An unsung hero?
John Hillman sticks up for the humble buoy – a little lifesaver
Floating about on the high seas sounds like a wonderful life to some but during these icy cold winter months spare a thought for the lonely buoy.
No-body knows who first had the idea of floating a marker out at sea in the hope of preventing shipping accidents but we can guess that it must be as old as seafaring itself.
Throughout the years they have probably saved as many lives as all other emergency services but you can bet that they won’t be getting a mention in the Queen’s New Years honours list. They’ll just quietly get on with their job, whilst providing a useful spot for birds and seals to rest on.
The millions of buoys around Britain’s coastal waters provide us with everything from the seemingly mundane, such as channel marking for ease of navigation, to the MI6 ‘spook’ buoys that the navy uses in its anti-submarine defence systems.
Tsunami buoys have now been developed and float all over the Indian Ocean, acting as early warning systems that will, should another similar quake occur, prevent the catastrophic loss of life that we saw in 2004 in Thailand and Sri Lanka.
So you see, buoys might seem mundane to the casual observer but they are actually amongst the most useful inventions known to man; making a greater contribution to humanity than most people ever will.
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