Harwich’s ship has finally come in
LV18 is seen at its new moorings in Harwich. It will open to the public as a museum vessel some time in June or July.
Fifteen years after it was reprieved from the breaker’s yard and 10 years since it was established as a charity, the last of the Trinity House manned light vessels has finally found a home berth in Harwich.
The Essex UK port town is synonymous with lightships.
In September 2010, MJ covered the story of a dedicated berth being constructed inside the Halfpenny Pier, adjacent to the RNLI lifeboat station. Despite interminable haggling at the local council level, the vessel’s owners, the Pharos Trust, have finally won the right to berth there and in mid-May the LV18 was brought alongside the mooring piles by the Felix Arc tug Gray Vixen.
This followed months of work bringing the 114’ long, 581 grt vessel up to an acceptable standard to serve as a publicly accessible museum vessel. Trinity House allowed the lightship to berth on Trinity Pier for several weeks while serious attention was paid to the steel work. Various trip hazards on the decks were cut away; rusted sections of the superstructure were cut out and replaced; derricks, davits, ventilators and smaller fittings were taken away for restoration; and the hull to the water line and superstructure were blasted clean by shot and water jet. It was taken back to a midstream mooring off Parkeston for the final stripping and painting in its original 1958 livery of red and white.
The Harwich based engineering firm AJ Woods Engineering was awarded the contract to refurbish the vessel. They fitted the collars, designed by Richard Jackson Intelligent Engineering to sit around the six mooring piles, and fitted the beams to the hull to which they would be connected. AJ Woods also added supporting struts to strengthen the mooring, which will come under great stress during heavy north westerly winds. The berth has been dredged recently by Van Oord’s injection dredger Odin. AJ Woods’ MD Tony Woods went beyond the call of duty in assigning teams of his workers to cover all aspects of the external refit.
LV18 had been modified in the 1970s and gantries mounted each side of the deckhousing were taken out, while the helideck, added at the same time, was preserved with new, additional railings constructed so that open space could be used for public access. A radio transmission mast, erected during the ship’s role as a revivalist offshore radio station, was dismantled. The hand-operated davits for lifting ship’s lifeboats on each side were refurbished and the booms of the derricks used for loading coal and anthracite were removed and rebuilt at AJ Woods’ yard.
Woodwork, such as doors, life ring holders, navigation light boxes and battery cases were removed and restored by an enthusiastic craftsman, while remaining brass fittings and signage are being restored or replaced.
Below decks, the LV18 has been preserved in its original condition, with accommodation for a crew of nine. There are six Gardner diesel engines to power the light beacon, foghorns and ship’s domestic systems. The coal bunkers and chain lockers were empty, which meant the ship needed trimming once on its mooring and several tons of ballast were lowered into the bunkers and lockers.
A telescopic mobile crane from Quinto was on site for two days lifting the mooring collars and ballast and taking off compressors and power tools. While on site the crane was also used to send Tony Woods aloft to check rigging and install halyards. The final operation was lifting the 40’ aluminium gangway supplied by Tyne Gangways. After a few more weeks of cosmetic work, it is hoped the LV18 will be open to the public some time in June or July.
by Graeme Ewens
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