TRINITY HOUSE
“Our aim is to deliver a reliable, efficient and cost effective aids to navigation service for the benefit and safety of all mariners.”
Trinity House is a unique maritime organisation, which throughout its long and distinguished history has had as its prime objective the safety of shipping and the welfare of seafarers. Trinity House has three main roles: - •As the General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and the Channel Isles. It is responsible for the maintenance of over four hundred buoys, seventy-one lighthouses, nine lightvessels and radio and radar aids to navigation, including Differential Global Positioning (DGPS), a high accuracy satellite position fixing system; •A charitable organisation for the safety, welfare and training of mariners and the relief of those who are in financial distress; •A deep-sea pilotage authority
The first known record of Trinity House relates to its incorporation in 1514. At that time it was an association or guild of mariners of a semi-religious, charitable character owning a hall and almshouses at Deptford.
On 20th May 1514 Henry VIII granted a royal charter authorising “our true and faithful subjects, Shipmen and Mariners of this our Realm of England” to establish a guild with general powers to regulate pilotage. In 1604 James I conferred on it rights concerning the compulsory pilotage of shipping, and the exclusive right to license pilots in the River Thames.
Through almost 500 years since 1514 Trinity House has continued to work in the fields of maritime charity and pilotage.
The connection with aids to navigation began in 1566 when an Act of Parliament gave Trinity House powers to set up “so many beacons, marks and signs for the sea…. whereby the dangers may be avoided and escaped and ships the better come unto their ports without peril.” The first lighthouse built by Trinity House was at Lowestoft in 1609.
A long interval, however, elapsed before the Corporation became responsible for the management of all lighthouses owing to the continued practice of the Crown of issuing patents or grants of lighthouses to private individuals. In 1836 Trinity House was given compulsory powers to levy out the private owners and to maintain the lights themselves at a cost of £1.2 million, partly financed by a state loan.
Nowadays, Trinity House is led by a court of Elder Brethren under the Master, His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh. Power is delegated from the Court to two separate boards. The Corporate Board consists of Elder Brethren who are master mariners with long experience of command in the Royal and Merchant Navies, together with leading figures in the world of commerce, and the Secretary. This board oversees the management of the charitable activities, deep-sea pilotage and cadet scheme. The Lighthouse Board, made up of Directors including Elder Brethren, Senior Staff and Outside Representatives who are nominees of the Secretary of State for Transport, oversees the running of the lighthouse service.
The Headquarters of Trinity House is on Tower Hill, London with the core Lighthouse Service operations managed from new state of the art offices and buoy maintenance facilities at Harwich in Essex. From Harwich, the monitoring of all stations and planning of all resources including ships and helicopters is carried out by the central planning unit which is manned 24 hours a day. A further depot with buoy maintenance facilities is located at Swansea, South Wales and an outstation at St Just, Cornwall. Trinity House operates two multifunctional aids to navigation tenders, Patricia and her sister ship Mermaid; service launches and contract helicopter provide operational support.
The Lighthouse Service is financed from Light Dues, a system of user charges levied on commercial shipping. These dues are paid into the General Lighthouse Fund for which the UK Secretary of State for Transport has responsibility. The running costs of The Trinity House Lighthouse Service along with those of the Northern Lighthouse Board and The Commissioners of Irish Lights are paid from the fund, which is maintained directly in proportion to the costs of the three Services at no expense to the UK taxpayer. Over the last ten years the real term cost of Light Dues has fallen by 40%. The Trinity House Corporate functions are financed completely separately through charitable contributions, including bequests dating back to the 17th century and from the hire of the function rooms at Trinity House, London.