The Nantucket Shoals Lightship Station

For 163 years, from 1820 to 1983, our government employed lightships to mark dangerous shoals or signal the entrances to harbors, rivers, and bays. They were placed in locations where it was impractical to construct a lighthouse. The first three lightship stations were established in lower Chesapeake Bay around 1820. They were more boats than ships, small vessels without sails that were towed to a location and anchored. Over the years more and more lightship stations were established. The Sandy Hook station off New Jersey, created in 1823, was the first "outside" station. It was established to mark the entrance to New York City.