be needed. But in most of these locations it was not possible to erect any such building.
In the course of maritime history the lightvessel was - concerning ist shape - often called the type of ship showing the least elegant outline. Therefore it was hard for the ship to claim its identity, for it was neither ship nor lighthouse, but a strange mixture of both. Its voluminous hull was packed with tanks, generators and equipment, the little tower lacked the elegance and beauty of many other lights on the mainland - no splendidly decorated stairs were adding any brilliance inside, no elaborate, wrought-iron parapets decorated the gallery around the lantern. The sheer functionality of the ship always came first place, for it had to comply with the heavy battering of storms and sometimes monstrous waves under any circumstances and just to fulfill its purpose.
Lightvessels usually occupied positions which were given a wide berth by all
other ships. Their task - as an aid to navigation - was to supply a guaranty
for safe shipping out on sea. They stayed at their position up to a couple of
years, until it was time for repairs, or a general overhaul at the shipyard.
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The first lightvessels were converted wooden ships, whose hulls were plated with copper underneath the waterline to protect them against the action of ship´s worms and so to ensure a long service. But only from the 2nd half of the 19th century those ships were constructed of steel, too. |
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Lightvessel "NORE" |
The Beginning
The principle of a ship bearing a light on its mast was not a new one. As a predecessor of todays anchorlight it was already common on Roman galeons during Julius Cesars time to exhibit a "fire basket" on a mast at dusk, making these ships visible for others and to avoid collisions this way.
The first proposal for a floating navigational light was made during the Dutch-Danish negotiations in 1649. The Netherlands asked Denmark to lay out such a ship near the Island of Anholt, but this demand was not fulfilled. Instead the Danes took another step, they built a lighthouse on the island and additionally marked the fairway with buoys.
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In 1731 the first private lightvessel, named "NORE", was placed in the Thames estuary off the Southeast Coast of England, to mark the dangerous sands of the same name. It was a small cargo sailing vessel, which had a horizontal beam with two braziers, one at each end, on its mast. Both fires were lit at dusk. Even though the "NORE" was a big success, it took almost 80 years before the system was copied. |
In funnel-shaped river estuaries, where shifting sands and mud offered the least desirable ground for the construction of lighthouses, lightvessels where an ideal solution. As well as near rooks and shoals, which were located far off the mainland, and thus economically prohibited the construction of a lighthouse, lightvessels could be anchored safely. Furthermore it was no problem to change the position of a floating light, when the ever-shifting sands required a new point to mark a fairway.
Some of the first Lightvessels
1811 On November 16th of this year the first Irish lightvessel, the "KISH BANK", was placed off Dublin Bay. She was a rebuilt, wooden Dutch ship, bearing the name "VRONIA GESINA", which was fitted with three masts and lanterns for this purpose.
1814 The Netherlands established their first lightvessel station. The ship was the rebuilt gunboat No.101, which was layed out at the Vlie on the Zwaansbalg station, bearing the name "SCHUYTEZAND".
1815 On November 16th the first German lightvessel, a converted pilot cutter - which had been built in 1807 - was placed in the Eider estuary. At this time Schleswig-Holstein still belonged to Denmark.
1820 The United States placed two lightships, the "WILLOUGHBY SPIT" in the Chesapeake Bay off the Virginian coast, and the "NORTHEAST PASS" in the Mississippi River Estuary (Gulf of Mexico) off the coast of Mississippi.
1829 In July of this year the first Danish lightvessel, named "LÆSØ TRINDEL" was placed off the island of Læsø in the Kattegat.
1845 The first French lightvessel, the "TALAIS", marked the fairway into the Gironde, the estuary of the Garonne river.
1848 Belgium placed its first lightvessel "PAARDEMARKT" on a sandbank of the same name.
1858 It was the first purpose-built Dutch lightvessel which was layed out on
the "NOORDHINDER" station. This two-masted ship had a hoisting lantern
with eight parabolic reflectors and Argand-Lamps on the foremast.
1863 From this year on the sandbanks off the French Channel-Coast between Calais and Dunkerque were marked by the lightvessels "MARDYCK" and "RUYTINGEN".
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Lightvessel - Lantern with Argand-Lamps and parabolic reflectors |
The Dutch Lightvessels
It was in 1814 when the first Dutch lightvessel, the "SCHUYTEZAND", was layed out on the Zwaansbalg position. She was a rebuilt gunboat, which was fitted with a lantern for the new task, and was supposedly on station until 1824. The first Dutch ship, which was especially built as a lightvessel, was placed on the "NOORDHINDER" station on August 16th 1858. Her light consisted of eight Argand-Lamps with parabolic reflectors. The installation of the following stations took place in 1881 with "TERSCHELLINGERBANK" and "SCHOUWENBANK", as well as "HAAKS" in 1890 and "MAAS" in 1891.
At the beginning of the 20th century the Netherlands had six lightvessels at their disposal, of which five were permanently on station. One vessel serviced as a relief, ready to be towed out to any station in case of failure of one of the other vessels. During the period between 1917 to 1924 Dutch lightvessels served on the positions "DOGGERSBANK" and "DOOGERSBANK NOORD", too. The "MAAS" station was given up in 1930, followed in 1934 by "SCHOUWENBANK", caused by economic reasons.
During the course of World War II (1940) the three remaining stations were withdrawn as well. On their way home into the harbour the whole crew of the "TERSCHELLINGERBANK" disappeared. The sailors took off with the help of other ships, partly to England or to the Dutch mainland. After the war, when the shipping lines were cleared of mines, the lightvessels were layed out again. The first was the "GOEREE" in Ferbruary 1946, followed by the "TEXEL" in March 1947 and "TERSCHELLINGERBANK" in December 1948. The last station which got back its light was "NOORDHINDER" in January 1954.
Three last new lightvessels were built after the war, numbers 10, 11 and 12.
The first of these new ships started her service in 1952, followed by the second
in 1953. Both were built on the "Rijkswerf Willemsoord" at Den Helder.
The last dutch-build lightvessel was launched from the "De Waal" shipyard
at Zaltbommel in 1963. Even though the number of Dutch lightvessels had increased
to six by then, their end was rather near. The first to go was No.7, she was
layed off and sold in 1965. She had been built in 1911 and served as a relief-vessel
during her final years. When the light from the "GOEREE" platform
shone for the first time on December 14th 1971, the next lightvessel - No.8,
built in 1923 - was taken out of service. She was followed by No.9 from the
"TERSCHELLINGERBANK" station in 1979, only 6 years later. The three
remaining ships were converted to automatic function between 1976 and 1982,
from then on serving as unmanned lightvessels on the "NOORDHINDER"
and "TEXEL" stations.
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Lightvessel
No.8 on the MAAS position
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Lightvessel
No.11 TEXEL stranded
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On October 1st 1991, when a hard storm was raging over the North Sea, Lightvessel No.11 started drifting off her positon "TEXEL", after she broke away from her mooring. After some fruitless attemps to drop personnel on the drifting vessel by helicopter, she stranded on the seawall at Petten, the "Hondbossche Zeeweering", in the early morning of October 2nd. Salvaging companies saw no more chance of towing the ship, which was heavily damaged by this time, back into safe water, and so they decided to salvage her right on the spot. During the first few weeks of this operation the seawall became a favourite place for excursions. The foundation "Nautische Monumenten" (Nautical Monuments) of Den Helder acquired the ships lighttower, and now it is standing at its "birthplace" again, the Rijkswerf (Imperial Shipyard) Willemsoord. The functions of the wrecked "TEXEL" are now served by a LANBY (Large Automatic Navigation Buoy). From then on, the "NOORDHINDER" position was shared between the last two of the remaining Dutch lightvessels, one of them always standing by as a relief for the ship on duty.
Character
Seen from a navigational and technical point of view, a sturdy lighthouse was
much better than a lightvessel, for the ship, only fixed by her long achor chain,
was always swaying around a certain position, permanently moved by wind, waves,
tides and currents. For this reason a floating light was never able to mark
certain sectors, but had to be visible at all times from all directions. At
the beginning of the 19th century all floating- and landbased lights were fixed
ones. To give them a more distinctive character, some landbased stations were
equipped with up to three towers close to each other (like the famous "Three
Sisters" on Cape Cod, Massachusetts), and even some lightvessels were fitted
with three lanterns.
When, in the course of technical development, advanced lighting equipment became
possible, almost all lighthouses and lightvessels got their own charakter. With
the help of a revolving optical apparatus (reflectors or lenses), each seamark
was able to flash its characteristic marking into the night. After one or more
flashes there was mostly a dark phase, after which the same number of flashes
were repeated periodically.
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Lantern of Lightvessel No.8 |  |
Parabolical Optical Apparatus |
The first of the Dutch lightvessels had a lantern around a solid midship-mast, which was hoisted at the breaking of dusk. By placing the light high above the surface of the sea, a much better visibility was achieved. In the beginning the sources of light were oil-fed Argand lamps with parabolic reflectors. Later, with the introduction of single flashes from revolving lights, it was possible to change the character by adding or taking away reflectors. So it became easy to adapt a different character - as given in the light-list for a certain position - when the vessel was taken to a different station (for instance as relief-vessel).
Normally the lightvessels had one or two ordinary masts beside the lightmast. Those were needed to carry daymarks and storm-signals, as well as antennas later. For they were able to show a distinct character by night, they also needed a possibility of showing the navigator their purpose during the daylight hours. Therefore they usually carried a daymark on top of the mast, it was either a ball or cone - or another geometrical shape. Other markings were their colour - almost always red, and the name of their station in large letters on both sides of the hull.
During the course of technical improvements of lightsources the oilfed wick
was firsly replaced by incandescent gasburners, and later by electricity. For
this the energy had to be generated by diesels on board. On Dutch lightvessels
these were the only engines, for those - with one exception - had no propulsion,
and therefore had to be towed out to to their positions. During the early times
a part of the hull also housed coalbunkers, beside the enormous tanks for water
and fuel. After convertion to electricity this space was needed for generators
and compressors for the foghorns, which were operated with compressed air. Those
replaced early sound-signals like gongs, bells, rifles or cannons. But lightvessels
supported the mariner not only with lights, daymarks and sound-signals. Before
the introduction of radio-navigation many lightvessels had submarine-bells,
and of course they all used flag-signals. Later they were equipped with radio
calibration transmitters and Radar, too.
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A Lightvessel of the series No.3 - 6 on the MAAS position |
The Engines
When hurricane-force storms were blowing and the seas were extremely high, it
happened more than once, that the solid anchor-chain of a lightvessel broke.
Caused by that the ship started drifting in front of the storm, initiating a
great danger for ship and crew. If nobody saw their red flares, shot as danger
signals, they were helplessly disposed to an uncertain fate in the raging seas.
However, German and Belgian lightvessels were equipped with propulsion engines,
qualifying them to stand against the storm and maybe return to their original
position, or even to make their way into the safety of a harbour after their
chains broke. This enabled them to help themselves in dangerous situations,
without having to wait for uncertain assistance from somebody else.
In October 1936 the German lightvessel on position "ELBE 1" sank
during a hurricane in the Elbe estuary with the loss of all hands. After that
it was taken into consideration to equip the Dutch lightvessels with propulsion
engines, so making them able to lessen the enormous traction on the mooring
chains during bad weather. But in 1937 only the 1923-built No.8 got a diesel-electric
drive unit. According to the high cost of such a conversion it was decided to
give up the idea. Even though all of the lightvessels had small sails at their
disposal, these served only as staysails which helped to avoid rolling motion.
The Crew
The very first lightvessels - layed out in river estuaries - were not manned
in the beginning. A lightkeeper was payed to row out to the vessel at dusk to
put a light into the lantern, and again at dawn to extinguish it. Later, when
lightvessels were also placed on positions on the sea, a crew came aboard. Work
on these vessels was not an adventure, but a remarkable job instead - it was
a mixture of lighthousekeeper and sailor. In the Netherlands the crew consisted
of 7 to 13 men, dependent on the size of the lightvessel. Life on board was
mostly monotonous, with changing employment between watch, maintanance work
and householdes chores.
For many years lightvessels were also active as stations for the demand of pilots, on which communication happened by means of lightsignals (Morse-code) or by signal flags. For the purpose of good control of this procedure the men had to excercise their abilities with the crews of passing ships. There was also a regurlarly exchange of information with Navy-ships. In later days also weather observations for the KNMI (the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute) were reported by radio to the Coast Guard. Those single bits of information were put together as a monthly report as well.
At one time the crews had to participate in scientific experiments beside their usual on-board duties. On December 28th 1923 the Experimental Department of the Dutch Bureau of Fisheries asked the General Inspector of the Pilot-Service if it would be possible to get lightvessel crews involved in tests with net-yarns, following detailed instructions. After a positive answer the men had to expose different samples of these yarns to the seawater for some time.
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Optical Apparatus of Lightvessel TEXEL No.10 |
Hobbies were an important part on life on board, for the crew had a lot of time for those. After a watch of 2 hours twice in 24 hours, they were occupied with maintenance jobs for another 2 hours. After a well-deserved rest they spent most of their time with (nautical) handicrafts. Favoured occupations were woodcarving, macramee work, the weaving of mats, woodwork and the building of "ships-in-a-bottle". As for many sailors, fishing was another favourite pastime on lightvessels, too.
Before the introduction of fridge and deep freezer, fresh food could not be kept for very long. Therefore boiled or baked fish was a welcome change on the menu. Daily meals became somehow monotonous when the weekly visit of the supply-ship was prevented by bad weather. This mostly meant eating emergency-rations. But when the ship arrived in time, the crew was supplied with fresh food, diesel, water and mail, as well as newspapers and magazines. And when the sailors "turn" on board was over, the ship was also delivering the "Vervang", the relief crew.
In the old days staying on board was not always pleasant. The crew had only one common room at their diposal, in which they had to cook, eat and sleep. The only heating was supplied by a coal-stove. So when during a storm the waves were breaking over the ship, any kind of airing was almost impossible, and below the decks it got stuffy, humid and rather uncomfortable. Whenever a crewmember fell ill or got injured - and therefore had to be taken to the mainland, the "sick-flag" had to be hoisted. On the "MAAS" this flag was flown for a whole day in February 1923 to alarm the pilot-boat, but with no success. After dusk the crew tried to rise attention with light-signals, which finally worked around 22.30 hours.The galley-door had smashed into the cook´s foot, and the poor chap´s ankle was swollen so badly, that he was hardly able to walk. Unfortunately at this time there was no radio connection to most of the lightvessels.
The last three of the Dutch lightvessels, two built in the beginning of the Fifties and the final one in 1963, were rather luxurious in comparison to their predecessors, and - according to their year of construction - equipped with the most up-to-date technology.
A great threat for ship and crew was always present during times of thick fog - the danger of being rammed by another ship. In those weather situations passing ships were often on a collision-course to lightvessels. But this happened not only at times of bad visibility, other circumstances like the inattentiveness of the "opposing" crew lead to many near-collisions. When the man on watch saw a ship approaching the lightvessel on a collision-course, he tried to warn the crew of this ship with lightsignals in the old days - and in more modern times by radio - before it got too close. Such incidents occured many times, but luckily Dutch lightvessels never got involved in collision-accidents.
In the beginning the members of the crew had to stay on board for a period
of eight weeks, which were followed by four weeks ashore. But these shore-leaves
were no holidays, the men were usually employed in different jobs concerning
aids-to-navigation. By a circular of March 29th 1905 the crews of the lightvessels
were informed that there would be a change in their service programme. It was
announced that after only four weeks on board they were allowed two weeks on
land. In connection with the reduction of the lightvessel fleet the scheme was
changed again on May 1st 1955; now only two weeks on board were followed by
two weeks on land.
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| Lightvessel TEXEL No.10 |
The End of an Area
On March 21st 1994 the last of the Dutch lightvessels was taken in from the "NOORDHINDER" station and replaced by a large navigation buouy. This meant the end of a tradition of around 150 years. Modern technology has now taken the place of the ships and their crews. Lightvessels, concerning their form and function, occupied a special place in maritime history. Their hull was mostly short and plump, but extremely qualified for the demanded result - the safety on sea. This wish for safety is quite understandable, for the Dutch coast is a region that holds a lot of dangers for shipping, caused by many sandbanks and shoals. Many shipwrecks were probably prevented by placing the lightvessels on their stations. They always acted as good pilots for mariners in these dangerous waters.
The last two of those ships shall be kept as museums now, and this way constitute
a basis for the interesting history of Dutch lightvessels. No.10 "TEXEL"
has found its final berth at Den Helder.
Thanks to: Mr. A. Boon, Mr. Romke van der Veen, Mrs. Lyda van der Steen
Translation
by Karl R. Spitzer
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