Nore
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Lightship Nore

The Nore is a sandbank at the mouth of the Thames Estuary, England, near the town of Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey. It marks the point where the River Thames meets the North Sea.

The Nore is a hazard to shipping, so in 1732 the world's first lightship was moored over it¹ in an experiment by Robert Hamblin, who patented the idea. The experiment must have proved successful, because by 1819 England had nine lightships.¹ The Nore lightship was run by Trinity House, Britain's General Lighthouse Authority.

The early Nore lightships were small wooden vessels, often Dutch-built galliots.¹ By the end of the 19th century a larger ship with a revolving light had appeared, but after about 1915 the authorities ceased to use a lightship. Sea Reach No. 1 Buoy as of 2006 marks the anchorage-point of the former lightship, about mid-way between Shoeburyness in Essex and the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. This defines the limit of the Thames and the beginning of the North Sea.

From 1899 to 1955, the Royal Navy maintained a Commander-in-Chief at the Nore, a senior officer responsible for protecting the entrance to the port of London, and merchant traffic along the east coast of Britain.

Mutiny

In May/June 1797 the anchorage adjoining the Nore witnessed a mutiny in the British Royal Navy fleet then lying here, known as the Mutiny of the Nore.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.