| After consideration
of the costs and the technical difficulties, Trinity House decided to
place a lightship off the western end of the Helwick Sandbank. Helwick is
a very dangerous six mile stretch of sand lying to the west of Port Eynon
Head. The task was completed in September 1846 and the vessel was lit on
the 1 October 1846. A manned lightvessel remained on the Helwick station
until 1989.
It is ironic that the loss of the barque Brechin
Castle in February 1847 was blamed on the presence of the Helwick
light as the master had probably mistaken the Helwick light for the
Mumbles lighthouse.
In September 1908, the Helwick lightship was the
scene of a dramatic rescue by the Tenby lifeboat William and Mary Devey.
In one of the classic tales of lifeboat gallantry, the Tenby lifeboat crew
had rowed over 30 miles in dreadful weather and rescued the crew of the
stricken lightship and brought them in safely to Swansea.
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