COLUMBIA BAR LIGHTSHIPS
Particulars
Vessel type: Lightship
Builder: Union Iron Works (LV-50) New York Shipbuilding Co., Camden, NJ (LV-88)
Launched: March 2, 1892 (LV-50) 1907 (LV-88)
Date Delivered: April 11, 1892 (LV-50) 1909 (LV-88)
Date Modified: 1899-August 1901 (LV-50) 1927, 1934, c.1942 (LV-88)
Date Scrapped: 1925-1935 (LV-50), last accounted for in 1984, fate unknown (LV-88)
Length over all: 112 feet (LV-50) 135 feet 5 inches (LV-88)
Beam: 21.25 feet (LV-50) 29 feet (LV-88)
Draft: 12 feet 9 inches
Maximum Displacement: 470 tons (LV-50) 683 tons (LV-88)
Construction Material: pine planking sheathed in oak (LV-50) iron (LV-88)
Propulsion: schooner rig (LV-50) steam, diesel in 1934 (LV-88)
Horsepower: diesel 325 horsepower (LV-88)
Armament: only during wartime four guns, including 20mm (LV-88)
Vessel Description
Lightships were floating lighthouses that were anchored at river mouths and port approaches to guide ships into port or acnhored at offshore shoals to help ships avoid the shoals. Where possible, the lightships were replaced by offshore steel towers (called Texas Towers) in the 1960's, particularly on the US East and Gulf Coast. On the US West Coast often water depths were too great for Texas Towers, but advancing navigational technologies reduced the need for these navigational aids, and today no lightships remain on station. The last Columbia Bar lightship was decomissioned in 1979. The very last lightship was decommisoned from Nantucket Shoals service in 1983. There are still quite a number of lightships in existence in static service and as museums.
The Columbia Bar of the Columbia River was one of the most difficult to navigate river mouths, and the need for a lightship was quite urgent.
Lightship No. 50 was purchased by the US Lighthouse Service for $70,000, the service sold her for $1,668 after seventeen years of service as a lightship. The deckhouses had roofs that opened to allow the lanterns to be lowered into the deckhouses for cleaning. Each masthead possessed eight separate oil lamp lights, which were 5 feet in diameter and weighed around one ton in total.
The US Lighthouse Service bought lightship No. 88 for a construction cost of $90,000. Originally she was fitted with three oil lanterns per masthead. The were replaced by 375 mm electric lanterns in 1927.
Vessel History
Lightship No. 50: She launched from Potrero in San Francisco, California and sailed for Astoria, Oregon for outfitting. She arrived on station on April 11, 1892 as the first US West Coast lightship. No. 50 required a tow because her steam plant only powered the pumps, windlass, and fog whistle, plus providing heat for the vessel.
A gale of 74 knots pushed her ashore close to the mouth of the Columbia River in November 1899 after breaking from her mooring. After failing to bring her back out into the river, men laid railroad tracks to pull her off the beach, through the woods, and to Baker Bay, Washington for repairs in February 1901. She returned to her position on the Columbia River after $14,000 in repairs in May 1902.
After her grounding again in 1905, the Lighthouse Service determined to purchase a new self-propelled vessel. After her replacement in 1909, she was condemned after a survey in 1915. After her sale, she became a freighter in Alaska until 1925 but may have survived until 1935.
Lightship No. 88: Her voyage to San Francisco took 124 days and replaced (LV-50) in 1909.
A violent storm in 1914 washed away her deck furniture and deck houses.
The merger of the Lighthouse Service with the Coast Guard in 1939 meant an eventual change in location. She moved to Umatilla Reef until 1942 and then again from 1945-1959. Number 88 served as an examination vessel from 1942 to 1945. She served as a reserve vessel from 1959 to 1960. The Coast Guard decommissioned LV-88 on November 23, 1960 and sold her to a scrap yard in 1962, but Rolf Kiep of the Columbia River Maritime Museum kept her from 1963 to 1979. After a failed restaurant conversion, she converted to a half-brig, was renamed Belle Blonde, and sailed to Montreal, Canada for charter in 1984. After her impound by the Canadian government her fate remains unknown.
Technical Model Description
Model Scale 1:96
Henry Scheafer scratch-built these models in 1999 from historical drawings. He found it particularly interesting to show the advances in lighting technology over the years, which is why there are two versions of LV-88.