History of lighthouses with demands, and to the loss of a number of ships, most notably the Dutch merchant ship Vreede in 1800 with the loss of 380 lives. After the reforms of the Lighthouse Act 1836, owners still managed to collect large dues, of which the largest were for the Smalls Lighthouse which collected £23,000 in 1852 and Trinity House was forced to spend over £1m in buying back leases, including £444,000 for the Skerries Lighthouse. The modern era of lighthouses began at the turn of the 18th century, as lighthouse construction boomed in lockstep with burgeoning levels of transatlantic commerce. Advances
The Maidens lighthouses The Maidens lighthouses The Maidens lighthouses, on the Maidens in North Channel off County Antrim in Northern Ireland, date from 1829 and were built at the request of merchants and a Royal Navy officer. Lighthouses were built on both rocks; the West Maiden was abandoned in 1903 and the East Maiden was automated in 1977. After receiving requests from Larne merchants and Admiral Benjamin Hallowell Carew for a lighthouse to be placed on The Maidens, George Halpin, the Ballast Board's Inspector of Works and Inspector of Lighthouses, inspected the rocks in 1819. He recommended the placement of two lighthouses. The