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Ship that acts as a lighthouse

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.

Holding the vessel in position was an important aspect of lightvessel engineering. Early lightships used fluke anchors, which are still in use on many contemporary vessels. These were not very satisfactory, since a lightship has to remain stationary in very rough seas which other vessels can avoid, and these anchors are prone to dragging. Since the early 19th century, lightships have used mushroom anchors, named for their shape, which typically weigh 3 4 tons. They were invented by Robert Stevenson. The first lightvessel equipped with one was an 82 ton converted fishing boat, renamed Pharos, which entered service on 15 September 1807 near to Bell Rock, and had a 1.5 ton anchor. The effectiveness of these anchors improved dramatically in the 1820s, when cast iron anchor chains were introduced (the rule of thumb being of chain for every foot depth of water).

As well as the light, which operated in the fog and also at night, from one hour before sunset to one hour after sunrise, early lightvessels were equipped with red (or very occasionally white) day markers at the tops of masts, which were the first objects seen from an approaching ship. The designs varied, filled circles or globes, and pairs of inverted cones being the most common among them. Later lightships, for purposes of visibility, normally had bright red hulls which displayed the name of the station in white, upper case letters; relief light vessels displayed the word RELIEF instead. A few ships had differently coloured hulls. For example, the Huron Lightship was painted black since she was assigned the black buoy side of the entrance to the Lake Huron Cut. The lightvessel that operated at Minots Ledge, Cohasset, Massachusetts, from 1854 until 1860 had a light yellow hull to make it visible against the blue green seas and the green hills behind it.

David Avery and Robert Hamblin in 1731 placed the earliest British lightship at The Nore near the mouth of the River Thames. This was a private venture that operated profitably and without the need for government enforcement of payment for lighting services. Further vessels were placed off Norfolk in 1736, at Owers Bank in Sussex in 1788, and at the Goodwin Sands in 1793. Over time, Trinity House, the public authority charged with establishing and maintaining lighthouses in England and Wales, crowded out the private light vessels. Trinity House is now responsible for all the remaining lightvessels England and Wales, of which there are currently eight unmanned lightvessels and two smaller light floats. In the 1930s, "crewless lightships" were proposed as a way to operate a light vessel for six to twelve months without a crew. The first lightvessel conversion to solar power was made in 1995, and all vessels except the '20 class' have now been converted. The '20 class' is a slightly larger type of vessel that derives its power from diesel electric generators. Where a main light with a visible range in excess of 20 nautical miles (37 km) is required, a '20 class' vessel is used, as the main light from a Trinity House solar lightvessel has a maximum range of 19 nautical miles (35 km). Hull numbers: 19, 22, 23 and 25 (the 20 class); 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 17 (solar lightvessels); and LF2 and LF3 (solar lightfloats).

The first United States lightship was established at Chesapeake Bay in 1820, and the total number around the coast peaked in 1909 with 56 locations marked. Of those ships, 168 were constructed by the United States Lighthouse Service and six by the United States Coast Guard, which absorbed it in 1939. From 1820 until 1983, there were 179 lightships built for the U. S. government, and they were assigned to 116 separate light stations on four coasts (including the Great Lakes). The first United States lightships were small wooden vessels with no propelling power. The first United States iron hulled lightship was stationed at Merrill's Shell Bank, Louisiana, in 1847. Wood was still the preferred building material at the time because of lower cost and ability to withstand shock loading. Wooden lightships often survived more than 50 years in northern waters where the danger of rotting was reduced. Lightvessel 16 guarded Sandy Hook and Ambrose stations for more than 80 years; she had both an inner hull and an outer hull with the space between filled with salt to harden the wood and reduce decay. Several lightships built with composite wood and steel hulls in 1897 proved less durable than either wood or steel. The first modern steel lightship in United States service was lightvessel 44 built in 1882. One of the last United States wooden hulled lightships built, lightvessel 74, went into service at Portland, Maine, in 1902. The first United States lightships with steam engine propulsion were built in 1891 for service on the Great Lakes where seasonal ice required prompt evacuation of light stations to avoid destruction of the lightships. The official use of lightships in the United States ended on March 29, 1985, when the United States Coast Guard decommissioned its last such ship, the Nantucket I. Many lightships were replaced with Texas Towers or large navigational buoysboth of which are cheaper to operate than lightvessels. In fact, lighthouses often replaced lightships.

The naming and numbering of American lightships is often confusing. Up to and through the Civil War lightships were identified by name, usually that of the station where they served. As they were moved from station to station, however, the keeping of records became hopelessly tangled. Therefore, in 1867 all existing lightships were given numbers by which they would be permanently identified, and the station at which they were presently serving was painted on their sides, to be changed as needed. Lightships held in reserve to serve in place of those in dock for maintenance were labeled "RELIEF". Surviving lightships are commonly taken to be named according to these labels, but for instance the "Lightship Chesapeake" actually served at two other stations as well as being used for examinations, and last served at the Delaware Light Station. In another case, the LV 114 was labeled "NEW BEDFORD", though there has never been such a station. In an attempt to sort out the early lightships, they were assigned one or two letter designations sometime around 1930; these identifications do not appear in early records, and they are to some degree uncertain. She served at all five Pacific Coast lightship stations (Blunts Reef and San Francisco, California; and the Columbia River entrance, Umatilla Reef, and Swiftsure Bank, Washington). The lightship Ambrose (LV 87) is moored at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City, New York. The lightship Portsmouth (LV 101) is moored at the naval shipyard museum in Portsmouth, Virginia. LV 101 was built in 1915 by Pusey & Jones. She first served at Cape Charles, Virginia, then Relief, Overfalls, Delaware, and Stonehorse Shoal, Massachusetts. After being decommissioned, she was stored in Portland, Maine, before being sold to the museum. Today LV 101 is dry docked and lettered as Portsmouth, having never served there. The lightship Huron (LV 103) is one of many that have plied the waters of the Great Lakes. In 1832 the first Lightship on the Great Lakes—the Lois McLain—was placed at Waugoshance Shoal. After 1940, the Huron was the last lightship on the Great Lakes. She was decommissioned in 1970 and grounded at Port Huron, Michigan as a museum. The smallest surviving lightship, she is now a museum and a representative of the 96 foot class. The lightship Winter Quarter (LV 107) is moored at Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City, New Jersey. She serves as the office building for a sailing school. The lightship Nantucket (LV 112) is moored in Boston, Massachusetts. The lightship Frying Pan (LV 115) is moored at Pier 66 in New York City, New York. The lightship Chesapeake (LV 116) is moored at Historic Ships in Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland. The lightship Overfalls (LV 118) is moored in Lewes, Delaware. She has been painted for the "OVERFALLS" station, though she never served there. The lightship Columbia (WLV 604) is moored at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon. The first lightship on the Pacific Coast, she marked the entrance to the Columbia River. The lightship Relief (WLV 605) is moored at Jack London Square in Oakland, California. The lightship Nantucket I (WLV 612) is moored in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She operates as a floating hotel and events venue. Built in 1950 and operated at various stations from 1951 to 1983, she was designated Nantucket I in 1979 and rotated at the Nantucket station with the Nantucket II until 1983. She was the last American lightship to be decommissioned in 1985. The lightship Nantucket II (WLV 613) is moored in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She was the last lightship built in the United States and was laid down on February 4, 1952, at the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland. She was launched six months later and placed in service in September of the same year. Her first assignment was to the Ambrose Shoals off New York City and served at that station until 1967. After brief service as a relief lightship, she was assigned as one of two Nantucket lightships and served at that station until replaced by a buoy on December 20, 1983. She was moored at the Wareham Shipyard in Wareham, Massachusetts from about 1990 until 2014.

In Russia, lightships have been documented since the mid 19th century. The lightvessel service was subordinated to the Russian Hydrographic Office and most of the lightships under it were in the Baltic Sea. In the early 1900s there were about ten lightships in the Russian sector of the Baltics. Among these the following may be mentioned:

Yelaginsky, located on the Yelagin Channellater moved to the Petrovsky Channel and renamed, Nevsky in the middle of the main channel to St. Petersburg, and Londonsky on Londonsky Shoal off Kotlin Island on the approach to Kronstadt. Other Baltic lightships were located further to the West, with Werkommatala by Primorsk (Koivisto) harbour, Lyserortsky at the entrance of the Gulf of Finland, and Nekmangrund over the treacherous shoals off Hiiumaa Island's NW shore, known as Hiiu Madal in Estonian. Another well known lightship was Irbensky of the Soviet Union era. It was the next to last Russian lightship. Having been located in the Baltic in the 1980s, it was briefly renamed Ventspilssky while serving near Ventspils port in the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic. The last Russian lightvessel in service was Astrakhansky priyomniy, of the same class as Irbensky. Until 1997 she was marking the deepwater channel leading to Astrakhan harbour while it was doing service in the Caspian Sea.

The Australian lightship Carpentaria, an unmanned lightvessel (effectively a floating lighthouse) built during 1916–17 in Sydney, operated in the Gulf of Carpentaria, off Sandy Cape, Queensland, and in the Bass Strait. After her career ended in 1985, she was donated to the Australian National Maritime Museum in 1987 for preservation. The British Spurn Lightship was launched in 1927 and served for 48 years. It is now preserved as a museum ship and is moored at Hull marina.

J. A. Froude, influential English historian, in 1884 famously used the metaphor of lightships cut from their moorings and freely adrift to describe the thrilling uncertainty of industrial and cultural revolution. Lightship, a 1934 novel by Archie Binns. Men of the Lightship, a 1940 British propaganda film produced during World War II. The Lightship, a translation of the 1960 short story Das Feuerschiff by Siegfried Lenz. The Lightship, a 1985 film adapted from the Lenz novel, with Robert Duvall and Klaus Maria Brandauer. The Lightship, a 1963 West German film adapted from the Lenz novel, with James Robertson Justice. Lillie Lightship: A fictional lightship from the children's television series TUGS. Lightship, a 2007 children's picture book by Brian Floca. A Richard Jackson Book: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. Simon & Schuster Children's Books A Junior Library Guild Selection. .