United States lightship Nantucket (LV-112)
United States lightship Nantucket (LV-112), also known as Lightship No. 112, Nantucket, is a National Historic Landmark lightship that served at the Lightship Nantucket position. She was the last serving lightship and at time of its application as a landmark, one of only two capable of moving under their own power.[1] She served as the lightship for such notable vessels as SS United States, RMS Queen Mary, and SS Normandie.[4]
Nantucket docked in Boston Harbor in 2018. | |
History | |
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Operator: |
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Builder: | Pusey and Jones |
Cost: | $300,956 |
Launched: | 1936 |
In service: | 1936 |
Out of service: | 1983 |
Honors and awards: | Declared National Historic Landmark in 1989 |
Status: | Museum ship |
General characteristics | |
Type: | Lightvessel |
Displacement: | 1050 tonnes |
Length: | 148 ft 10 in (45.36 m) |
Beam: | 32 ft (9.8 m) |
Draft: | 16 ft 3 in (4.95 m) |
Speed: | 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
Armament: | 1 3-inch (76 mm) gun (1942–1945) |
Lightship No. 112, Nantucket | |
Map showing the location of LV-112 in Massachusetts | |
Location | East Boston, Massachusetts |
Coordinates | 42°21′40″N 71°02′07″W |
Built | 1936[1] |
Architect | Pusey and Jones |
NRHP reference No. | 89002464[2] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | 20 December 1989 |
Designated NHL | 20 December 1989[3] |
History
Her $300,000 cost, greater than that of any predecessor, was paid for by the White Star Line in compensation for the collision and sinking of United States lightship LV-117 at the Lightship Nantucket position by RMS Olympic, a sister ship to RMS Titanic.[1] Seven of the eleven crew aboard the lightship were killed. LV-112, the permanent replacement, was built to be indestructible, and outlasted all others, serving until 1983.[1]
She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989. At that time, the ship was located at the Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute Pier in South Portland, Maine, but touring along the New England Coast.[5] An organization was seeking a permanent home for her in Portland, Maine.[1]
She later was planned to be located permanently in Staten Island, New York, but sojourned for several years at Oyster Bay, New York. Some controversy has arisen over damage to wharves and unsightliness at Oyster Bay; other locals have wanted her retained there.[6][7][8]
She was purchased in October 2009 by the United States Lightship Museum (USLM) under the leadership of Robert Mannino Jr. for $1 and arrived under tow in Boston Harbor on 11 May 2010.[9] She will be restored in two phases over the next several years, a job that will cost $1 million.[10] She is currently undergoing renovations as a floating museum, but is open to the public at Boston Harbor Shipyard and Marina at 256 Marginal Street in East Boston, Massachusetts.
See also
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Boston
- National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts
References
-
Delgado, James P. (30 June 1989). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination / Lightship No. 112, "Nantucket"". National Park Service. Retrieved 2012-10-05.
"Accompanying photos, exterior and interior, from 1989 and c.1930". National Park Service. Retrieved 2012-10-05. - "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- "Lightship NO. 112 (Nantucket)". National Historic Landmarks Program. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
- "Nantucket Lightship/LV-112". United States Lightship Museum, Inc. Retrieved 2013-03-20.
- "Maine - Cumberland County". nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com. Retrieved 2013-03-20.
- Karppi, Dagmar Fors (10 March 2006). "Lightship Nantucket Told to Leave". Oyster Bay Enterprise-Pilot. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
- Burghardt, Linda F. (4 June 2006). "Long Island/Oyster Bay; Mutiny in the Harbor: One Ship Too Many". The New York Times.
- "Supervisor may want to keep lightship afloat". New York Newsday. 10 January 2007.
- Schworm, Peter (12 May 2010). "Oldest US lightship comes home to Boston". The Boston Globe. Boston. pp. B1, B6.
- Lupkin, Sydney (22 August 2010). "Historic Nantucket Lightship beams". The Boston Globe. Boston. p. B5.(subscription required)
- "Vessel Designation: LV 112/WAL 534". U.S. Coast Guard Lightships & Those of the U.S. Lighthouse Service. United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 2012-10-05.
Further reading
- United States Coast Guard, Aids to Navigation, (Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1945).
- Scott T. Price. "U. S. Coast Guard Aids to Navigation: A Historical Bibliography". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office.
- Putnam, George R., Lighthouses and Lightships of the United States, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1933).
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to United States lightship Nantucket (LV-112). |