In 1513 a group of mariners petitioned King Henry VIII to regulate pilotage on the Thames, alerting him to the potential dangers in continuing to allow unsuitably qualified 'foreigners’, including Scots, Flemings and French, to learn the secrets of the King's streams.
The following year a Royal Charter to Corporation of Trinity House was granted ensuring the safe piloting of Thames’ vessels.
Today, Trinity House exists to uphold the safety of shipping and the well-being of seafarers throughout the British Isles, assisting the safe passage of a huge variety of vessels through some of the busiest sea lanes in the world.
The following year a Royal Charter to Corporation of Trinity House was granted ensuring the safe piloting of Thames’ vessels.
Today, Trinity House exists to uphold the safety of shipping and the well-being of seafarers throughout the British Isles, assisting the safe passage of a huge variety of vessels through some of the busiest sea lanes in the world.
1513: A Ships’ Opera by Richard Wilson and Zatorski + Zatorski
Final performace 7.45pm - 8.30pm
The Pool of London - River Thames between Tower Bridge and London Bridge
A spectacular water-borne performance for the River Thames.
An armada of historic vessels from the age of sail, steam and diesel will perform a live, moving, operatic concerto of ships’ steam whistles, bells, horns, hooters, sirens and cannon as the centrepiece of the 2013 Thames Festival.
The first act of this symphonic maritime performance begins at sea, at the mouth of the Thames Estuary. A lone steam tug, the historic Barking, will make her way into the tideway to central London, all the while broadcasting her swag of steam whistles.
At 6.25pm, around Trinity Buoy Wharf (home of London’s last lighthouse and where Trinity House used to manufacture the buoys that guide the world’s mariners to this day), Barking will muster her fellow opera performers: the Trinity Lightship (LV95) pulled by two handsome red diesel tugs, historic Clyde puffer steam ships VIC 56 and VIC 96, the diesel tug Kent, and twin-masted 19th century Dutch sailing klipper De Walvisch - all bedecked with a range of steam whistles, horns and bells - the collected vocal cords of a ship of provenance, now long dead... lost voices calling again.
Here an audience will experience the second act of the opera, the magnificent fleet calling to the shore, waters and airwaves against the backdrop of The O2.
At Tower Bridge, at 7.45pm, the curtain opens as the bascules rise and the company of ships enters the theatre of the Pool of London. The main act of the performance begins, the ships now joining the cruiser HMS Belfast in an acknowledgment of our historic naval might.
500 years after the foundation of the great Corporation of Trinity House and 500 metres from Trinity House itself, as the bascules close, Trinity Light Vessel LV 95 swings her lifesaving beam of light illuminating architecture old and new from the Shard to the Tower of London.
The Performers:
| LV 95 |  | VIC 56 |  |
| VIC 96 |  | De Walvisch |  |
| Kent |  | Barking |  |
| HMS Belfast |  | Fearnought |  |
| General VIII |  |
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