Trinity House
Overview
General Lighthouse Authority
A General Lighthouse Authority is a dedicated Government Agency of a Country or Nation tasked with and responsible for the provision and maintenance of lighthouses, lightvessels, navigational aids and any other equipment or facilities which ensure the safety of mariners and sailors navigating the...
for England, Wales and other British territorial waters
Territorial waters
Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most from the baseline of a coastal state...
(with the exception of Scotland, the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland). It is responsible for the provision and maintenance of navigational aids such as lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
s, lightvessel
Lightvessel
A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship which acts as a lighthouse. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction...
s, buoy
Buoy
A buoy is a floating device that can have many different purposes. It can be anchored or allowed to drift. The word, of Old French or Middle Dutch origin, is now most commonly in UK English, although some orthoepists have traditionally prescribed the pronunciation...
s and maritime radio/satellite communication systems. Trinity House is also the official deep sea pilotage authority providing expert navigators for ships trading in Northern European waters.
