LIST OF LIGHTS - Maritime Safety Information - National Geospatial ...

LIGHTSHIPS, SUPERBUOYS, AND OFFSHORE LIGHT STATIONS
Courses should be set to pass all floating aids to navigation
with sufficient clearance to avoid the possibility of
collision from any cause. Experience shows that floating
aids to navigation cannot be safely used as leading marks
to be passed close aboard, but should always be left broad
off the course, whenever searoom permits.
When approaching a lightship, superbuoy, or a station
on a submarine site on radio bearings, the risk of collision
will be avoided by insuring that the radio bearing does not
remain constant.
Most lightships and large buoys are anchored with a
very long scope of chain and, as a result, the radius of their
swinging circle is considerable. The charted position is the
location of the anchor. Furthermore, under certain conditions
of wind and current, they are subject to sudden and
unexpected sheers which are certain to hazard a vessel
attempting to pass close aboard.
During extremely heavy weather and due to their
exposed locations, lightships may be carried off station.
The mariner should, therefore, not implicitly rely on a
lightship maintaining its precisely charted position during
and immediately following severe storms. A lightship
known to be off station will secure her light, fog signal,
and radiobeacon and fly the International Code signal
“LO” signifying “I am not in my correct position.”
Danish lights are exhibited 15 minutes after sunset and
extinguished 15 minutes before sunrise.
Russian lights are shown throughout the winter when
icebreakers are working.
The latest Russian charts and publications give only sufficient
details for navigation to the ports open to international
trade. Thus, in this volume, only those lights along
the routes to such ports can be assumed to be correct. Elsewhere
the latest information, often not of very recent date,
is listed.
Radio navigational aids and certain lights on the Russian
Arctic coast and adjacent islands north of the Arctic
Circle from Novaya Zemlya east to the Bering Strait, have
been omitted due to the lack of reliable information.
Russian lights are shown between the parallels of:
63°40'N. and 66°N. from 27 July to 15 December; south of
66°N. from 5 August to 20 May; 68°N. and 70°N. from 14
August to 30 April.
In the White Sea west of the meridian of 38°E. they
shown: north of 66°N. from 28 July to 15 December; south
of 66°N. from 6 August to 15 December.
In the eastern part of the White Sea between the meridians
of 38°E. and 43°E. they are shown: south of 66°N.
from 1 May to 31 May and from 28 July to 15 January;
between 66°N. and 68°N. from 1 May to 21 May and 6
August to 15 January.
Lights in the Barents Sea and White Sea are extinguished
as soon as the whole sea horizon is covered with
XIV
solid ice. The lights are re-shown as soon as open spaces
are seen, or when the ice appears to begin to move; should
a vessel be seen at such a time, even if the movement of
the ice is arrested, the lights will not be extinguished
unless the crew has abandoned the vessel and communication
cannot be effected.
In Iceland the elevations of lights are approximate; they
may be as much as 10% in error and should not be used for
fixing distances by vertical danger angle. Lights may
become completely obscured by dust clouds when the
wind is off the land. This is particularly true in autumn,
even in clear weather.
South of 65°30'N. lights are shown from 15 July to 1 June.
Lights north of 65°30'N. are shown from 1 August to 15 May.
In Norway, lights show sectors of different colors; the fairway
is usually marked by a white sector to a ship approaching
the light, a green sector to starboard and a red sector to port.
The white navigational sector is usually very narrow and caution
should be exercised to keep in its centerline.
Dangers in or near the fairway are marked by red or
green sectors and when the light has sectors of different
characters they are marked by:
Fl.(2) lights having a period of about 12 seconds with
the duration of each flash from 1 to 1.5 seconds.
Iso. lights with a period of from 1 to 2.5 seconds.
Most lights in Norway are displayed seasonally based
on latitude as shown in the following table:
Latitude Dates of display
60° 4 July - 2 June
61° 9 July - 28 May
62° 16 July - 21 May
63° 21 July - 16 May
64° 25 July - 12 May
65° 29 July - 8 May
66° 1 August - 5 May
67° 4 August - 2 May
68° 7 August - 29 April
69° 10 August - 26 April
70° 12 August - 24 April
Where navigation channels cross the threshold latitudes,
the display dates are modified to maintain consistency
within the channel. Note that some navigation aids, including
private aids, do no follow this schedule.
Russian lightships remain on their station during the
period of navigation only; when forced to leave because of
ice they are replaced as soon as possible. Lightships, by
day, show a ball over a yellow flag with a blue St.
George’s cross and by night, a white riding light.
If a vessel is seen standing into danger the signal “NF”
of the International Code of Signals is hoisted, and if not
immediately seen, rockets with two explosions and bright
stars may be fired every minute; by night the rockets only