NEW LIGHTSHIPS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3352, 20 December 1926, Page 8

NEW LIGHTSHIPS.

! Tlir efforts of flit; Corpora lion of ! Trinity House towards a greater efficiency [in lighthouse and lightship surveillance ! along the shores of (.treat Britain arc being vigorously prosecuted. Two new lightships of an improved type and murki ing a great advance on those now main- ! iained hy Trinity House have been com- ! missioned in the north of England. ! These are now nearing completion, and ( it is expected will shortly be in position, i They will replace the oil-lighted vessels i marking the Royal Sovereign and the Outer Dowsing shoals respectively off the Sussex and Iho Lincolnshire coasts. Two other vessels of exactly the same design and equipment have also been ordered. The provision of the vessels will place Oreat Britain on an equality with any other European Power as regards lightship efficiency. The new ships will be electrically illuminated—those owned at present by Trinity House are oil-lit—and are steelbuilt. Each will be fitted with a diaphone fog signal; the syren type has been that hitherto in use. An altogether new and very important feature is the pro,vision of a submarine oscillator, which will replace the old submarine bell. This will enable’ (bo navigator to determine Iris hearings! during foggy and misty weather. The signals from the oscillator will he transmitted by means of diapbones connected to the skin of the ship. Thus by manoeuvring in such a manner as to obtain the sound equally on either side, it will be possible to discover tbo ship s bearings. It is stated that by this device a ship will be enabled to pick up the sounds within a range of some twenty miles.