I learnt to canoe in Whitby harbour. It gets hard and fierce near to the dock gates. I also crashed into a posh yatch with folk having cocktails on deck..eek!
Whitby harbour extends to over 80 acres and is well worth taking a look around. The famous port of Whitby, steeped in history, is still a working port of trawlers with their fishermen; boat builders and of cargoes coming and going. Whitby hosted the visit of her long lost ship that of Captain James Cook, the Bark Endeavour.
On Whitby`s East and West piers, are two lighthouses placed at the harbour entrance, dating back to 1835 and 1855. The lighthouse on the West side of the River Esk is worked manually and only used when vessels are expected, to indicate that it is safe to enter the harbour. By day, a black ball is hoisted on the 83 feet high lighthouse.
In the summer, it is open to the public and when you reach the top, there is a fine view. The light from this lighthouse shows green and has a range of ten miles. The lighthouse on the East side of the River Esk is 54 feet high and shows a divided red and green light, the red light showing when the vessel entering the harbour is on an unsafe course, (although in the main, this light is now discarded, due to the placing of a new red light on the church steps, serving the same purpose).
Whitby has a permanent dredger working daily during the summer months, keeping the River Esk free from the silt, so the trawlers and smaller craft have clear passage to their berths. The marina in the town was built in 1979 and has moorings for 200 craft.
The original lighthouses were the design of James Walker; originally a pair of towers, aligned north-south and showing fixed lights over Whitby Rock, the station was altered in 1890 when a more efficient light was installed in the smaller tower and the other closed down.
The harbour at Whitby is still the base for the town's fishing fleet and it was from here that Captain Cook set out in the Endeavour on his voyage of discovery to Australia in 1768.
Trinity House built the present Whitby Lighthouse in 1858 on Ling Hill.
Whitby Lighthouse was automated in 1992 and is monitored and controlled via telemetry link from the Trinity House Operations Control Centre at Harwich.
The width between the entrance piers is about 180 ft. The 700 ft. x 60 ft. Fish Quay was built in 1957 in the lower harbour, complete with fish shed and offices for the sale and landing of fish by auction, with the addition of the ice plant in 1965 - the depth alongside at L.W. Spring being 3 ft. at the south end to 8 ft. at the north end. In the upper harbour, separated from the lower harbour by the swing bridge, there is a quay of 300 ft. and a small dock of about 150 ft. square, both dry at low water. Endeavour Wharf, completed in 1964 has 700 ft. of frontage and is connected by road, with a depth alongside of 21 ft. H.W. Spring, 7 ft. L.W. Spring.
Today fishing boats, mostly Yorkshire Cobles, continue to be built at two small yards to traditional methods. After a lapse of some 30 years, Whitby once more began to use her harbour for commercial as well as for fishing and pleasure craft, and in July 1958 the first vessel docked with a cargo of Baltic timber. In the following month the first cargo of ground limestone from Thomton Dale quarries was shipped from Whitby quay to ports in the east coast of Scotland, for use on farmland.
W. Scoresby of Whitby invented the Crows Nest..all pirates had one :)