2-799-051 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Capt. Bullock's safety beacon on Goodwin Sands, 1844. 'The Safety, or Refuge Beacon, was first erected on the Goodwin Sands through the indomitable perseverance of Captain Bullock, to whom all the credit of the suggestion and invention is justly due, on the 10th of September, 1840...We should observe that the Goodwin Sands are, to a great extent, quite dry at low water; and as vessels which strike on them seldom go to pieces in a single tide, the probability is, that some of the unfortunate crew would be enabled to reach the sand during that interval, and the Safety Beacon would then become their only refuge...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol V.