United States lightship Overfalls (LV-118)
WAL 539 painted for "OVERFALLS" station, docked in Lewes, Delaware in 2015
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History | |
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United States | |
Name: | LV 118 |
Operator: | United States Lighthouse Service/United States Coast Guard |
Builder: | Rice Brothers, East Boothbay, Maine |
Cost: | $223,900 |
Launched: | 4 June 1938 |
Commissioned: | 11 September 1938 |
Decommissioned: | 7 November 1972 |
Renamed: |
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Status: | Museum in Lewes, Delaware |
General characteristics | |
Type: | Lightvessel |
Displacement: | 412 short tons (374 t) |
Length: | 114 ft 9 in (34.98 m) |
Beam: | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
Draft: | 13 ft 4 in (4.06 m) |
Installed power: | Cooper-Bessemer 8 cylinder air-start Diesel engine, 400 bhp (300 kW) |
Propulsion: | Single shaft, reduction gear, 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m) propeller |
Speed: | 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) |
Crew: | 14 |
Lightship WAL-539
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Location | Lewes, Delaware |
Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
Built | 1938 |
Architect | Rice Brothers |
NRHP Reference # | 89000006 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | 16 February 1989[1] |
Designated NHL | 14 June 2011 |
Lightship Overfalls (LV-118) (later renumbered WAL-539) was the last lightvessel constructed for the United States Lighthouse Service before the Service became part of the United States Coast Guard.[2] She is currently preserved in Lewes, Delaware as a museum ship.
Contents
History
This ship was built to replace LV-44, badly damaged in the New England Hurricane of 1938, for the Cornfield Point station.[2] Patterned after the LV-112,[2] she has a hull unlike that of any of her sisters; in effect, a single-ship class.[3] She is the last riveted-hull lightship built for the US Lighthouse Service, all subsequent ships having welded hulls. Propulsion was diesel, with a set of diesel generators and compressors providing power for the beacon and auxiliaries.[2][4] The light was a duplex 375 mm (14.8 in) lantern on a single mast, at 57 ft (17 m) above the water line.[4] Dual diaphones were provided for a fog signal, as well as a bell and radiobeacon.[2] A radar unit was installed in 1943.[4] The crew complement was fourteen, to serve on a two weeks on/one week off basis.[4] When the lighthouse service was merged into the coast guard in 1939, she was renumbered WAL 539.[2]
LV 118 / WAL 539 served at these stations:[2]
- 1938-1957: Cornfield Point, Connecticut
- 1958-1962: Cross Rip, Massachusetts
- 1962-1972: Boston, Massachusetts
Unlike most US lightships WAL 539 remained on station during World War II.[3] A severe storm in December 1970 damaged the ship, leading to her decommissioning on November 7, 1972.[5] Upon retirement WAL 539 was donated to the Lewes Historical Society and placed on display in Lewes, Delaware, painted for the "OVERFALLS" station, though she never served there.[3] The ship's condition deteriorated and a failed attempt in 1999 to sell her led to the formation of a separate group, the Overfalls Maritime Museum Foundation, to take over the maintenance and restore the vessel.[6] She remains in Lewes and is available for tours.[6]
The lightship was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, and in 2011 was further designated a National Historic Landmark.[7]
See also
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Delaware
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Sussex County, Delaware
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Cite error: Invalid
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links
- Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons
- Overfalls Maritime Museum Foundation
- Chesapeake Bay Lighthouse Project - Lightship Overfalls
- Pages with reference errors
- Wikipedia articles needing clarification from September 2012
- 1938 ships
- Lightships of the United States
- Ships of the United States Lighthouse Service
- Ships built in Maine
- Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in Delaware
- National Historic Landmarks in Delaware
- Museum ships in Delaware
- Buildings and structures in Lewes, Delaware
- Museums in Sussex County, Delaware
- National Register of Historic Places in Sussex County, Delaware