Welcome to KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation. 

This week we turn our attention back to lightvessels - I talk with author Tony Lane, who probably has the largest archive of research available anywhere about the lightships around our own coast, as well as throughout Europe and America.

And we also hear about the experiences of a lightship keeper who served on the North Goodwin lightship during the 1940s, both during and after the war. His reflections include a brief history of the early lightships, an account of an invasion of starlings, relief days, hobbies, loneliness - but also the experience of being on an unpowered vessel out in the channel during the blitz and, later, on D Day.

Further reading:

Looming Lights: A true story of the lightships by George G Carter

Guiding Lights: The Design and Development of the British Lightship from 1732, by Anthony Lane. The South Goodwin lightvessel in 1930: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpw6Xchjrqo

Trinity House account of the 1954 South Goodwin disaster: https://trinityhousehistory.wordpress.com/tag/south-goodwin-lightvessel/

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive. 

Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk