History
Built in 1930 at Charleston Drydock & Machine Co in Charleston, S.C. for $274,434.00, Chesapeake took on the name of whatever station where she was anchored. The ship was also absorbed into the Coast Guard in 1939, as were all vessels in the United States Lighthouse Service.
Service in the US Coast Guard meant a pay cut for the sailors aboard Chesapeake and other Lightships, as well as the requirements for the crew to pass Coast Guard physical exams and wear uniforms. Coast Guard officers, usually a Warrant Bos'n, were also placed in command of the lightships, which meant a more efficient, orderly and strict operation. It did also, however, mean better supplies and training reached the crew. During WWII, Chesapeake was based out of Sandwich, Massachusetts, where she served as an examination and guard vessel at the north entrance of the Cape Cod Canal and helped protect the important port of Boston.
In the 1960s with the introduction of automated buoys as well as permanent light stations, the lightship fleet was slowly mothballed. Chesapeake left her station at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in September 1965 when she was replaced by a large, manned light tower similar to an oil rig. This station was helicopter accessible and was easier to maintain than a lightship. Eventually the light tower was fully automated. Eight lightships were built after Chesapeake.
Chesapeake's last tour of duty was at the mouth of the Delaware Bay from 1966 to 1970 where she was named "DELAWARE". A large 104 ton buoy beacon replaced her at this station in 1970. After leaving Delaware Bay, Chesapeake was moored in Cape May, New Jersey until her decommissioning on 6 January 1971. She was then transferred to the National Park Service and used as a sea-going environmental education classroom until she was handed over to the city of Baltimore in 1982. In 1988 Chesapeake became part of the Baltimore Maritime Museum, now the Historic Ships In Baltimore museum and is moored at Pier 3 in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. She is open for touring after a paid admission to the Museum. Chesapeake was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 1 August 1980 and was designated a National Historic Landmark on 20 November 1989. Chesapeake and her companions are major contributing elements in the Baltimore National Heritage Area.
Read more about this topic: United States Lightship Chesapeake (LV-116)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what fatal indulgence of subordinate views and passions, a contest for an atom had defeated well founded prospects of giving liberty to half the globe.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)