Lightship (1f/2m).
L/B/D:
135.4 × 29 × 12.8 (41.2m × 8.8m × 3.9m). Tons:
683 disp. Hull:
steel. Comp.:
9. Mach.:
compound engine, 325 ihp, 1 screw; 10 kts. Built:
New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N.J.; 1907.
In 1823, the U.S. government established its first lightship station off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, to mark the entrance to the port of New York. Six years later, the station was withdrawn from service. Between 1839 and 1967, seven ships were assigned to the station continuously, including both world wars. Known first as the Sandy Hook lightship, in 1908 the station was renamed Ambrose Channel in honor of John W. Ambrose, a New York businessman who was instrumental in getting the federal government to improve shipping channels into and out of the country's busiest port. No less important than channel maintenance was the light marking the approaches to New York; throughout its history, the Ambrose light was an important leading mark for coastwise and transatlantic shipping.
The oldest surviving of the ships that served Ambrose Channel was the fourth, LV 87, which was on the station continuously from 1908 to 1932. Originally (and only briefly) schooner rigged to provide balancing sails for heavy weather, she began her career with oil lens lanterns, which were eventually replaced by incandescent lights with two 375-mm lens lanterns providing 15,000 candle power. In 1921, she became the first lightship equipped with a radio beacon. From 1932 to 1936, she served as a relief vessel out of New York, and from 1936 to 1962 she was assigned to the Scotland lightship station (about 4.5 miles west of Ambrose lightship), except for two years as an examination ship and three years at Vineyard Sound (1944-47). In 1967, LV 87 was donated to New York's South Street Seaport Museum for use as a floating exhibit. The last ship to serve Ambrose Channel, WLV-613, built in 1952 as Nantucket, is also used as a floating exhibit at the New England Historic Seaport in Boston.
Brouwer, International Register of Historic Ships. Flint, Lightships of the United States Government.
