WAL 539 painted for "OVERFALLS" station, docked in Lewes, Delaware (NRHP) |
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| Career (United States) | |
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| Name: | WAL 539 (previously LV 118) |
| Operator: | United States Lighthouse Service/United States Coast Guard |
| Builder: | Rice Brothers, East Boothbay, Maine |
| Cost: | $223,900 ($3,490,081 in modern dollars) |
| Launched: | 1938 |
| Out of service: | 1972 |
| Fate: | Museum in Lewes, Delaware |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Lightvessel |
| Displacement: | 412 short tons (374 t) |
| Length: | 114 ft 9 in (34.98 m) |
| Beam: | 26 ft 0 in (7.92 m) |
| Draft: | 13 ft 4 in (4.06 m) |
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Lightship WAL-539
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| Location: | Lewes, Delaware |
| Built: | 1938 |
| Architect: | Rice Brothers |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 89000006 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP: | February 16, 1989[1] |
| Designated NHL: | June 14, 2011 |
Lightship WAL 539 (numbered LV 118 when built) was the last lightvessel constructed for the United States Lighthouse Service before it became part of the United States Coast Guard.[2] It is currently preserved in Lewes, Delaware as a museum ship.
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This ship was built to replace LV-44, badly damaged in the New England Hurricane of 1938, for the Cornfield Point station.[2] Patterned after the LV-112,[2] it has a hull unlike that of any of its sisters; it is in effect a single ship class.[3] Propulsion was diesel, with a set of diesel generators and compressors providing power for the beacon and auxiliaries.[2][4] The light was a duplex 375mm lantern on a single mast, at 57 ft. above the water line.[4] Dual diaphones were provided for a fog signal, as well as a bell and radiobeacon.[2] A radar unit was installed in 1943.[4] The crew complement was fourteen, to serve on a two weeks on/one week off basis.[4] When the lighthouse service was merged into the coast guard in 1939, it was renumbered WAL 539.[2]
Stations served were as follows:[2]
Unlike most US lightships it remained on station during World War II.[3] A severe storm in December 1970 damaged the ship, leading to its decommissioning on November 7, 1972.[5] Upon retirement it was donated to the Lewes Historical Society and placed on display in Lewes, painted for the "OVERFALLS" station, though it never served there.[3] The ship's condition deteriorated and a failed attempt in 1999 to sell it led to the formation of a separate group, the Overfalls Maritime Museum Foundation, to take over the maintenance and restore the vessel.[6] It remains in Lewes and is available for tours.[6]
The lightship was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, and in 2011 was further designated a National Historic Landmark.[7]
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