The Lightships of Nantucket Shoals

For 163 years, between, 1820 and 1983, our government employed lightships to mark dangerous shoals and harbor entrances. They were placed in locations where was impractical to construct a lighthouse. The first three lightships, more boats ships, were established in the lower Chesapeake Bay in 1820. Over the years more more lightship stations were established. The heyday of lightships in this country was 1915, when 76 vessels were designated to mark 55 stations. Each lighthouse district with a lightship station had at least one relief vessel to spell station ships when they came in for maintenance periods. AfterWorld War II, with the development of radar and other reliable on board electronic navigation equipment, the need for manned lightships began to wane. The development of the large navigational buoys (LNB) in the early 1970s furthered the demise of the lightship.