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Lightships Showed the Way

Sea Power, Aug 2005 by Winkler, David F

For the past two decades, mariners have missed a long familiar sight off America's coastlines lightships. With the decommissioning of Nantucket I March 29, 1985, nearly 165 years of American lightship history came to a close.

The first American light boat took station in 1820 off Willoughby Spit, Va., to guide shipping through the Chesapeake Bay. Whereas this and follow-on boats marked shoals within the bay, the Sandy Hook lightship, taking station in 1823, was the first to patrol the open sea.

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As aids to navigation, lightships offered flexibility. As shoals shifted and shipping patterns changed, lightships could be moved as needed. During the 19th century, the service experienced growing pains as poorly designed and non-standardized ships were added to the fleet. The formation of the Lighthouse Board as part of the Treasury Department in 1852 helped remedy the situation.

By the 1860s, lightship hulls featured station names and the durability of the stationary vessels improved. By 1909, the board maintained 56 lightships. A year later, the newly established Bureau of Lighthouses within the Department of Commerce replaced the Lighthouse Board.

This organizational arrangement ushered in a golden era for lightships as technical advances in radio, optics, illuminants and signaling improved the effectiveness of the floating coastal sentinels. Other advances in the development of automated aids allowed for the discontinuation of many of the manned stations.

When the Coast Guard assumed responsibility for aids to navigation in 1939, it also assumed responsibility for the nation's lightships.

Lightship crews had to be a special breed. During the 19th century, a tour on the rocking platform lasted four months. In the 20th century, the shorter 30-day rotation still could be a test of endurance, depending on the time of the year. Of course, weather was the greatest threat. For example, in November 1913, a gale claimed Buffalo Lightship #82 on Lake Erie. A board found on the shoreline a few days later carried a message from the ill-fated skipper that read, "Goodbye, Nellie, ship is breaking up fast. - Williams."

Windblown ice reportedly claimed Cross Rip Lightship #6 off Massachusetts during a storm in February 1918. The fate of the lightship and its six crewmembers remained a mystery until 15 years later when a dredge came across the wreck in the Vineland Sound area. Those waters proved deadly again in 1944 when a hurricane claimed Vineland Sound Lightship #73 and its crew.

Severe weather claimed a total of five lightships, and there were 273 recorded instances of heavy seas or ice setting these vessels adrift or dragging them off station.

Other hazards periled the crews of the floating beacons. During World War I, a German U-boat sank Diamond Shoals Lightship #71 off Cape Hatteras after allowing the 12-man crew to abandon ship. Then there was the constant threat of collision. Some 150 serious collisions with lightships are recorded, with five involving fatalities. Perhaps the incident that received the most notoriety claimed seven of the 11 crewmen of Nantucket Lightship #117 on May 15,1934, when the British liner Olympic emerged out of the fog and cut the lightship in half. At the time, the collision evoked memories of another tragedy at sea, as Olympic's sister ship was none other than the Titanic.

But with the replacement of lightships by Texas Tower-type structures or large automated buoys by the 1980s, the need for such hazardous duty had passed.

Source: For additional history see Willard Flint, "A History of U.S. Lightships," in the history section of the Coast Guard's website at http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/Lightship_Index.htm.>Dr. David F. Winkler is a historian with the Naval Historical Foundation.