THE LIGHTSHIPS OF NOSS How Philip & Son of Dartmouth became Britain’s greatest builders of Lightships O
n the eastern bank of the River Dart, opposite Dart- mouth, the Noss shipyard
once echoed to riveting hammers, machinery and shipwrights at work. For much of the twentieth century Philip & Son’s Noss Works was one of Devon’s most important shipbuilding centres. Among the tugs, ferries, naval craſt, yachts and merchant ships built there was a remarkable fleet of lightships. Tese unusual vessels carried
neither cargo nor passengers. Teir job was to remain at sea in exposed waters, marking dangerous shoals, channels and approaches to ports with powerful lights and fog signals. Te first British lightship was
placed at the Nore, in the Tames Estuary, in 1732. Lightships were particularly useful where it was difficult or impossible to build a conventional lighthouse. By the twentieth century they had become an important part of the system of navigational aids maintained by Trinity House. Philip & Son became particularly closely associated with their
LV5 Shambles lightvessel off the Noss works 1947 Courtesy of Lighships&vessels.
construction. Records identify 29 lightvessels built for Trinity House, five for the Commissioners of Irish Lights and one for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board — a total of 35 vessels. A SHIPYARD ON THE DART Philip & Son’s story began in Dartmouth in 1858, when George Philip took over the shipbuilding business at Sandquay. In 1918
the company acquired the much larger Noss Works from Simpson, Strickland & Co., giving it the space needed for larger-scale shipbuilding and engineering. Philip had in fact been interested
in lightships for many years. As ear- ly as 1913 the company produced drawings for a 65-foot unattended lightvessel and a larger 107-foot manned vessel. No order followed, but it shows that the company was already seeking this type of work. Te relationship with Trinity
House developed gradually. In 1928 Trinity House ordered three motor boats for its steamers from Philip & Son. Further orders followed for lifeboats used by its lightships, while the Dartmouth yard also carried out a considerable amount of repair work on Trinity House vessels. At the same time Trinity House
Tongue lightship, LV 90, being towed out of Dartmouth by the tug Portwey for sea trials; MacAndrew motor yacht Campeador IV in foreground. From the Vernon MacAndrew Archive, courtesy Dartmouth Museum
was modernising its fleet. In 1926 Lightvessel No.81 became its first all-steel lightvessel. Initially stationed at Royal Sovereign off Eastbourne, she represented the beginning of a new generation of vessels with electric lighting, pow- erful fog signals and increasingly sophisticated equipment. THE BREAKTHROUGH Te timing of the first complete
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