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View Full Version : Archived: Trinity House Light Vessel No72



sinnerman
03-05-2009, 07:00 PM
Built by John Crown & Sons of Sunderland in 1903 this steel light vessel has a number of claims to fame, from the time of its first commision in 1903 until 1944 it served on at least three stations including the Shipwash station off Dover until it was Closed in 1912.

LV72 was one of two Light Vessels which saw service on D Day carrying the name JUNO the ship marked a safe passage through a minefeild for the landing craft on route to the invasion beaches.


http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/lightship/lsold.jpg

Following the war the ship passed through a number of differnent stations firstly Le Havre then Smith Knoll Station off East Anglia before moving south to Varne Station in the English Chanel. In 1953 the ship began its longest posting on the English and Welsh Grounds where she would stay until 1972 apart from the Evening of Nov 30th 1954 when her anchor chain parted and drifted off station. The vessel was laid up at the Trinity House berth in swansea in 1972 and was decommisioned and sold the following year, The ship was bought by the Steel Supply Co who intended to scrap the ship. But they never got round to it and it still lays abandoned at a berth along side a scrap yard to this day. There was at ine point a plan to convert the vessel into a floating night club but they came to nothing.

The Ship is a unique light ship, originally equiped with Catoptric 9-2W oil lamps, they were later replaced by with electric lamps however the rotational gear was left untouched powered by the original 15 hp Hornsby Oil engines, making the ship possibly the only light vessel powered by both Oil and Electricity.


http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/lightship/ls1.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/lightship/ls2.jpg

http://www.forlornbritain.co.uk/images/28/lightship/ls3.jpg