Navigation

For most of the time fishermen operated inshore within sight of land. Compasses, allied to expert knowledge of local seas, the coastal landscape and the stars, were the traditional navigational aids.

Lighthouses and channel markers have been a great help to fishermen. A lighthouse was built on Walney Island near Barrow in 1790; another on the Stone Jetty at Morecambe in 1855; two at the entrance to the River Lune in 1847; and others at Heysham and Fleetwood. Various lightships have been positioned in Morecambe Bay between 1854 and 1904. Since the Second World War new technology such as radar, sonar, radio-direction finding equipment and, most recently, satellite navigation have been introduced.