|
"There is only one Nantucket Lightship," said the guide aboard the Nantucket Lightship 112 at Vineyard Haven.
"How can that be," queried a visitor. "I've seen two others."
"There is only one Nantucket Lightship," retorted the guide.
"But I have photographs of them," was the reply.
"There is only one Nantucket Lightship," from the adamant guide.
And so there is. The Nantucket South Shoals Lightship, as the station was first known, was established on June 15, 1854 some 23 1/2 nautical miles south of the east end of Nantucket Island. The station was moved farther and farther offshore as the years went by until when it was discontinued on December 20, 1983, the lightship was anchored some 53 miles from shore.
Incidentally, it is still called the South Shoals Lightship. Even today, when mariners speak of the Nantucket Shoals, they are referring to those in Nantucket Sound.
First on station was the 11 (lightships were not numbered until 1867), a just built wooden vessel 104 feet long. She was painted red and had two masts with an oil light on each. Two years later, she was replaced and sent off to mark Brenton Reef off Newport, R.I.
The new lighthship was the one, built in 1855 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine. This wooden ship was 103 feet long and was also painted red and had two masts with an oil light on each. The 11 had marked a shoal now called Old South Shoal. When the 1 took over, the station was shifted south to a New South Shoal. This fact was long advertised on the sides of the 1: "Nantucket New South Shoals" in white letters. It was also aboard the 1 that the famous Nantucket Lightship Basket was created. The crews spent their leisure time in those pre-TV days making the baskets and selling them ashore for a few pennies. It was a make-work hobby with no large monetary return expected. Indeed, such was not officially allowed as it would greatly interfere with the primary job.
By the late, 1880's, the 1 had become quite seaworn and a "proper" steam-powered lightship was planned for the station. In the meantime, the 81 foot long relief lightship 9 was placed on the station the first half of 1892, replacing the 1 which was sent south into quieter waters. The latter half of 1892, the station was marked by the larger 119 foot long 39, also a relief vessel. Both ships were of wood with two masts holding oil lights and both had been repainted red with the Nantucket South Shoals names on their sides.
The much-touted "proper" steam-powered lightship was the iron hulled 54, a two masted 120 foot long vessel just constructed in the Great Lakes. She was one of four sisters which were the first to feature the hawse pipe through the stem. This allowed the moored vessels to ride the seas without undue strain to the lightship, mooring, or crew. Placed on station in the fall of 1893, the 54 nearly founded in the first storm out there. The 54 stuck it out for another year and in the fall of 1894, became the Boston Lightship in more sheltered waters.
Relief lightships marked Nantucket until 1896 when another brand new lightship, the 66, came. The 123 foot long iron vessel was the first with a flush deck, having now two full decks inside the hull. This placed the crews' quarters above the waterline. No longer would the men live in a dark, damp hole with little ventilation. The 66 was the first Nantucket Lightship with electric lights. Now the beam was a brilliant occulting white light instead of two dim fixed white ones. In 1901, a Marconi wireless set was installed aboard. Now the lightship, out of sight of land, could let people know that she was still there. In 1907, a new regulation called for shorter station names which allowed bigger letters seen farther off. The 66 featured the name NANTUCKET SHOALS in large white letters on her red flanks.
Spelling the 66 on station was the 58, a relief lightship. She was painted the scheme of the time, a white hull with red bow and stern, RELIEF in large black letters, and red masts with a white band midway. The 58 was fitted with a wireless in 1902. On December 10, 1905, while on Nantucket, a storm blew up and she sprang a leak. The water gained on the crew and finally, the 58 radioed for help, America's first radio distress call. The tender Azalea was dispatched and took the wallowing lightship under tow. But it was noticed that the 58 was settling lower and lower. Finally, the crew was taken off and a few minutes later, the 58 slipped beneath the raging sea. The 66 was replaced in 1906 by the 71, temporarily taken from Diamond Shoals, N.C. DIAMOND was painted out and NANTUCKET painted over the spot (SHOALS remained) on her red hull. A few months later, the brand new steel two masted 85 became the regular Nantucket Lightship. At 135 feet long, she was then our largest lightship. Luckily too, for in 1916, her crew hosted 115 sailors for several days, crews of four merchant ships sunk nearby by the German sub U-56.
The 85 was fitted with a radiobeacon in 1923 which soon became standard equipment on lightships. The next July, tests were made aboard the Nantucket Lightship on distance finding. A beep from the radiobeacon was synchronized with a blast from the fog signal, the time difference was measured, and the distance figured out. The tests were so successful, that soon other major aids with radiobeacons were so fitted. Now a shipmaster could tell how far away (or how close to) he was to a lightship or lighthouse.
The smaller 132 foot long steel 106 followed the 85 on Nantucket in 1923 and she, in turn, was replaced by the 130 foot long steel 117 in 1930, the first diesel-electric powered lightship. Both were fresh from the shipyards. The 117, as is well known, was rammed and sunk on station by the White Star liner Olympic, sister of the Titanic, in 1934 with the loss of seven men. The British ship had ridden the radiobeacon beam to its source. Apparently they did not use the distance-finding system. The 106, now a relief lightship, returned while a replacement station vessel was built, paid for by the British steamship company.
The new lightship was the 112. Measuring 149 feet long, our largest lightship ever, the vessel had several watertight compartments. Later, a short-range warning "warble" radiobeacon was installed. For some odd reason, it was removed some twenty odd years later. Perhaps because the 915-ton lighthship was never struck by a passing ship. actually, this was quite common to all lightships. Storms made up for it, and the 112 often suffered some damage. Hurricane Edna in 1954 so battered the lightship that she was forced into drydock for repairs. The tender Hornbeam marked the station until a relief lightship was free.
The 112, now the WLV-534, was modernized in 1959-69. among the new equipment was a revolving "black box" optic which had six sealed beam headlights on each face and producing a half million candlepower beam. Other offshore lightships were also similarly equipped. Holding the Nantucket station in this time was the WLV-196, from Pollock Rip, Cape Cod. This 128 foot long steel vessel was one of four sisters and the only lightships planned and built by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Following the 112 in 1975 was WLV612, sister to the 196, and built in 1951 for the San Francisco station. The very last lightship on Nantucket was another sister, the WLV-613, built in 1952 for Ambrose Channel off New York City. She was also our very last lightship ever. The 613 featured a tripod foremast holding a xenon gas light which had a top candlepower of 5.5 million. Replaced on Ambrose by a "Texas-tower" light structure in 1967, the 613 became a relief lightship in New England. And when the last New England lightship was removed in 1972, the 613 alternated with the 612 on Nantucket, becoming the "Nantucket 2." So, how many Nantucket Lightships are there? Four.
After her retirement in 1975, the 112 had a succession of owners and she was bounced from one port to another. Currently, she is at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in Manhattan. She is also our only traveling museum-ligthship which is why she was at Vineyard Haven this past summer. So, don't be surprised if you see the 112 at some odd place.
The 612 is now owned by the Metropolitan District Commission and is at Marina Bay, Quincy, Mass.
The 613 is at the New England Historic District, Charlestown, Mass., the old Boston Navy Yard.
To talk to anyone connected with any of these vessels, you will hear the claim that this one is the REAL Nantucket Lightship.
Oh, and the fourth? She is the old 1 but you won't recognize her today. She was retired in 1930 and donated to the Haverhill, Mass., Sea Scouts. But they had no use for the vessel, I believe they were after another lightship at the time. So the 1 was passed along to the sea scouts of neighboring Groveland. In a spring freshet of 1936, the ship broke her mooring lines and went sailing down the Merrimack River to strand on a gravel bar. With no funds, the lightship remained grounded. Today, she is an island in the river, covered with various foliage.
This story appeared in the
January 1996 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
All contents copyright © 1995-2024 by Lighthouse Digest®, Inc. No story, photograph, or any other item on this website may be reprinted or reproduced without the express permission of Lighthouse Digest. For contact information, click here.
|
