Lighthouses in Peace and War

By

Terry Rawkins

From a post on FB by Peter Chick

6 January 2021

Copyright © 2021

terryrawkins@gmx.co.uk

I

An oil on board painting by the artist Montague Dawson(b.1895-d.1973) the well known maritime artist, who’s most famous paintings depict sailing ships, usually clippers or warships of the 18th and 19th centuries.

On the reverse of the picture is the following script:

“Lighthouses in Peace and War”

During the war years, darkness reigned over these waters, and the familiar white, red and green lights were only seen when convoys of vital importance were passing through.

The outbreak of war in September 1939 brought an abrupt change in the routine of Britain's lighthouses.

Powerful beams no longer swept the night at their inevitable intervals, and no longer did her smaller harbour lights beckon vessels into port.

These coastal light had to be dimmed or extinguished altogether, and so it was with the vital Needles on the tip of the chalk reef of the Isle of Wight.

Watchers on the Milford coast would see the light at the Needles suddenly come into operation, and this would mean that a specially vital convoy was probably passing out to sea and that navigational safety had for once to take priority over every other risk. With the convoy safely steaming down-Channel, complete darkness would again descend over the Needles, and the Luftwaffe, seeking vital targets in Portsmouth and Southampton, where so much was in preperation for D-Day, would gain no navigational help from below.

The Needles Lighthouse, which stands 80 ft. above high-water mark, has a double occulting light, showing white, red or green according to the point of compass from which it is viewed. It is visible for fourteen miles, and in foggy weather a horn sounds every fifteen seconds as an additional warning to mariners.”