 It would seem to have been a foolish act to build two lighthouses to cover a bearing that so soon would be useless even if new sites were selected.Less widely known is the fact that a lightship of sorts is said to have been stationed at the South Sands Head since Elizabethan times for the express purpose of guiding the fleet into the anchorage of the Downs, although evidence for this assertion is slim.How effective a primitive light vessel may have been is a matter of speculation.