Lightvessel - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship

Ship

Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...

which acts as a lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction. Although there is some record of fire beacons placed on ships in Roman times, the first modern lightvessel was off the Nore

Nore

The Nore is a sandbank at the mouth of the Thames Estuary, England. It marks the point where the River Thames meets the North Sea, roughly halfway between Havengore Creek in Essex and Warden Point in Kent....

sandbank at the mouth of the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

in England, placed there by its inventor Robert Hamblin in 1732. The type has become largely obsolete; some stations were replaced by lighthouses as the construction techniques for the latter advanced, while others were replaced by large automated buoy

Buoy

A buoy is a floating device that can have many different purposes. It can be anchored or allowed to drift. The word, of Old French or Middle Dutch origin, is now most commonly in UK English, although some orthoepists have traditionally prescribed the pronunciation...

Construction

A crucial element of lightvessel design is the mounting of a light on a sufficiently tall mast

Mast (sailing)

The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall, vertical, or near vertical, spar, or arrangement of spars, which supports the sails. Large ships have several masts, with the size and configuration depending on the style of ship...

. Initially this consisted of oil lamps which could be run up the mast and lowered for servicing. Later vessels carried fixed lamps, which were serviced in place. Fresnel lens

Fresnel lens

A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...

es were used as they became available, and many vessels housed these in small versions of the lanterns used on lighthouses. Some lightships had two masts, the second holding a reserve beacon in case the main light failed.

Initially the hull

Hull (watercraft)

A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...

s were constructed of wood, with lines like those of any other small merchant ship. This proved to be unsatisfactory for a ship that was permanently anchored, and the shape of the hull evolved to reduce rolling and pounding. As iron and steel were used in other ships, so were they used in lightvessels, and the advent of steam and diesel power led to self-propelled and electrically lighted designs. Earlier vessels had to be towed to and from station.

Much of the rest of the ship was taken up by storage (for oil and the like) and crew accommodations. The primary duty of the crew was, of course, to maintain the light; but they also kept record of passing ships, observed the weather, and on occasion performed rescues.

In the early 20th century, some lightships were fitted with warning bells, either mounted on the structure or lowered into the water, the purpose of which was to warn of danger in poor visibility and to permit crude estimation of the lightship relative to the approaching vessel. Tests conducted by Trinity House

Trinity House

The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond is the official General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and other British territorial waters...

found that sound from a bell submerged some 18 feet (5.5 m) could be heard at a distance of 15 miles (24.1 km), with a practical range in operational conditions of 1–3 miles.

Mooring

Holding the vessel in position was an important aspect of lightvessel engineering. Early lightships used fluke anchors, which are still in use on many contemporary vessels. These were not very satisfactory, since a lightship has to remain stationary in very rough seas which other vessels can avoid, and these anchors are prone to dragging.

Since the early 19th century, lightships have used mushroom anchors, named for their shape, which typically weigh 3-4 tons. They were invented by Robert Stevenson

Robert Stevenson (civil engineer)

Robert Stevenson FRSE MInstCE FSAS MWS FGS FRAS FSA was a Scottish civil engineer and famed designer and builder of lighthouses.One of his finest achievements was the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse.-Early life:...

. The first lightvessel equipped with one was an 82-ton converted fishing boat, renamed Pharos, which entered service on 15 September 1807 near to Bell Rock

Inchcape

Inchcape or the Bell Rock is a notorious reef off the east coast of Angus, Scotland, near Dundee and Fife . Bell Rock Lighthouse, an automatic lighthouse, occupies the reef...

and had a 1.5 ton anchor. The effectiveness of these anchors improved dramatically in the 1820s, when cast iron anchor chains were introduced (the rule of thumb

Rule of thumb

A rule of thumb is a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination...

being 6 feet of chain for every foot depth of water).

Appearance

As well as the light, which operated in the fog and also at night, from one hour before sunset to one hour after sunrise, early lightvessels were equipped with red (or very occasionally white) day markers at the tops of masts, which were the first things seen from an approaching ship. The designs varied: filled circles or globes, and pairs of inverted cones being the most common among them.

Later lightships, for purposes of visibility, normally had bright red hulls which displayed the name of the station in white upper case letters; relief light vessels displayed the word RELIEF instead. A few ships had differently coloured hulls. For example, the Huron Lightship

Huron Lightship

The United States lightship Huron is a lightvessel that was launched in 1920. It is now a museum ship moored in Pine Grove Park, Port Huron, St. Clair County, Michigan.-Great Lakes lightships:...

was painted black since she was assigned the black buoy side of the entrance to the Lake Huron Cut. The lightvessel that operated at Minots Ledge, Cohasset, Mass. from 1854 until 1860 had a light yellow hull to make it visible against the blue-green seas and the green hills behind it.

British lightvessels

In England and Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, Trinity House

Trinity House

The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond is the official General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and other British territorial waters...

is in charge of all lightvessels. There are currently 8 unmanned lightvessels and 2 smaller light floats.

The British were the first to deploy unmanned lightships, called crewless lightships in the early 1930s, which could operate for six months to one year.

The first lightvessel conversion to solar power

Solar power

Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...

was made in 1995, and all vessels except the '20 class' have now been converted. The '20 class' is a slightly larger type of vessel that derives its power from diesel electric generators. Where a main light with a visible range in excess of 20 nautical miles (37 km) is required, a '20 class' vessel is used, as the main light from a Trinity House solar lightvessel has a maximum range of 19 nautical miles (35 km).

Hull numbers: 19, 22, 23 and 25 (the 20 class); 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 17 (solar lightvessels); and LF2 and LF3 (solar lightfloats).

History

The first United States lightship was established at Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

in 1820, and the total number around the coast peaked in 1909 with 56 locations marked. Of those ships, 168 were constructed by the United States Lighthouse Service

United States Lighthouse Service

The United States Lighthouse Service, also known as the Bureau of Lighthouses, was the agency of the US Federal Government that was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of all lighthouses in the United States from the time of its creation in 1910 until 1939...

and six by the United States Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard

The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

, which absorbed it in 1939. From 1820 until 1983, there were 179 lightships built for the U.S. government, and they were assigned to 116 separate light stations on four coasts (including the Great Lakes

Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

).

The first United States lightships were small wooden vessels with no propelling power. The first United States iron-hulled lightship was stationed at Merrill's Shell Bank, Louisiana, in 1847. Wood was still the preferred building material at the time because of lower cost and ability to withstand shock loading. Wooden lightships often survived more than 50 years in northern waters where the danger of rotting was reduced. Lightvessel 16 guarded Sandy Hook and Ambrose stations more than 80 years. Lightvessel 16 had both an inner hull and an outer hull with the space between filled with salt to harden the wood and reduce decay. Several lightships built with composite wood and steel hulls in 1897 proved less durable than either wood or steel. The first modern steel lightship in United States service was lightvessel 44 built in 1882. One of the last United States wooden hulled lightships built, lightvessel 74, went into service at Portland, Maine, in 1902. The first United States lightships with steam engine propulsion were built in 1891 for service on the Great Lakes where seasonal ice required prompt evacuation of light stations to avoid destruction of the lightships.
The official use of lightships in the United States ended March 29, 1985, when the United States Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard

decommissioned its last such ship, the Nantucket I. Many lightships were replaced with Texas Towers

Texas Tower (lighthouse)

A Texas Tower lighthouse is a structure, similar to an off-shore oil platform, used as a platform for a lighthouse.-Examples:The first example in the United States was the Buzzards Bay Light, located in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, and commissioned on November 1, 1961...

or large navigational buoys

Lanby buoy

Lanby buoy is a contraction of Large Automatic Navigation BuoY. Lanby buoys were originally made by Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and were used from the 1970s onwards. The buoys are intended to replace lightships and are constructed as a circular hull with a central light to provide all-round visibility...

- both of which are cheaper to operate than lightvessels. In fact, lighthouses often replaced lightships.

Naming and numbering

The naming and numbering of American lightships is often confusing. Up to and through the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

lightships were identified by name, usually that of the station where they served. As they were moved from station to station, however, the keeping of records became hopelessly tangled. Therefore in 1867 all existing lightships were given numbers by which they would be permanently identified, and the station at which they were presently serving was painted on their sides, to be changed as needed. Lightships held in reserve to serve in place of those in dock for maintenance were labeled "RELIEF". Surviving lightships are commonly taken to be named according to these labels, but for instance the "Lightship Chesapeake" actually served at two other stations as well as being used for examinations, and last served at the Delaware Light Station. In another case, the LV-114 was labeled "NEW BEDFORD", though there has never been such a station. In an attempt to sort out the early lightships, they were assigned one or two letter designations sometime around 1930; these identifications do not appear in early records, and they are to some degree uncertain.

There are three different and overlapping series of hull numbers. The Lighthouse Service assigned numbers beginning with "LV-" and starting from 1; however, not all numbers were used. When the Coast Guard took over the lighthouse service, all existing lightships were renumbered with "WAL-" prefixes, beginning with "WAL-501". In 1965 they were renumbered again, this time with "WLV-"; however in this case the numbers given were not sequential. Given that only six vessels were constructed after the Coast Guard takeover, the "LV-" series numbers are most commonly used.

Status of lightships

See also List of lightships of the United States.

It is estimated that there are 15 lightships left today. Among them:

The Lightship Ambrose
Lightship Ambrose
Lightship Ambrose was the name given to multiple lightships that served as the sentinel beacon marking Ambrose Channel which is the main shipping channel for New York Harbor....

(No. 87) in New York Harbor
New York Harbor
New York Harbor refers to the waterways of the estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River that empty into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental,...

at the South Street Seaport.
The Frying Pan (No. 115)
Frying Pan (lightship)
Frying Pan is a lightvessel moored at Pier 66a in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It served at Frying Pan Shoals, off Cape Fear in North Carolina, for over 30 years.-Frying Pan Shoals Station:...

, docked in New York Harbor
New York Harbor
New York Harbor refers to the waterways of the estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River that empty into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental,...

at Pier 63 in Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...

.
The United States lightship Nantucket (LV-112)
United States lightship Nantucket (LV-112)
The United States lightship Nantucket , also known as Lightship No. 112, Nantucket, is a National Historic Landmark lightship that served at Lightship Nantucket position...

is moored in Boston, MA.
The United States lightship Chesapeake (LV-116) is moored in Baltimore, MD.
The Pacific Coast lightship, Swiftsure
Swiftsure
Lightship #83, now called Swiftsure, is a lightvessel launched in Camden, New Jersey, USA in 1904 and now moored in Seattle, Washington. She steamed around the tip of South America to her first station at Blunts Reef in California, where she saved 150 people when their ship ran aground in dense fog...

(No. 83), is displayed at Lake Union Park in Seattle.
United States lightship Relief (WAL-605)
United States lightship Relief (WAL-605)
United States lightship Relief is a lightvessel now serving as a museum in Oakland, California. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989. The NHL plaque identifies it as "U.S. Coast Guard Lightship WLV 605."...

from the Pacific Coast is available for tours in Alameda, California
Alameda, California
Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...

at Jack London Square.
United States lightship Portsmouth (LV-101)
United States lightship Portsmouth (LV-101)
The United States Lightship 101, known as the Portsmouth, was first stationed at Cape Charles, Virginia. Today the vessel is at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum in Portsmouth, Virginia...

is displayed in the City of Portsmouth, VA, in their naval shipyard museum. LV-101 was built in 1915 by Pusey & Jones. It first served at Cape Charles, VA, then Relief, Overfalls, DE, and Stonhorse Shoal, MA. After being decommissioned it was stored in Portland, ME, before being sold to the museum. Today LV-101 is dry docked and lettered as Portsmouth, having never served there.
United States lightship Huron (LV-103) is one of many that have plied the waters of the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

. It should be noted that in 1832 the first Lightship on the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

-- the Lois McLain -- was placed at Waugoshance Shoal. After 1940, the Huron was the last lightship on the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

. She was decommmisioned in 1970 and grounded at Port Huron, Michigan
Port Huron, Michigan
Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administratively autonomous. It is joined by the Blue Water Bridge over the St. Clair River to Sarnia,...

as a museum. It is the smallest surviving lightship, is now a museum, and is representative of the 96 foot class.
Barnegat (LV 79/WAL 506)
Barnegat (lightship)
The Barnegat LV 79/WAL 506, is located in Camden, New Jersey. The lightship was built in 1904 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 29, 1979.-History:...

- lightship for Five Fathom Bank and Barnegat, New Jersey. Currently moored in Camden, New Jersey
Camden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...

.
United States lightship WAL 539
United States lightship WAL 539
Lightship WAL 539 was the last lightvessel constructed for the United States Lighthouse Service before it became part of the United States Coast Guard. It is currently preserved in Lewes, Delaware as a museum ship.-History:...

/LV 118 - on display as a museum ship in Lewes, Delaware
Lewes, Delaware
Lewes is an incorporated city in Sussex County, Delaware, USA, on the Delmarva Peninsula. According to the 2010 census, the population is 2,747, a decrease of 6.3% from 2000....

, lettered for the "OVERFALLS" station

The duty that lightvessels serve places them in harms way. Many lightships have been lost in hurricanes.

Destroyed lightships:

Lightship No. 84 (135 feet long, weighing 683 tons), lies sunk in a shallow section of New York Harbor
New York Harbor
New York Harbor refers to the waterways of the estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River that empty into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental,...

and its two masts are still visible above the surface http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.672184,-74.016706&spn=0.005326,0.010131&t=k&hl=en.
Lightship LV 82, Buffalo foundered in Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...

near Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

, during the Great Lakes Storm of 1913‎ with the loss of six lives. See Shipwrecks of the 1913 Great Lakes storm
Shipwrecks of the 1913 Great Lakes storm
This is a list of shipwrecks during the Great Lakes Storm of 1913.-References:*Brown, David G. . White Hurricane. International Marine / McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-138037-X.*-External links:***...

and List of victims of the 1913 Great Lakes storm.
Lightship No. 61 "Corsica Shoals" was destroyed in the same storm on Lake Huron as Lightship 82. See Huron Lightship
Huron Lightship
The United States lightship Huron is a lightvessel that was launched in 1920. It is now a museum ship moored in Pine Grove Park, Port Huron, St. Clair County, Michigan.-Great Lakes lightships:...

for further details.
LV-6 and LV-73 were both lost with all hands.
The Nantucket Lightship LV-117 was rammed in 1934 by RMS Olympic
RMS Olympic
RMS Olympic was the lead ship of the Olympic-class ocean liners built for the White Star Line, which also included Titanic and Britannic...

, with a loss of seven out of a crew of eleven.

Other:

The first lightship on the Pacific Coast, the Lightship Columbia
Lightship Columbia
United States lightship Columbia is a lightship located in Astoria, Oregon, United States of America. The Columbia was formerly moored near the mouth of the Columbia River.-History:...

, marked the entrance to the Columbia River, near Astoria, Oregon
Astoria, Oregon
Astoria is the county seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Situated near the mouth of the Columbia River, the city was named after the American investor John Jacob Astor. His American Fur Company founded Fort Astoria at the site in 1811...

.

Popular culture

Lightship, a 1934 novel
1934 in literature
The year 1934 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The first Flash Gordon comic strip is published.*Boris Pasternak and Korney Chukovsky are among those present at the first Congress of the Soviet Union of Writers....

by Archie Binns
Archie Binns
Archie Binns was an American author.Archie Binns was born in Port Ludlow, WA and attended high school in Shelton, Washington. He graduated from Stanford University in 1921. Though strongly influenced by his Pacific Northwest upbringing, Binns moved to New York, NY in the 1920s. While at Charles...

.
The Lightship, a translation of the 1960 novel
1960 in literature
The year 1960 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 2 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case in the United Kingdom....

Das Feuerschiff by Siegfried Lenz
Siegfried Lenz
Siegfried Lenz is a German writer, who has written novels and produced several collections of short stories, essays, and plays for radio and the theatre. He was awarded the Goethe Prize in Frankfurt-am-Main on the 250th Anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's birth...

.
The Lightship, a 1986 film
1986 in film
-Events:*April 12 - Actor Morgan Mason marries The Go-Go's Belinda Carlisle.*April 26 - Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger marries television journalist Maria Shriver.*May - Actress Heather Locklear marries Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee....

adapted from the Lenz novel, with Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....

and Klaus Maria Brandauer
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Klaus Maria Brandauer is an Austrian actor, film director, and professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.-Personal life:...

.
Lillie Lightship: A fictional lightship from the children's television series
Children's television series
Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...

TUGS
TUGS
TUGS is a British children's television series, first broadcast in 1988. It was created by the producers of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, Robert D. Cardona and David Mitton. The series dealt with the adventures of two anthropomorphized tugboat fleets, the Star Fleet and the Z-Stacks, who...

.
Lightship, a 2007
2007 in literature
The year 2007 in literature involves some significant new books.-Events:*November 19 - First Kindle e-book reader released.*December 11 - Terry Pratchett informs fans on-line that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease.-Literature:...

children's picture book by Brian Floca
Brian Floca
Brian Floca is an American author and illustrator of children's books. He is best known for illustrating books by the award-winning children’s author Avi and for nonfiction picture books.- Biography :Brian was born and raised in Temple, Texas...

. A Richard Jackson Book: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. Simon & Schuster Children's Books A Junior Library Guild Selection. ISBN 1416924361.

Additional reading

United States Coast Guard, Aids to Navigation, (Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1945).
Putnam, George R., Lighthouses and Lightships of the United States, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1933).

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.