THE Master, Warden and Assistants of the Guild, Fraternity or Brotherhood of the Most Glorious and undivided Trinity, and of St Clement in the Parish of Deptford Strond, in the County of Kent — commonly called the Corporation of Trinity House — will today hold its annual court.

The corporation, founded in 1514 by King Henry VIII, built its present imposing headquarters on Tower Hill in the 1790s. The present building retains the original façade but a bomb on December 30, 1940, destroyed most of the rest of the building, which was sympathetically rebuilt in 1952-53.

The corporation has a number of functions; it is the General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar, and as such it looks after some 85 lighthouses and major floating aids — such as lightships — and a multitude of other beacons and buoys around these islands; secondly, it is the licensing authority for deep-sea pilots; and it is a charitable organisation which dispenses millions of pounds each year for the support of mariners.

But its principal strength lies in its membership of Elder and Younger Brethren. There are 33 Elder Brethren, some of whom, as senior directors, are the active managers of the corporation’s business, while the rest are elected by reason of their importance to and influence over the maritime scene. Among them can be counted Lord Sterling of Plaistow, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen and Lord Browne of Madingley.

Because of their seagoing experience in merchant fleets or in the Royal Navy and an extraordinary range of institutional, legal, regulatory and other professional qualifications, the more than 300 Younger Brethren embody an expertise unparalleled anywhere else in the world.

The prime purpose of the annual court is to re-elect the master, a ceremony conducted before the assembled Brethren. Famous names have occupied this post — Samuel Pepys and the Duke of Wellington are two among many. The present master is the Duke of Edinburgh. It is not expected that the election will be contested on this, his 35th year of office. The Duke is an experienced seafarer himself — his duties in the Royal Navy ranged from instructor at the Petty Officers’ Leadership School to command of a frigate — and he takes a deep personal interest in the doings of Trinity House.

What are the challenges which confront a 500-year-old institution in the age of the microchip? Admiral Lord Boyce, Younger Brother, recently reminded the House of Lords that the nation boasts the largest maritime sector in Europe with a turnover of £37 billion, twice the size of aerospace or agriculture, and a workforce of 250,000 people. There are more ship movements through the Strait of Dover each day than aircraft movements at Heathrow. Yet the nation suffers from “sea blindness”; awareness seems to be limited to a negative focus on loss of life or pollution incidents.

Trinity House has been driving down costs by reorganisation and automation. All lighthouses are now automated and Trinity House is the largest user of photo-voltaic solar cells in the country. Holidaymakers with a yen for solitude and sea breezes may rent Trinity House’s picturesque ex-lighthouse keepers’ cottages.

The sinking by collision of the Norwegian car carrier Tricolor in the crowded Channel and subsequent examples of poor seamanship around marker buoys were a further justification for Trinity House’s £43 million shipbuilding programme, which will produce a rapid intervention vessel by 2005 and a new tender in 2006. Trinity House’s over-riding concern about maritime safety prompted a s eminar at the headquarters last November. Among the issues discussed was the vexed question of offshore wind farms. It is estimated that some 3,000 wind turbines will be needed around our coasts if the Kyoto target is to be reached. Trinity House, with other authorities, has been pressing the Government for early consultation on their positioning so that they may be separated from traffic routes and other high-risk areas of marine usage.

Navigation technology leaps ahead. The American satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) is now so universal that concern is rising about the availability of alternatives should it ever be jammed or switched off. Around the UK, Trinity House has deployed 14 Differential GPS stations which, using radio beacon technology by modulating a second carrier with correction data and other information, have provided users out to 50 miles offshore with positional accuracy down to five metres, useful for precision activities such as ship manoeuvring and pipelaying. On the horizon is the automatic information system which allows ships to broadcast continuous course, speed and intention information to other seafarers, thus reducing collision risk.

But whether from yacht or car ferry, the loom of St Catherine’s Light on the way home from Cherbourg is still a comforting thing to see.