Lightship Nantucket
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Launched: | 1936 |
| Commissioned: | 1936 |
| Decommissioned: | 1975 |
| Fate: | Museum ship |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1050 tons |
| Length: | 148 ft 10 in |
| Beam: | 32 ft |
| Draft: | 16.3 ft |
| Propulsion: | Steam screw, Babcock-Wilcox boilers |
| Speed: | 12 knots |
| Armament: | 3" deck gun (World War II years only) |
The Lightship Nantucket was the name given to the lightvessel which marked the hazardous Nantucket Shoals in Massachusetts. Several ships have been commissioned and served at the Nantucket Shoals lightship station and have been called Nantucket. It was common for a lightship to be reassigned and then "renamed" and identified by its new station.
The Nantucket station was the most significant lightship station for transatlantic voyages in the coastal waters of the United States. Established in 1854, the station marked the limits of the dangerous Nantucket Shoals and the eastern end of the Ambrose Channel, the main deepwater shipping channel into New York Harbor. She was the last lightship seen by vessels departing the United States, as well as the first beacon seen on approach.
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[edit] History
Lightship 85, a wooden lightship, was built in 1907 at Camden, NJ for $99,000.00. Lightship 85 was transferred to the U.S. Navy by Executive Order on April 11, 1917, along with the entire Lighthouse Service. While in the Navy during World War I she continued her former peacetime routine warning shipping away from Nantucket Shoals and also aided in guarding nearby waters against German U-boats. After peace was restored in 1919, Lightship 85 was returned to the U.S. Commerce Department.
Lightships and their crews were exposed to many dangers. In addition to the obvious hazards posed by the weather and sea conditions, vessels marking shipping lanes on occasion were struck by the very traffic they existed to protect. Ships would home on their radio beacons at night and in fog, but were expected to post lookouts and to turn away in time. Lightship 117 at Nantucket was sideswiped by the SS Washington in early 1934, and four months later, on May 15, 1934, she was rammed and sunk by the British White Star ship RMS Olympic in dense fog.[1] Four men went down with the ship and seven survivors were picked up by the Olympic. Three survivors later died of injuries sustained from the collision. The sunken wreck now lies hidden in 200 feet of water 50 miles south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.
In 1936, Pusey & Jones in Wilmington, DE., built Lightship 112, the largest lightship ever, for $300,956.00. This ship was paid for by the British Government as reparation for the deadly collision between Olympic and Lightship 117.[2]
During WWII, Lightship 112 was withdrawn from Nantucket Shoals station and used as an examination vessel at Portland ME. On January 5, 1959 she was blown 80 miles off station in hurricane force winds accompanied by fifty-foot seas. This event effectively put her out of communication for several days due to water-damaged electronics. Lightship 112 outlasted all other lightships assigned to that station, having marked it for 39 years.
The Lightship 112 is currently being renovated by the National Lighthouse Museum and is expected to be berthed permanently on Staten Island in New York Harbor when work is completed in 2006.
Built in 1951 at Curtis Bay, MD by the USCG Yard for $500,000, Lightship 612 was the last ship to serve the Nantucket Shoals station and was also the last US lightship in commission. In 1975 Lightship Ambrose, the Nantucket's sister ship was renamed Lightship Nantucket II and the two ships spelled one another, relieving each other approximately every 21 days. In December 1983 the Lightship 613 was sold to the New England Historic Seaport to become a museum ship in Boston and Lightship 612 was reassigned to cutter duty.
Finally, after being decommissioned on March 29, 1985 Lightship 612 was sold to the Boston Educational Marine Exchange and has since passed through a number of owners. As of 2006, she is privately owned and has been converted to a luxury yacht which is berthed in Boston and is for sale.
[edit] Name and Station Assignments
Lightship 85:
- Nantucket, Nantucket Shoals, MA (1907–23)
- Relief, 1st District (1923–42)
- Examination Vessel, WWII (1942–44)
- Relief, 1st District (1944–51)
- Boston, Boston, MA (1951–62)
Lightship 117:
- Nantucket, Nantucket Shoals, MA (1931–34)
Lightship 112:
- Nantucket, Nantucket Shoals, MA (1936–42)
- Examination Vessel, WWII (1942–45)
- Nantucket, Nantucket Shoals, MA (1945–58)
- Relief, 1st District (1958–60)
- Nantucket, Nantucket Shoals, MA (1960–75)
Lightship 612:
- San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (1951–69)
- Blunts Reef, Blunts Reef, CA (1969–71)
- Portland, Portland, ME (1971–75)
- Nantucket, Nantucket Shoals, MA (1975–83)
[edit] See also
See USS Nantucket for other ships of the same name.
