As a museum ship in 2005 | |
History | |
---|---|
Sweden | |
Namesake | Finngrund banks, Baltic Sea |
Builder | Gefle Mekaniska Verkstad AB |
Laid down | 1903 |
Decommissioned | 14 July 1969 |
Status | Museum ship on 4 June 1970 at Stockholm |
General characteristics | |
Type | Lightvessel |
Displacement | 264 tonnes empty, 350 fully loaded |
Length | 32.80 m (27.32 m in 1903, lengthened in 1927) |
Beam | 6.85 m |
Draft | 3.2 m (3 m in 1903, draft increased in 1927) |
Propulsion | 4-cylinder reciprocating steam engine, around 130 hp (97 kW) |
Complement | 8 crew |
The Lightship Finngrundet is a lightvessel built in 1903 and now a museum ship moored in Stockholm, Sweden. [1]
She was the second Finngrundet lightvessel, built in Gävle, Sweden in 1903 and replacing one dating from 1859. She was stationed on the Finngrund banks in the Baltic Sea 40 nautical miles (74 km) northeast of Gävle during the ice-free part of the year.
She was extensively modified in a refit in 1927 at Öregrunds Ship och Varvs AB, the original paraffin light being replaced with an AGA beacon. The fog bell was augmented with a "nautophone" fog signal and an underwater fog signal.
Further modifications carried out in 1940 included the addition of wireless communication along with equipment for her to function as a weather station, and the electrification of her light.
Her final refit was in 1957 when the deckhouse and crew space were modified.
The optics were built by G.W. Lyth of Stockholm. They are mounted 11.5 metres above sea level and had a range of around 11 nautical miles (20 km). Two flashes were produced every 20 seconds (1 second on, 3.5 seconds off, 1 second on and 14.5 seconds off).
She was replaced in 1969 by an unmanned caisson lighthouse and became a museum ship attached to the Vasa Museum.
Longships Lighthouse is an active 19th-century lighthouse about 1.25 mi (2.0 km) off the coast of Land's End in Cornwall, England. It is the second lighthouse to be built on Carn Bras, the highest of the Longships islets which rises 39 feet (12 m) above high water level. In 1988 the lighthouse was automated, and the keepers withdrawn. It is now remotely monitored from the Trinity House Operations & Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex.
A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship that acts as a lighthouse. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction. Although some records exist of fire beacons being placed on ships in Roman times, the first modern lightvessel was located off the Nore sandbank at the mouth of the River Thames in London, England, and placed there by its inventor Robert Hamblin in 1734. Lightships have become largely obsolete; some being replaced by lighthouses as construction techniques advanced, others by large automated navigation buoys.
The history of the many lightvessel stations of Great Britain goes back over 250 years to the placement of the world's first lightship at the Nore in the early 18th century.
The Vasa Museum is a maritime museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Located on the island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th-century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The Vasa Museum opened in 1990 and, according to the official website, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. Together with other museums such as the Stockholm Maritime Museum, it belongs to the Swedish National Maritime Museums (SNMM).
The Nab Tower is a tower originally planned for anti-submarine protection in the English Channel in World War I. It was sunk over the Nab rocks east of the Isle of Wight to replace a lightship after the war, and is a well-known landmark for sailors as it marks the deep-water eastern entry into the Solent.
Alexander von Humboldt is a German sailing ship originally built in 1906 by the German shipyard AG Weser at Bremen as the lightship Reserve Sonderburg. She was operated throughout the North and Baltic Seas until being retired in 1986. Subsequently, she was converted into a three masted barque by the German shipyard Motorwerke Bremerhaven and was re-launched in 1988 as Alexander von Humboldt. In 2011 the ship was taken off sail-training and sent to the Caribbean for the charter business, then she was converted to a botel.
The station named Nantucket or Nantucket Shoals was served by a number of lightvessels that marked the hazardous Nantucket Shoals south of Nantucket Island. The vessels, given numbers as their "name," had the station name painted on their hulls when assigned to the station. Several ships have been assigned to the Nantucket Shoals lightship station and have been called Nantucket. It was common for a lightship to be reassigned and then have the new station name painted on the hull. The Nantucket station was a significant US lightship station for transatlantic voyages. Established in 1854, the station marked the limits of the dangerous Nantucket Shoals. She was the last lightship seen by vessels departing the United States, as well as the first beacon seen on approach. The position was 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Nantucket Island, the farthest lightship in North America, and experienced clockwise rotary tidal currents.
The United States lightship Huron (LV-103) is a lightvessel that was launched in 1920. She is now a museum ship moored in Pine Grove Park, Port Huron, St. Clair County, Michigan.
Sevenstones Lightship is a lightvessel station off the Seven Stones Reef which is nearly 15 miles (24 km) to the west-north-west (WNW) of Land's End, Cornwall, and 7 miles (11 km) east-north-east (ENE) of the Isles of Scilly. The reef has been a navigational hazard to shipping for centuries with seventy-one named wrecks and an estimated two hundred shipwrecks overall, the most infamous being the oil tanker Torrey Canyon on 18 March 1967. The rocks are only exposed at half tide. Since it was not feasible to build a lighthouse, a lightvessel was provided by Trinity House. The first was moored near the reef on 20 August 1841 and exhibited its first light on 1 September 1841. She is permanently anchored in 40 fathoms (73 m) and is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north-east (NE) of the reef. Since 1987, the Sevenstones Lightship has been automated and unmanned.
Longstone Lighthouse is an active 19th century lighthouse on Longstone Rock in the outer group of the Farne Islands off the Northumberland Coast, England. Completed in 1826, it was originally called the Outer Farne Lighthouse, and complemented the earlier Inner Farne Lighthouse. The lighthouse is best known for the 1838 wreck of the Forfarshire and the role of Grace Darling, the lighthouse keeper's daughter, in rescuing survivors.
United States lightship Relief (WLV-605) is a lightvessel now serving as a museum ship in Oakland, California. Built in 1950, she is one of a small number of surviving lightships, and one of an even smaller number built specifically for the United States Coast Guard. Along with her sister ship, the WLV-604 Columbia, she is a good example of the last generation of lightships built. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
Lindesnes Lighthouse is a coastal lighthouse at the southernmost tip of Norway, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southwest of the village of Høllen in Lindesnes municipality in Agder county. The present lighthouse was built in 1915, although the station was first built in 1656 to mark the entrance to the Skaggerak and the Baltic Sea from the North Sea. The current 16.1-metre (53 ft) tall lighthouse is cast iron with a granite foundation. The lighthouse is painted white, with a red top. The light sits at an elevation of 50.1 metres (164 ft) and it emits a fixed and flashing white light that is always on and it rotates between a low intensity and high intensity light every 20 seconds. The light comes from a first order Fresnel lens that can be seen for up to 17.7 nautical miles.
Hartland Point Lighthouse is a Grade II listed building at Hartland Point, Devon, England. The point marks the western limit of the Bristol Channel with the Atlantic Ocean continuing to the west. Trinity House, the lighthouse authority for England and Wales, have a lighthouse on the tip of the peninsula.
Lightship Overfalls (LV-118) was the last lightvessel constructed for the United States Lighthouse Service before the Service became part of the United States Coast Guard. She is currently preserved in Lewes, Delaware as a museum ship.
Heligoland Lighthouse is located on Germany's only offshore island, Heligoland. Constructed during World War II as an anti-aircraft tower, it was turned into a lighthouse in 1952. It features the strongest light on the German North Sea coast with a range of 28 nautical miles (52 km) so that it can be seen as far as on the East Frisian or the North Frisian islands and Halligen. The lighthouse is operated by the Tönning water and shipping authority.
Roche's Point Lighthouse is situated at the entrance to Cork Harbour, Ireland. A lighthouse was first established on 4 June 1817 to guide ships into Cork Harbour. The original tower was deemed too small and in 1835 was replaced by the larger present tower which is 49 feet high with a diameter of 12 feet. Roche's Point Lighthouse, and a number of other structures, are located on a headland of the same name.
Almagrundet is a Swedish lighthouse station located southeast of Sandhamn outside the Stockholm archipelago and consists of a number of basic heels at depths between 3 and 14 meters below the sea. The shoal was named after the Norwegian brig Alma got aground in heavy storm in 1866 in a place regarded as safe sea.
Dungeness Lighthouse on the Dungeness Headland started operation on 20 November 1961. Its construction was prompted by the building of Dungeness nuclear power station, which obscured the light of its predecessor which, though decommissioned, remains standing. The new lighthouse is constructed of precast concrete rings; its pattern of black and white bands is impregnated into the concrete. It remains in use today, monitored and controlled from the Trinity House Operations and Planning Centre at Harwich, Essex.
Amorina was built as a lightship in 1934 for the Swedish maritime authorities then designated as lightship 33. It was bought by private parties in 1979, converted to have masts installed and competed in the 1983 Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race.
The Bahama Bank Lightship was a Lightvessel stationed on the Bahama Bank east of Ramsey Bay, Isle of Man.