# Lloyd's Signal Stations



## Avraham Ariel (Sep 1, 2016)

Can any member please help with following questions?

1. Where was first Lloyd’s signal station located and when was it established?

2. Where was last Lloyd’s signal station located and when was it closed?

Thank you
Abe Ariel


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## Tony Foot (Sep 25, 2012)

Cant answer your question directly, but I recently read a book called - Marconi, father of wireless, Godfather of Radio.
There was a lot of stuff in there about LLoyds Signal Statiobns.


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## david freeman (Jan 26, 2006)

Avraham Ariel said:


> Can any member please help with following questions?
> 
> 1. Where was first Lloyd’s signal station located and when was it established?
> 
> ...


my memory is failing; questions from GIB LlOyds station in the 60's
what ship, where bound, where from.


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## MikeK (Jul 3, 2007)

My pal's father used to work at the one on the riverside at North Shieds many many years ago.
There used to be a local joke about it :

One dark night a vessel loomed up bound up the Tyne
The duty lloyds officer calls on the hailer "What ship ?"
Back came the Teutonic Accented reply "Anna"
Lloyds retort "A naa ye naa, but ar bluddy wonna naa too !

Apologies for attempted spelling to get Geordie accent right

Mike


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## lakercapt (Jul 19, 2005)

The Lloyds signal station a Gibraltar also used to ask if you wished to be reported. This was a cost and we always declined if we managed to get our position to another of our company ships when on the 2301 kHz even meeting at 10 pm. This was on the Robbie boats going to Ancona or Savona with pulp and homeward with phosphates from Sfax.


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## Tony Foot (Sep 25, 2012)

Last night I think I recalled that the first Marconi - Lloyds Station was set up on a lightship somewhere off Liverpool.


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## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

According to Wikipedia, Lloyds operated Signal Stations around the world "From the 1880s", the exact date given being imprecise.

At Liverpool, a Signal System by flag-signals on a chain of inter-visible points from Holyhead to the Wirral operated from a far earlier date (1820s, at a guess). The history of this system is recorded in a book called "Faster than the Wind - The Holyhead to Liverpool Signal System". I had a copy on my bookshelf but cannot presently find it.

I'm sorry that I cannot help with any date when either the Liverpool system was discontinued or when the last Lloyds Signal Station closed. My guess as to the latter would be at some point in the late 1960s/early1970s.


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## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

#7 

Found it! "Faster than the Wind - by Frank Large - published 1998."

Large tells us that the Holyhead to Liverpool flag/semaphore signal system was introduced in 1827 and was replaced by the electric telegraph in 1861. He also reminds us that the flag/semaphore was system was not new in 1827, having previously been used elsewhere by the Admiralty and by French and Swedish governments for military purposes.

The information that an electric telegraph system was introduced in 1861 suggests to me that the Wikipedia information as the "1880s" for the introduction of Lloyds Signal Stations might well be inaccurate and that Lloyds Stations quite possibly would have been introduced substantially before 1880.


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## Avraham Ariel (Sep 1, 2016)

*Lloyd's Signal Stations.*

Thanks to all contributers. While I am still waiting for the correct answers I have also written to Lloyd's, but they are very busy, hence notoriously slow. 
I have found on the web that the last three stations to close were Southend, Gibraltar and Fort Gillkicker, but no dates, no order.
I wish to add another question, if I may:
WHEN WAS THE GIBRALTAR STATION CLOSED AND HANDED OVER TO THE RN?
Tks
Abe


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