Ships - Revivals and Tributes

Built in 1948 by Philip & Son, Dartmouth, Devon, for Trinity House. Her length was 137’ (41.8m). LV8 first entered service in 1949, stationed at the Kentish Knock.

In 1953 the lightship was moved from Kentish Knock and towed to various other stations around the English coast.

In March 1955 she was damaged in a collision with the Panamanian registered vessel AL Kent and was taken out of service for repairs.

LV8 returned to Sunk Deep in the Thames Estuary in 1956. Three years later she was transferred to the Dudgeon station. From 1962 to 1965 she was in position at the Outer Gabbard station. Finally LV8 spent ten years at the Tongue station until being replaced in 1975 by a Large Automatic Navigation Buoy (LANBY).

Trinity House finally decommissioned LV8 in 1991 and she was sold to F L M Verbeek of Rotterdam who planned to turn her into a floating disco/nightclub. She was re-named Barocca.

In 1991 the disco/nightclub was closed because it didn’t meet strict new fire regulations introduced by the Dutch authorities. Barocca was moved to the old harbour at Moerdijk, Rotterdam where she lay idle and vandalised for many years.

In February 2004 she was sold by notary J B Niewland to Mr Rutterman who moved the lightvessel to Waalhaven. After a few months she was purchased by the Radio Seagull/Radio Waddenzee organisation for use as a base for the newly licensed  medium wave stations.

In June 2005 she was moved to Harlingen Harbour where extensive refurbishment works were carried out.

She was re-named Jenni Baynton  in 2005 and in July 2006 towed to a new berth in Harlingen where the mast and radio equipment was installed.

The first official broadcast from the Jenni Baynton was on 28th July 2007 - a co-production between Radio Waddenzee and Radio Seagull.

Since then the ship has been used as a base for both stations - including a number of broadcasts from positions offshore from Harlingen.

For more information about Radio Seagull and Radio Waddenzee visit:-

http://radioseagull.com/

http://www.radiowaddenzee.nl/

For more information about the Jenni Baynton visit:-

http://www.radiolichtschip.nl/

https://www.facebook.com/radiolichtschip/?ref=ts&fref=ts

Photos: Radio Seagull

Thanks to Martin van der Ven for allowing us to use some additional information from the Broadcasting Fleet section of the Offshore Radio Guide  in this Gallery

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