3-021-446 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Trinity Buoy Wharf, Blackwall, 1868. Workshop which repairs and maintains devices to warn of hazards at sea. '...if any light, buoy, or beacon is rendered unfit for service by weather or casualty, another may immediately be substituted in its place or the damage be repaired without delay...Ranged in order round the shed upon wooden sleepers are the buoys in reserve...to be painted and made tight where defective, in readiness to be shipped off on the shortest notice to replace any that may have been by damage or stress of weather carried off their stations. Most of the buoys are of one shape - called the "can"; they...are built of wood, and when in position at sea float broad end upwards...This form of buoy is used for all ordinary purposes, being easily distinguishable afloat...One buoy on the right, differing in shape and colour from all the rest and pointed at both ends, is the "green buoy marked with the word 'wreck,' "...Its use is to mark the position of any ill-fated vessel whose sunken timbers and spars, lying in the track of shipping, may involve others in its own misfortune. The name-plates...:"Pan Sand," "East Tongue," "South Knock," &c. - are fitted on to the buoys when sent afloat, and assist to identify them in fair weather'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.