Qualla: Sevenstones Lightship https://qualla.com/sevenstones-lightship en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:10 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/s/sevenstones-lightship-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Sevenstones Lightship https://qualla.com/sevenstones-lightship Sevenstones Lightship: Introduction https://qualla.com/sevenstones-lightship/ Photo credit Harwich & Dovercourt from Dovercourt, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0. Anchored permanently in forty fathoms of open Atlantic, two and a half miles north-east of the Seven Stones reef, a red-painted ship sits alone on the horizon between Cornwall and Scilly. She has no crew. She has no engines that drive her anywhere - though the current vessel, like every Sevenstones lightship before her, can be towed away for refit. Her job is to flash a light at night, sound a horn in fog, and measure the height of the waves that try to drown her. On 8 February 2016, during Storm Imogen, she logged a significant wave height of 11.73 metres - which by statistical rule means roughly one wave in a hundred that day topped 17 metres, the height of a five-storey building.

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Image: Harwich & Dovercourt from Dovercourt, United Kingdom | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/s/sevenstones-lightship-wp/gbgs-sevenstones-lightship-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Sevenstones Lightship: Why a Lightship and Not a Lighthouse https://qualla.com/sevenstones-lightship/ Photo credit Bob Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Engineers in the 19th century knew how to build lighthouses on isolated rocks - Bishop Rock and Wolf Rock are nearby proof - but the Seven Stones defeated them. The reef's seven or eight named peaks only break the surface at half tide, and the rocks fall sheer into very deep wate...

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Image: Bob Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/s/sevenstones-lightship-wp/gbgs-sevenstones-lightship-why-a-lightship-and-not-a-lighthouse.mp3 0:06 2 full Sevenstones Lightship: The Wooden Years https://qualla.com/sevenstones-lightship/ Photo credit Guenter Wieschendahl, Public domain. The first lightship was built by William Pitcher at Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding in Blackwall. She was 80 feet long, 162 tons, made of wood, and cost £4,416 fully equipped. Two masts carried lights at 38 and 20 feet; red balls on each mast distinguished her from other Trinit...

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Image: Guenter Wieschendahl | Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/s/sevenstones-lightship-wp/gbgs-sevenstones-lightship-the-wooden-years.mp3 0:06 3 full Sevenstones Lightship: Bombed in Wartime https://qualla.com/sevenstones-lightship/ Photo credit David Jones, CC BY 2.0. Lightvessel 80, built in Liverpool in 1914 by H. & C. Grayson, served on station in the early years of the Second World War - and was bombed and strafed by Luftwaffe aircraft so frequently that Trinity House pulled her off in May 1941 and substituted a gas buoy for the rest of th...

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Image: David Jones | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/s/sevenstones-lightship-wp/gbgs-sevenstones-lightship-bombed-in-wartime.mp3 0:06 4 full Sevenstones Lightship: Now Just a Weather Buoy https://qualla.com/sevenstones-lightship/ Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0. The station was automated in 1987 and the keepers have not been back since. The current vessel - lightvessel 2, on station since October 2004, with lightvessel 22 spelling her in 2021 - is now also an automated weather station for the UK Met Office. On-board sensors measure wind,...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/s/sevenstones-lightship-wp/gbgs-sevenstones-lightship-now-just-a-weather-buoy.mp3 0:06 5 full