FOR MORE THAN FOUR HUNDRED YEARS the Corporation of Trinity House, with its headquarters on Tower Hill, London, has been concerned with the safety of shipping, the progress of navigation and the welfare of seamen. Despite its venerable age, Trinity House has always kept its eyes firmly on the future. At present, together with the other lighthouse and hydrographic authorities of north west Europe, as well as those of many more distant nations, it is preparing to embark on the massive task of implementing an imaginative, simplified international buoyage system— Maritime Buoyage System A, which is described on page 200 and illustrated on the back cover of this issue. Perhaps, therefore, now is the time to look at both the long and distinguished history and the present work of this unique maritime organisation.

The service provided by Trinity House falls into three main functions. It is: (i) The general lighthouse authority for England, Wales, the Channel Islands, and Gibraltar, responsible for providing such aids to navigation as lighthouses, light vessels, buoys and beacons.

(ii) The principal pilotage authority in the United Kingdom with responsibility for London and 40 other districts, including such ports as Southampton, Milford Haven and Falmouth.

(iii) It is also a charitable organisation for the relief of mariners and their dependants, and has built homes and a hospital for former merchant service officers and their dependants at Walmer, in Kent.

As a Corporate Body, Trinity House still retains its traditional titles which are as venerable as those of the Livery Companies and Guilds of the City of London, although they are now reserved mainly for ceremonial occasions. The members of the Corporation are divided into two main categories: Elder and Younger Brethren.

The Younger Brethren, who number about 300, are master mariners or senior naval officers of high professional distinction. It is from this pool of nautical experience that the ten members of the Board are appointed, each with the life title of Elder Brother, who together with the Secretary, the chief administrative officer, control the dayto- day affairs of Trinity House. In addition there are a number of honorary Elder Brethren selected by invitation, in recognition of their distinguished services.

The 'head' of the Corporation is the Master, a title dating back to the original charter of 1514. By Charter of James I provision was made for the appointment of a Master's Deputy, a title which today is reserved for the Chairman of the Board. The present Master is HRH Prince Philip, and the Deputy Master, who is also an exofficio member of the Committee of Management of the RNLI, is Captain Miles Buckley Wingate.

The first known record of Trinity House is that relating to its incorporation in 1514. It is clear that there was at that time an association or guild of shipmen and mariners of a semireligious character with benevolent objects, which some historians say was founded by Archbishop Stephen Langton in the thirteenth century. The association had certainly been long enough established to own a hall and almshouses at Deptford and of sufficient importance to apply for and receive a charter from Henry VIII.

On May 20, 1514, the Royal Charter authorised 'oure trewe and faithfull subjects, Shipmen and Mariners of this our Realm of England' in honour of the most blessed trinitie and Saint Clement Confessor, to 'begyn of new and erecte and establish a Guild or Brotherhood perpetually of themselves or other persons, as well men as women, whatsoever they be in the parish Church of Deptford Stronde in our County of Kent'.

Lighthouses, light vessels and buoys In the reign of Elizabeth I, Trinity House acquired its Grant of Arms (1573), and also authority to erect seamarks.

In 1594, the Lord High Admiral surrendered to Her Majesty the rights of beaconage, buoyage and ballastage vested in him with the recommendation, which was adopted, that these be bestowed upon Trinity House. The rights of beaconage included, of course, lighthouses, although a long interval elapsed before the Corporation had all major English lighthouses permanently under its control, owing to the practice of the Crown of issuing patents or grants of lighthouses to private individuals who, on payment of a rent, had the right to collect the tolls. These private lights, as may be imagined, varied in efficiency and it was not until 1836 that Trinity House was empowered to buy them out, at a cost (aided by a loan from the state) of nearly £1,200,000.

Trinity House now has the sole power of erecting lights for general navigation and the service is responsible for fixed and floating seamarks, visual, audible and electronic aids to navigation.

Within its area of jurisdiction there are 93 lighthouses, 22 light vessels on station and nearly 700 buoys, over half of which are lighted. Although some local and harbour authorities maintain sea marks within their own port limits, these are regularly inspected by Trinity House and the sanction of the Corporation must be obtained before any changes can be made.

Trinity House is also responsible for dealing with wrecks around the coast of England and Wales with the exception of those occurring within local port limits and wrecks of HM ships.

The present day powers of Trinity House stem in the main from the Merchant Shipping Act 1894, and the service is financed from light dues which are levied at every port in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland and are based on the net registered tonnage of the vessel. Local Customs officers act as agents for the collection of dues and the fund, which is administered by the Department of Trade, is used to finance the three General Lighthouse Authorities.

For administration the coasts of England and Wales are divided into a number of districts each under the charge of a superintendent and having its own store or depot and maintenance staff. There is a fleet of six lighthouse tenders of about 1,500 gross tons, five operational and one in reserve. All the operational tenders have two full crews, each crew working 14 days on board followed by 14 days free from duty.

The vessels are used for the relief and supply of light vessels and offshore lighthouses, the servicing of buoys and beacons, the location and marking of wrecks and for towing light vessels which have no propulsion of their own to and from station. Two tenders are based at Swansea, the main coastal depot for the west coast, and three tenders and the reserve tender are based at Harwich, the main coastal depot for the east coast; their areas of responsibility meet on the south coast at the Isle of Wight, the east coast tenders also servicing aids to navigation in the Channel Islands.

The Corporation's main workshops, where skilled men are employed in the servicing, maintenance and, sometimes, making of equipment, are at Blackwall, in London. With the continual object of improving seamarks, Trinity House keeps well abreast of technological advances and much headway has been made in the development of light sources and fog signals. New equipment is tested and evaluated at a research station at Dungeness.

Each of the large fleet of light vessels stationed at important navigational positions around the coasts of England and Wales has a crew of five men.

These light vessels are expensive to build and maintain and so Trinity House has embarked on an ambitious programme of replacing some of them by other devices: by towers standing on the sea bed such as those at Royal Sovereign and Inner Dowsing; by high focal plane buoys, as at Gorton, Mid Barrow and Barrow Deep; and by large automatic navigation buoys (LANBYS) as at Morecombe Bay, Owers and Lynn Well.

Buoys also play a vital and major role in safeguarding the seas. Trinity House has maintained unlighted buoys for over 300 years, but it was not until 1880 that a lighted buoy was first used.

Today all buoys in the service are of mild steel or wrought iron and vary in diameter from 5' to 12' and weight anything from three to 12 tons, without moorings; which, perhaps, gives some idea of the sheer physical magnitude of the task which Trinity House and the lighthouse authorities of Scotland and Ireland have ahead of them in the next few years.

Lighted buoys burn dissolved acetylene, and in addition to the light, some buoys carry sound devices such as bells, whistles and sometimes small electric fog signals; most are fitted with radar reflectors. Electric lighting and plastic construction are two of the changes likely to take place in buoy development over the next decade or so.

The Corporation is also responsible for marking routes for specific purposes such as for deep draft vessels within its area of jurisdiction, whenever justified and necessary. For example, the two way traffic separation in the English Channel/Strait of Dover through which some 400 ships pass a day. The routes have been marked and are maintained jointly by Trinity House and the French lighthouse service.

Pilotage The history of Trinity House as a pilotage authority has taken a straightforward course. The Charter of 1514 gave Trinity House general powers to regulate pilotage and in 1604 James I conferred on it rights concerning the compulstory pilotage of shipping and the exclusive right to license pilots in the River Thames. The Trinity House Outport Pilotage Districts were established by George III in 1808, but it is clear that many of them had existed long before that time.

The Corporation licenses but does not employ the pilots; they are selfemployed.

Like the lighthouse service, the pilotage service is entirely self supporting and receives no government funds.

Its income is derived from a levy on pilots' earnings, dues paid by vessels for shipping and landing pilots, and from licence fees.

There are about 800 Trinity House pilots of whom about 500 are in the London district. To qualify, a London pilot must be of British nationality, physically fit, possess a foreign-going master mariner's certificate and have had eight years' experience as a watchkeeping officer and be under the age of 35. Having been interviewed andselected, the candidate pilot has at his own expense to accompany fully qualified pilots on their trips for a period of three to six months, depending on his previous experience of the area. After completing his qualifying trip, the candidate is examined by a member of the Board and if satisfactory, issued with his licence as a third class pilot.

Even then it will take four more years and two more examinations before he is able to pilot ships of every size.

In districts other than London, the powers and duties of Trinity House are exercised and performed by a committee appointed for each district.

Fast launches and ancillary craft form the fleet of pilot cutters. One major development in the running of the pilotage service has been the replacement of the pilot cruising cutters, where possible, by fast shore-based launches backed up by new shore communication centres. The first replacement scheme took place in 1957 when the cutter stationed at the Needles entrance to Southampton was replaced by fast launches based at Totland. Fast launches have since been introduced at Folkestone, Harwich and Ryde. The only remaining cruising cutter station maintained by Trinity House is that at the Sunk which marks the northern approach to the London Pilotage district and is used for providing a pilotage service for ships bound to and from London. Its position is such that the shore station/fast launch operation would be impracticable to introduce.

Tradition and evolution go hand in hand in the story of Trinity House, and for more information about its latest service to navigation, turn the page..