The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean and was in service 142 years from 1854 to 1996. It is located on Mare Island, 23 miles (37 km) northeast of San Francisco, in Vallejo, California. MINSY made a name for itself as the premier U.S. West Coast submarine port as well as serving as the controlling force in San Francisco Bay Area shipbuilding efforts during World War II.
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 since become largely obsolete; being largely replaced by lighthouses as construction techniques advanced, and by large automated navigation buoys.
USS Antietam (CG-54) was a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser of the United States Navy. Antietam was named for the site of the 1862 Battle of Antietam, Maryland, between Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee and Union forces under Major General George McClellan, during the American Civil War. Antietam earned the 2007 and 2008 Battle Efficiency awards, also known as the "Navy E" or "Battle E" award, for the John C. Stennis Strike Group.
United States lightship Chesapeake (LS-116/WAL-538/WLV-538) is a museum ship owned by the National Park Service and on a 25-year loan to Baltimore City, and is operated by Historic Ships in Baltimore Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. A National Historic Landmark, she is one of a small number of preserved lightships. Since 1820, several lightships have served at the Chesapeake lightship station and have been called Chesapeake. Lightships were initially lettered in the early 1800s, but then numbered as they were often moved from one light station to another. The name painted on the side of lightships was the short name of the Light Station they were assigned to and was the daytime visual aspect of the many Aids to Navigation on board lightships. The United States Coast Guard assigned new hull numbers to all lightships still in service in April 1950. After that date, Light Ship 116 was then known by the new Coast Guard Hull number: WAL-538. In January 1965 the Coast Guard further modified all lightship hull designations from WAL to WLV, so Chesapeake became WLV-538.
The United States Lighthouse Service, also known as the Bureau of Lighthouses, was the agency of the United States Government and the general lighthouse authority for the United States from the time of its creation in 1910 as the successor of the United States Lighthouse Board until 1939 when it was merged into the United States Coast Guard. It was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of all lighthouses and lightvessels in the United States.
SS Lane Victory is an American Victory-class cargo ship used in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam War. The ship was preserved in 1989 to serve as a museum ship in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, California. As a rare surviving Victory ship, she was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
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.
Light Vessel Number 83 (LV-83) Swiftsure is a lightship and museum ship owned by Northwest Seaport in Seattle, Washington. Launched in 1904 at Camden, New Jersey and in active service until 1960 after serving on all five of the American west coast's lightship stations, it is the oldest surviving lightship in the United States, the only one still fitted with its original steam engine, and the last lightship with wooden decks. LV-83 was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989, and has been undergoing major restoration since 2008.
Point Fermin Light is a lighthouse on Point Fermin in San Pedro, California.
United States Lightship 101, now known as Portsmouth as a museum ship, was first stationed at Cape Charles, Virginia. Today she is at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum in Portsmouth, Virginia. Portsmouth never had a lightship station; however, when the vessel was dry docked there as a museum, she took on the pseudonym Portsmouth. A National Historic Landmark, she is one of a small number of surviving lightships.
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.
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.
The Nantucket Lightship LV58 was a lightvessel of the United States Lighthouse Board from 1894 to 1905. During those years, she primarily served the coast of Fire Island in New York and the Nantucket Shoals, though she was a relief vessel and served as needed in other locations off the northeast coast as well. From 1898 to her sinking in 1905, she was occasionally used as a lighthouse tender.
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.
USS Maple, was a lighthouse tender that served in the United States Navy from 1893 to 1899, seeing service as an auxiliary ship during the Spanish–American War in 1898, and from 1917 to 1919, operating as a patrol vessel during World War I. She also served as USLHT Maple in the United States Lighthouse Board fleet from 1899 to 1910 and in the United States Lighthouse Service from 1910 to 1933.
The United States Lightship WLV-613 was a lightvessel commissioned in 1952 that became the last lightship to mark the Ambrose Channel. She was replaced by a Texas Tower lightstation on 24 August 1967.
USLHT Cedar was a lighthouse tender in commission in the fleet of the United States Lighthouse Service in 1917 and from 1919 to 1939, and – as USCGC Cedar (WAGL-207) – in the fleet of the United States Coast Guard from 1939 to 1950. She was in commissioned service in the United States Navy as the patrol vessel USS Cedar from 1917 to 1919 during and in the immediate aftermath of World War I. She also saw service in World War II under U.S. Navy control while in the Coast Guard fleet. She spent her career in the Pacific Northwest and the Territory of Alaska.
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.
United States
