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1.1 TRINITY HOUSE
The origins of Trinity House are obscure and it is often stated that
these date back to a charitable guild established by Archbishop
Stephen Langton in the 13th Century. However, Henry VIII gave Trinity
House a charter in 1514 for the regulation of shipping.
It is widely known that Trinity House provides lighthouses for this is its
statutory duty as the General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales,
the Channel Islands and Gibraltar, functions set out in Part VIII of the
UK Merchant Shipping Act, 1995. As such Trinity House is responsible
for the provision of aids to navigation to assist the safe passage of
vessels in general navigation. These comprise nearly 600 stations
ranging from traditional aids such as lighthouses, buoys and beacons,
to a satellite-based differential global positioning service (GPS). Trinity
House is also responsible for the inspection and auditing of over
10,000 local aids to navigation provided by port and harbour
authorities and those provided on offshore structures, such as
production platforms or wind farms. It also has a responsibility for
locating and marking wrecks that are a danger to general navigation
and arranging for their dispersal to a safe depth.
Funding for these activities is raised from light dues levied on vessels
calling at ports in the United Kingdom and Ireland and based on net
registered tonnage or registered length in the case of tugs and fishing
vessels. These dues are paid into the General Lighthouse Fund,
managed by the Department for Transport.
Trinity House is also a Deep Sea Pilotage Authority and currently
licenses 40 deep sea pilots for North West European waters. There is
a need by owners and operators of high risk vessels to have a highly
experienced master mariner with expert knowledge of our congested
waters join the bridge team for the European turnaround.
As the UK’s largest fully endowed maritime charity the Corporation of
Trinity House operates as a separate entity to the Lighthouse Service.
It is funded principally by its endowments and spends over £3 million
each year on the welfare of mariners, the education and training of
future seafarers as well as the promotion of safety at sea. The
Corporation runs an estate of almshouses at Walmer, in Kent, for