Lightship No. 114

About this property

Lightship No. 114, later U.S. Coast Guard WAL 536, that served as lightship Fire Island (NY), Examination Vessel (WW II), Diamond Shoal (NC), 1st District relief vessel, Pollock Rip (MA) and Portland (ME). After decommissioning in 1971, in 1975 the lightship became a historic ship at the State Pier in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She received little maintenance, and eventually sank at her moorings in 2006 and was sold for scrap the next year. Built at Albina Engine & Machine Works in Portland, Oregon, Lightship No. 114 was one of six identical vessels with three built at Albina Iron Works and three by Charleston Dry Dock & Machine Company of Charleston, South Carolina. Four were eventually required on the Atlantic stations so that No. 114, the last constructed at Portland, was required to make the transit from Oregon to New York. The design for all six vessels was for a length overall of 133 feet 3 inches (40.6 m), 108 feet (32.9 m) waterline length with a 33 feet (10.1 m) beam and draft of 11 feet 9 inches (3.6 m) forward and 13 feet 3 inches (4.0 m) aft. A special machinery arrangement was selected to fit the requirement for a self-propelled vessel that would remain on station for nine months of a year requiring power for housekeeping, equipment and the light. The design was for four Winton Engine Corporation four cylinder diesel engines each direct connected to 75 kilowatt, 125 volt General Electric generators that could be coupled to develop 350 horsepower on the propulsion motor at 300 revolutions and, when on station, could singly handle the entire ship's electrical load even under adverse conditions. Two 7.5-kilowatt Cummings diesel generating sets were provided for auxiliary and in-port power and an oil-fired boiler provided heating. Lightship No. 114 left Portland on 15 July 1930 for Astoria, Oregon from which she departed 5 August under Captain Jacob Nielsen for her first station at Fire Island, New York with stops at San Francisco, San Pedro, Balboa, Panama, Navassa, Charleston, and Portsmouth to arrive at New York 20 September—the first lightship to make the transit from west to east. The distance of 6,368 nautical miles (7,328 mi; 11,794 km) was accomplished in 31 days, 12 hours, 49 minutes with actual running time of 756.5 hours for an average speed of 9.3 knots (10.7 mph; 17.2 km/h) and maximum speed of 10.3 knots (11.9 mph; 19.1 km/h). The ship served as the Fire Island lightship until 1942. From 1942 to 1945 she was armed for wartime service with a single 6-pounder gun and placed into 3d District service as an examination vessel at Bay Shore, New York. Her log reports how real the threat to shipping on the east coast was as the log for Christmas Day 1941 mentions flares from a German U-boat being spotted.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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