Ex - USS Lucid (MSO-458) (Stockton, California)

 museum, military, ship, United States Navy, minehunter / minesweeper (ship)

Laid down in March 1953 as an Aggressive Class Minesweeper at the Higgins Shipyard in New Orleans, the USS Lucid commissioned into service with the US Navy in May 1955 as a member of the US Pacific Fleet.

Operating off the US West Coast and in far Eastern waters with the US 7th Fleet through 1964, the Lucid was assigned to frontline service in the anti-munitions smuggling effort off the Coast of Vietnam known as Operation Market Time in 1965. Continuing anti-smuggling and minesweeping activities in Vietnam through 1969, the Lucid returned to the US for a period of overhaul and modernization which ended in late 1969.

After emerging from the yard at Long Beach, the Lucid continued her work and participated in several fleet exercises along the US West Coast until she was decommissioned in 1974. Assigned to the Reserve Fleet at Long Beach and eventually Suisun Bay, the Lucid was eventually stricken from the Naval Record in 1975 and put up for sale. Purchased for $40,250 December 1976 for scrapping, the Lucid was slated for demolition but her new owner defaulted on their contract and the ship remained in the custody of the US Government until 2005.

Sold again to the non-profit Lucid MSO-458 Foundation, the old ship was towed to a berth at Bradford Island where she was under restoration until November 2011. Finding a new home in the Stockton Historical Maritime Museum, the Lucid was moved to her current berth at the Building Futures Academy where she will serve as a real-life classroom to students learning trades as they restore the vessel. Once her restoration is complete, the SHMM intends to relocate the Lucid to the Stockton Waterfront to serve as a museum ship for all Minesweeper Veterans.

stocktonhistoricalmaritimemuseum.org/
www.navsource.org/archives/11/02458.htm