Chesapeake Lightship (ex - LV 116 / WAL 538) (Baltimore, Maryland) | museum, lighthouse, place with historical importance, United States Coast Guard, museum ship

 museum, lighthouse, ship, place with historical importance, United States Coast Guard, museum ship

Built for the US Lighthouse Service in 1930 to serve as a floating lighthouse and aid to navigation, LV-116 entered service marking the Fenwick Shoals off the Delaware Coast until the station was disbanded in 1933. Shifting to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, LV-116 assumed a position 16 miles off the coast of Cape Henry marking the ocean entrance to the Bay in 1934 and would remain on station for the next 32 years, leaving only for repairs and during WWII when the station was marked with a sea buoy.

When the Chesapeake Station was automated in 1965, the LV-116, now widely known as the Chesapeake Lightship, was replaced by a free-standing 'Texas Tower' light structure which remains in operation to this day. The Chesapeake Lightship went on to mark the ocean entrance to Delaware Bay for the next four years before she was formally deactivated by the US Coast Guard in 1970.

Donated in 1971 to the National Park Service, she was docked at Hams Point, Washington DC until 1980 and then shifted to the Baltimore Maritime Museum, where she remains today serving as a museum ship and marked in her famous CHESAPEAKE station livery. She is acively maintained by Coast Guard Reserve unit.

uscg.mil/history/weblightships/LV116.asp
www.baltomaritimemuseum.org/museums_lightship.php