A red and white chequered buoy is shown on an historic Admiralty chart to be used by mariners in association with the West Usk lighthouse. The lights of the lighthouse showed white within a narrow corridor to the east of the buoy showing the entrance to the channel, and red on either side of this showing dangerous shallows).

Sources include:
Historic Admiralty Chart 2682-A10, RCAHMW Digital Collections sourced from teh UK Hydrographis Office and first published in 1860

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, November 2009.