Varne Bank
The Varne sandbar (English Varne Bank, and The Varne ) is an entity belonging to England nine kilometer long sand bank in the Strait of Dover about 14 km southwest of Dover located.
Due to its location almost in the middle of the South -west link across the English Channel is the sandbank of importance both for the British Coast Guard and for the shipping. Because of the high risk of hard running the British authority Trinity House operates an unmanned lightship on the sandbar. Despite lightship and Warns Onnen always ships run on the sand bank, such as the German container ship LT Cortesia, which ran aground on January 2, 2008. The official accident report shows how the misinterpretation of the radar screen led to the accident.
Since the Varne sandbar is less well known than the northerly Goodwin sand bank, strandings of ships on the Varne sandbar are often erroneously reported as running aground on the Goodwin sand bank. Due to the constant increase in shipping through the English Channel, the busiest shipping channel in the world, various proposals have been made to eliminate the Varne sandbar by dredging. However, it is a productive location for fishing, especially for cod and scallops due to the low depth.
In 1802, proposed a mining engineer Albert Mathieu, expand the Varne sandbar in an island to create a central station ( carriage horses - change point ) for the even then planned Channel Tunnel. In the 20th century a Channel bridge was planned, the pillars should be on the Varne sandbar.
Several battles were fought nearby, including the Battle of Dover in 1652 and the Battle of Dover Strait in 1917., The German submarine SM UB 33 ran in 1918 southwest of the Varne sandbar on a mine of Dover Lock. The wreck still contains six live torpedoes and represents today a significant threat to maritime traffic dar.
The British shipyard Varne Marine ( Essex ) from 1973 to 1992, a yacht manufacturer with respect to the Varne sandbar in the company name. The company produced the Varne 27 and other models. An association of ship owners Varne - Varne Owners Association is a club magazine called ' Lightship ' out, which is named after the Varne lightship that marks the shoal of Varne sandbar.
The Amateur Radio Association ARLHS into its global lighthouse and lightship Directory world list of lights Varne the lightship as ARLHS ENG - 270th