A daymark is a navigational aid for sailors and

pilots An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

, distinctively marked to maximize its visibility in daylight. The word is also used in a more specific, technical sense to refer to a

signboard Signage is the design or use of signs and symbols to communicate a message. A signage also means signs ''collectively'' or being considered as a group. The term ''signage'' is documented to have been popularized in 1975 to 1980. Signs are any ...

or daytime identifier that is attached to a

day beacon A day beacon (sometimes "daybeacon") is an unlighted nautical sea mark. A signboard identifying it is called a day mark. Day beacons typically mark channels whose key points are marked by lighted buoys. They may also mark smaller navigable rout ...

or other

aid to navigation In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Ai ...

. In that sense, a daymark conveys to the mariner during daylight hours the same significance as does the aid's light or reflector at night. Standard signboard shapes are square, triangular and rectangular; and the standard colours are red, green, orange, yellow and black.

Notable daymarks

Trinity House Obelisk The Trinity House Obelisk, also known as the Trinity House Landmark, is a 19th-century obelisk located at Portland Bill, on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. Built as a daymark, it has been Grade II Listed since 1978. The obelisk was built ...

Kingswear Daymark Kingswear Daymark (also known as The Tower) is a 24 m (80 ft) octagonal limestone day beacon built in 1864, in an arable field above Froward Point near the town of Kingswear, Devon, England. Description The daymark was constructed of local li ...

Tasku beacon tower Tasku beacon tower (''Taskun pooki'' in Finnish) is a daymark tower located on the island of Tasku (''Pocket'' in English) in the Raahe archipelago in the Gulf of Bothnia in Finland. The structure was built in 1853 from the plans drawn by Albin S ...

Keskiniemi beacon tower The Keskiniemi beacon tower (''Keskiniemen tunnusmajakka'' in Finnish), often referred to as the Karvo beacon tower, is a historic daymark located on a promontory of Keskiniemi in the northwestern part of Hailuoto island in the Gulf of Bothnia i ...

Hiidenniemi beacon tower Hiidenniemi beacon tower () was a historic daymark tower on the northern coast of Hailuoto island in Gulf of Bothnia in Finland. The structure was located at the northernmost point of the island, a minor promontory named Hiidenniemi. The struct ...

Laitakari beacon tower Laitakari beacon tower is a daymark ( navigational aid) located on the island of Laitakari in the Gulf of Bothnia in Finland. The island is located east-northeast of Hailuoto and is within the municipal boundaries of the City of Oulu. There ha ...

Herring Tower, Langness The Herring Tower is situated on the Langness Peninsula in the south of the Isle of Man. It was built by Thomas Brine in 1823. The tower was built as a daymark and was based on the style of the tower of Peel Castle Peel Castle (''Cashtal Phu ...

Le Hocq Le Hocq is an area in the parish of St. Clement, in the south-east of Jersey, Channel Islands. Le Hocq is a Jèrriais name, and means 'the headland' or 'the cape' in English. The fortified Jersey Round Tower at Le Hocq, was built in the 1780s. ...

La Tour Cârrée La Tour Cârrée, or The Square Tower, on Jersey, is not a tower but rather is a fortified guardhouse and magazine in the style of a blockhouse with loopholes for musketry. It may have been erected in 1778 on the site of a redoubt. The tower suppo ...

Scharhörnbake The Scharhörnbake was the most important daymark on the German North Sea coast for several centuries. First erected in 1661 by the City of Hamburg on the sandbank Scharhörn and south side of the Elbe estuary, it was rebuilt over centuries and ...

Symbols used on US charts

Chart symbols used by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Department, 2013.

References

Navigational aids {{Pharology-stub

Notable daymarks

Symbols used on US charts

See also

References