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 off the Nore sandbank at the mouth of the River Thames in London, England, placed there by its inventor Robert Hamblin in 1734. The type has become largely obsolete; lighthouses replaced some stations as the construction techniques for lighthouses advanced, while large, automated buoys replaced others.
Leading lights, also known as range lights in the United States, are a pair of light beacons used in navigation to indicate a safe passage for vessels entering a shallow or dangerous channel; they may also be used for position fixing. At night, the lights are a form of leading line that can be used for safe navigation. The beacons consist of two lights that are separated in distance and elevation, so that when they are aligned, with one above the other, they provide a bearing. Range lights are often illuminated day and night.
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.
Brant Point Light is a lighthouse located on Nantucket Island. The station was established in 1746, automated in 1965, and is still in operation. The current tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 1987; it has the distinction of being the tenth light on the point, in addition to several range lights. Four of the others burned or blew down, two were condemned, two were unsatisfactory, and the remaining one stands unused.
The Grassy Island Range Lights are a pair of lighthouses which were originally established to guide traffic through the channel into Green Bay harbor. They were deactivated and moved to shore as part of a channel-widening project.
United States lightship Nantucket (LV-112) 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. She served as the lightship for such notable vessels as the liners United States, Queen Mary, and Normandie.
USLHT Azalea was built as a lighthouse tender and performed in that role on the Massachusetts coast from 1891 to 1917 and again from 1919 to 1933. During World War I, she served in the United States Navy as USS Azalea. Between the wars she was a commercial freighter in Chesapeake Bay, and later between Florida and The Bahamas. During World War II, she was reacquired by the U.S. Navy and served as USS Christiana, a seaplane tender which supported advanced bases in The Bahamas. Declared surplus in 1946, she was sold to Banana Supply Company, and spent a decade transporting bananas from the Caribbean to Miami. After 1956 her history is uncertain until she became a half-sunk derelict and was scrapped in Miami in 1965.
The Fort Sumter Range Lights are range lights to guide ships through the main channel of the Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The original front light was built at Fort Sumter and the original rear light was in the steeple of St. Philip's Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Both lights were lit from 1893 to 1915 to make range lights. Today the Fort Sumter Range is the main approach channel to Charleston Harbor.
Stage Harbor Light is a lighthouse in Chatham, Massachusetts built in 1880. It was discontinued in 1933, replaced by a skeleton tower 200 ft (60m) west which remains an active aid to navigation. The original light helped to mark a vessel staging area anchorage in deep water south of Harding's Beach used during periods of low visibility (fog) by vessels waiting to round Monomoy Point and Pollock Rip Channel. The lighthouse also lined up perfectly with the Chatham Twin Lights, making an effective range for Chatham Roads, the deep water channel crossing Nantucket Sound from south of Bishop & Clerks Reef off Point Gammon at Hyannis to the staging area. The original light is now a private residence. It sits at the entrance of what is still a busy harbor, used primarily by Chatham-based fishing fleets, sailboats from the Stage Harbor and Monomoy yacht clubs, and private craft owners.
The Nantucket Harbor Range Lights are range lights that were built in 1908 to guide vessels through the narrow channel to Nantucket Harbor. They replaced an older arrangement involving the Nantucket Beacon and the Brant Point Light, which became unusable when the latter was replaced with a new tower.
The Nantucket Cliff Lights, also known as the Nantucket Cliff Range Lights were a set of range lights on Nantucket. Over the years, there were several sets of range lights to lead ships into Nantucket Harbor. The first were built in 1838. The second, a pair of conical white towers which still exist-owned by the Gilbreth family of "Cheaper by the Dozen" Fame-although not on the same site, were discontinued in 1912. The Gilbreth Family purchased the two latter range lights in 1921.
USC&GS A. D. Bache, the second steamer of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, was named for Alexander Dallas Bache, a former superintendent of the Survey. She was launched in August 1871 at Wilmington, Delaware, and was in commission from 1871 to 1900.
USC&GS Drift was a United States Coast Survey schooner built in 1876 specifically to anchor in offshore waters to undertake current measurements. She was transferred to the United States Lighthouse Board on May 20, 1893 to become the lightship Light Vessel # 97 or (LV-97) on the Bush Bluff station until retirement and sale in 1918 to become the W. J. Townsend which was scrapped in 1945.
Nantucket Range Lights could refer to any of three sets of range lights on Nantucket:
USRC Gresham was a cruising cutter and auxiliary gunboat built for the United States Revenue Cutter Service to patrol the Great Lakes. She was one of a series of cutters named for former U.S. Secretaries of the Treasury. Her namesake Walter Q. Gresham served as the 35th Secretary of the Treasury in 1884 and died in 1895 while serving as the 33rd U.S. Secretary of State. She became part of the newly created United States Coast Guard in 1915, and also served as a coastal convoy escort and patrol boat under United States Navy control during both World War I and World War II. After being decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1944, she eventually came under Israeli control in 1947. She carried Jewish refugees from Italy to Palestine and later served in the fledgling Israeli Navy until 1951.
USLHT Arbutus was a wooden-hulled, steam-powered lighthouse tender built for the United States Lighthouse Board in 1879. She served on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts in this role until 1925. During World War I, she was transferred to the United States Navy and was commissioned as USS Arbutus, but her duties largely remained those of a lighthouse tender.
