Lightship
[1] Although some records exist of fire beacons being placed on ships in Roman times, the first modern lightship was located off the Nore sandbank at the mouth of the River Thames in London, England, by its inventor Robert Hamblin in 1734.
Lightships have since been rendered obsolete by advancing lighthouse construction techniques, and by large automated navigation buoys.
As iron and steel hulls were popularized, they became used in lightvessels, and the advent of steam and diesel power led to self-propelled and electrically lit designs.
The crew's primary duty was to maintain the light; additional responsibilities included keeping records of passing ships, observing the weather, and occasionally performing rescues.
The first lightvessel equipped with one was a converted fishing boat, renamed Pharos, meaning lighthouse, which entered service on September 15th, 1807, near Inchcape, Scotland with an anchor weighing 1.5 tons.
From 1854 until 1860, the lightvessel that operated at Minots Ledge, Massachusetts, had a light yellow hull, to increase contrast between the blue-green seas and the hills behind it.
David Avery and Robert Hamblin in 1731 placed the earliest British lightship at The Nore near the mouth of the River Thames.
[6] Over time, Trinity House, the public authority charged with establishing and maintaining lighthouses in England and Wales, crowded out[colloquialism] the private light vessels.
The first United States lightship was established at Chesapeake Bay in 1820, and the total number around the coast peaked in 1909 with 56 locations marked.
From 1820 until 1983, there were 179 lightships built for the U.S. government, and they were assigned to 116 separate light stations on four coasts (including the Great Lakes).
Wood was still the preferred building material at the time because of lower cost and ability to withstand shock loading.
One of the last United States wooden hulled lightships built, lightvessel 74, went into service at Portland, Maine, in 1902.
In 1867 all existing lightships were given numbers by which they would be permanently identified, and the station at which they were presently serving was painted on their sides, to be changed as needed.
[30] Other Baltic lightships were located further to the West, with Werkommatala by Primorsk (Koivisto) harbour, Lyserortsky at the entrance of the Gulf of Finland, and Nekmangrund over the treacherous shoals off Hiiumaa Island's NW shore, known as Hiiu Madal in Estonian.
Having been located in the Baltic in the 1980s,[32] it was briefly renamed Ventspilssky while serving near Ventspils port in the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic.
[33] Because lightvessels must remain anchored in specific positions for the majority of their time at sea, they are more at risk of damage or destruction.
