The development of modern navigation aids has meant that Lighthouses, Lightships, Beacons, Seamarks and bearings to Landmarks have become less common. Once, however, structures existed on land or at sea to assist the mariner: whilst not graced with many lighthouses the sandbanks required a network of lightships and beacons at sea. There were also features on land that were used to establish leading marks: the Pain Tree at Harwich is but one example.
Many are no more, like the Bawdsey Seamark, but Dr Frank’s House at Alderton still stands. Some of the Sailing Directions are interesting to read although difficult to test in practice with only a yacht’s low deck and many changes in the shoreline. The use of some of these is described in the Medusa Channel item, navigation by Lightship is touched on the The Maiden Voyage of Roughs Tower. Signal beacons have not been covered nor, of course, any of the electronic variety.
1759 Bowen Essex showing Orwell Beacon
1790 Stanier Thames Estuary
1830 Chart of Lighthouses & Lightships
Bawdsey and Alderton Churches
Cork Light Ship
Gunfleet Old Light House and Beacon.
Naze Tower
The Bawdsey Sea-mark and Churches
Notes
Keith Briggs has a section on Anglo-Saxon beacons but nothing relevant to the local East Coast.
Footnotes
Image Sources and Credits
Image Credits and Sources
- 1899-Cork-Lightship-: Pen and pencil sketches of shipping and craft all round the world. Pritchett, Robert Taylor. London : Arnold, 1899 | Public Domain Mark 1.0
- The Naze Tower, Walton-on the Naze By John Constable: Attributed to John Constable, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain Mark 1.0
- FI Bawdsey-Seamark-from-Di-Coulting-1447×2048@2x_cr: Courtesy of Coulting, Di - Boathouse Cafe Bawdsey | All Rights Reserved
Image Credits and Sources
- 1899-Cork-Lightship-: Pen and pencil sketches of shipping and craft all round the world. Pritchett, Robert Taylor. London : Arnold, 1899 | Public Domain Mark 1.0
- The Naze Tower, Walton-on the Naze By John Constable: Attributed to John Constable, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain Mark 1.0
- FI Bawdsey-Seamark-from-Di-Coulting-1447×2048@2x_cr: Courtesy of Coulting, Di - Boathouse Cafe Bawdsey | All Rights Reserved