A History of Marine Aids to Navigation | Hydrosphere

Today many of us take marine aids to navigation for granted, and until they need to be replaced, we don&#;t realise how much we depend on them! Most aids to navigation only require a routine inspection and maintenance after installation. Then they effectively continue their job so that mariners, harbour masters and other seafarers have one less thing to manage!

Click here to get more.

However, it wasn&#;t always that way. The first navigation aids were very different. Early mariners were guided into port by fires lit on hillsides to denote where the safe passage lay. These were built on platforms to improve visibility and had to be watched over to ensure the flame didn&#;t go out.

Early Lighthouses

The lighthouse evolved from those early platform fires. Records indicate that the earliest lighthouse dated from the 5th Century BC.  This was located at the harbour of Piraeus, Greece, and consisted of a stone tower with a fire beacon mounted on top.

Two centuries later, the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria of Egypt, otherwise known as the Pharos of Alexandria, was constructed. Although it was destroyed in an earthquake many years later, remains of other lighthouses from this period do provide some insight into the construction of the base and tower. One such example is The Roman Lighthouse of Dover in the UK.

 The Roman Lighthouse, Dover

According to historical data, these early lighthouses were illuminated on a top stage in the tower, so a lighthouse keeper would undoubtedly have had a hard job keeping the beacon lit; transporting fuel (wood or coal) up the tower to the platform, keeping the fire alight all night, and protecting it from gales and adverse weather.

Many Roman lighthouses fell into disuse and were replaced by newer constructions. At the same time, more lighthouses were built across Europe as advances in navigation necessitated a demand for better aids to navigation. Amazingly, in Ireland, one medieval lighthouse is still in use. Hook Lighthouse has naturally had some upgrades over the last 800 years, but this is the oldest operational lighthouse in the world. 

The Lighthouse Economy & Emerging of Safety Concerns 

In the UK, lighthouses were erected not only to provide marine aids to navigation, but from the early 17th century, they were often built for generating revenue. Lighthouses were commissioned and built by private individuals who were licensed to collect dues by the crown or local authority. At this time, lighthouses were still used mainly for navigation into ports and harbours, so any vessel docking at night would be expected to pay lighthouse dues. This could be highly profitable.

The Lighthouse Act of meant that the reputable Trinity House became responsible for the remaining privately owned lighthouses.  The Act enabled Trinity House to purchase many lighthouses, from Harwich, to Tynemouth and the Skerries Lighthouse on Anglesey. The original owner of the Skerries  held out until , unwilling to let go of such a profitable venture &#; and unsurprisingly, as in the s, The Skerries had an average annual profit of £12,525!

The lighthouses of this era were also utilized to warn mariners of hazards such as hidden rocks, reefs and promontories. Increased local and international and local traffic to our waterways meant marine aids to navigation were needed to protect mariners from misadventure, as well as guiding them smoothly into harbour, as they do today.

Many sites for these new lighthouses were remote and difficult to access. The Eddystone Lighthouse near Plymouth Sound warns against an extensive reef.  However a first attempt to provide a beacon only lasted a few years when the Great Storm of swept it away. A second tower was erected that lasted until when it was destroyed by fire, but it was the third attempt that was revolutionary; civil engineer John Smeaton pioneered many new techniques in this reconstruction. These included using hydraulic lime (a type of concrete that sets in water), and dovetailed granite blocks to lock the blocks together and improved the structure&#;s stability.

Changing Methods of Illumination

Gifted engineers such as Robert Stevenson subsequently made further improvements to the tower design; making many advances in the technology used to illuminate the beacons. Stevenson was innovative in developing a variation of light sources, mountings, reflector design, the use of Fresnel lenses, and even in rotation and shuttering systems. The latter allowed different lighthouses to be identified by mariners with their own unique beam pattern.

By now candles and oil lamps had replaced burning pyres, and then from the s onwards gas became the main fuel for lighthouse illumination, being substantially more powerful than oil. At the same time, the use of electric lighting was also being explored. The first electrically illuminated lighthouse was at Dungeness in , but it wasn&#;t for another hundred years before electricity became the dominant form of illumination in lighthouses.

The s was also when LED lights were first invented. However, it has only been in more recent years that this technology has been introduced into lighthouses. LED beacons, of course, have many advantages &#; they consume less power, need very little maintenance and can be run from a solar power supply. They also project an exceptional beam, with night ranges of up to 30+ NM at 0.74T as well as maintaining sharp boundary resolution.

With modern advances in electronic marine aid to navigation, Trinity House has reduced the specified ranges required for some long range lights. Most of the lighthouses have been converted to automatic operation, and no longer require fulltime keepers to be in attendance. Many of the early lighthouses that marked the entrance to ports and harbours are no longer essential to marine traffic, instead replaced with navigation buoys and static navigation lanterns.

However, Trinity House still maintains over 60 lighthouses in the UK, and lighthouses are still used for marine navigation all over the world.  Interestingly, some lighthouses are still lived in, but often after they&#;ve been decommissioned and converted into private homes! And no wonder, for they are a beautiful, historical addition to our British coastlines.

To find out more about LED long range navigation lights for lighthouses and leading lights, click here.

Visual ATON Signals - IALA Maritime Buoyage System

This online article is an advisory summary of different ATON marks. For detailed recommendations refer to IALA Maritime Buoyage System.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit HUAZHONG.

Regions

Buoyage system has been geographically divided into two regions; A and B. Lateral marks differ between Buoyage Regions A and B, and other five types of marks are common.

Image source

ATON Marks

Lateral marks indicate the edge of a channel.  In a river, the direction of buoyage is towards the river's source and in a harbour, the direction of buoyage is into the harbour from the sea. Red and green colors mark the port (left-hand) and starboard (right-hand) sides of channel in Region A, and reversed colors red to starboard and green to port in Region B. Therefore the area between red and green buoy is a safe route for a vessel to navigate. In some regions also bifurcation buoys are used to mark out the preferred channel.

Cardinal marks are different shaped yellow-black sea marks with top-mark. They indicate the direction of safe waterway, cardinal (compass) direction (north, east, south or west) relative to the mark. Cardinal mark can also indicate of a hazard.

Isolated danger mark is black-red colored and placed on or near to a danger. Safe water mark, also called a Fairway buoy is red-white colored and indicates navigable water around it. Special marks are yellow and they indicate a special area for example cables, pipelines, spoil ground, aquaculture or recreation zone. New danger marks are newly discovered hazards and wrecks that may not be shown in nautical documents. They are blue-yellow.

For marking different ATON applications around the world we offer a wide selection of buoy lanterns including both standalone (externally powered) and solar self-contained lanterns.

Self-contained solar lantern M650H on a red buoy.

Other marks are visual ATON signals assisting mariners in the navigation and not necessarily mark channel limits or obstructions.

1. Leading lines/ranges Leading lights, also referred to as range lights, are beacons that are used both day and night to mark safe passage for vessels along a fairway, through a shallow or dangerous channel, or when entering ports. They provide precise analog visual feedback to determine the vessel&#;s location relative to the center of the channel. Leading lines can be any color or shape that provides a distinctive mark from the background, determined by competent authority.
   
   LO200M range lights marking the leading line.
2. Sector lights display different colors and/or rhythms and the color of the light provides directional information to the mariner. Omnidirectional sector lights can cover multiple fairways with a single installation. They can also be used to mark out very wide sectors. When AtoN lighting needs to provide extremely precise guidance only projector sector lights can deliver the required accuracy. Some models of projector sector light can include an oscillating boundary. It gives more information of position near the sector boundary to the mariner by creating a light character with alternately flashing colours to further help the mariner to obtain his lateral position related to the mid of the safe channel.
   
   For more detailed guidance on choosing right marine lantern for specific applications see our QUICK GUIDE ATON SIGNALS focusing on sector, leading and PEL lights.
   
   
   

   Sector light ODSL 200  with different colored sectors cover multiple fairways at a same time.

3. Lighthouses are towers or substantial structures which show a signal light by night and operate as a significant daymark during daytime. Lighthouse structures can be of any color, shape or material.

   
   

   Rotating lighthouse beacon VRB-25

   combines LED technology with traditional rotating beam.
   

   
   
   

   Sabik Lighthouse Unit SLU modernizes the technology of the traditional lighthouses while preserving the historic heritage and look.

4. Beacons and other short range ATON are fixed navigation marks that can be of for example different shapes, colors and patterns. They can carry a signal light or operate unlit only as a daymark.
   
   LED 160

   on a fixed beacon in a large commercial port.

   
   
   
5. Major floating aids include for example light vessels or large navigational buoys. They are deployed at critical locations with a heavy shipping traffic to mark approach from offshore areas. They can also be a plaform for other ATON such as AIS.
   
   

   Lightvessels act as lighthouses in waters that are unsuitable for fixed constructions.

6. Auxiliary Marks are other minor ATON marks that are not previously described. They do not mark routes or obstructions and they are usually outside defined channels. They are used to assist navigation and convey information for general navigational safety.
   
   

   Auxililiary mark indicating cable lines in Finland.

7. Port or harbor marks are local marking measures like bridge lights and port traffic signals. Before transiting an area for the first time, mariners should be aware of local ATON marking.
   
   

   Sabik all-round LED 160 lanterns as bridge lights.

This online article is an advisory summary of different ATON marks. For detailed regulations refer to IALA Maritime Buoyage System; definitions and descriptions regarding each of the above marks, their color, shape, top mark, numbering, synchronization and light rhythm on full document R IALA Recommendation IALA Maritime Buoyage System downloadable.   

For more marine navigational aids companyinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.