Happy New Year!
Keep Nantucket/LV-112’s guiding light shining
and powerful foghorn booming!
PLEASE REMEMBER THIS HISTORIC SHIP IN YOUR YEAR-END GIVING
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Click the arrow above to see and hear Nantucket/LV-112 on National Lighthouse Day. When the U.S. Lightship Museum (USLM) acquired LV-112 in late 2009, it was a "dead ship"; nothing was operational on the historic floating lighthouse. As a result of donors' generous contributions, the USLM has brought LV-112 back to life. Today, the majority of the ship's onboard systems are in working order, including its powerful foghorn and main rotating light beacon, designed to be seen 23 miles at sea.
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Your generous gift will help us achieve our restoration goals in preserving Nantucket Lightship/LV-112, a National Historic Landmark and National Treasure, which is a critically important part of our nation's maritime heritage. Your donation also will advance our educational programs. To view our most recent newsletter, which highlights latest happenings on the lightship, click here.
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Donations of $25 or more entitle you to a
U.S. Lightship Museum membership
In addition to your membership allowing free admission on LV-112, the USLM is a member of the Council of American Maritime Museums (CAMM). As a member of the USLM you also will receive a CAMM "Admission Privilege Card." This card, when presented with your USLM membership card at a participating CAMM institution, will entitle you to free admission. For a list of participating CAMM museums, click here. For more information about USLM membership levels, click here.
The U.S. Lightship Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Your gift is tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. It's not too late to receive a 2020 tax deduction for your contribution. You can donate online by clicking on the "Donate" button below (before midnight, December 31, 2020), or you can write a check payable to: USLM Nantucket/LV-112 and mail it to: U.S. Lightship Museum, PO Box 454, Amesbury, MA 01913. To be eligible for a 2020 tax deduction, checks can be received by the USLM after Jan. 1, 2021, as long as the check is dated on or before Dec. 31, 2020.
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Your donor dollars at work |
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The restoration work presently underway is made possible by the generosity and commitment of donors and volunteers. Everyone who has donated money, in-kind donations and volunteered their time and efforts can take credit for helping rescue Nantucket/LV-112 from near destruction and assisting with rehabilitating LV-112 back to its former glory. After the present dry-dock restoration is completed, LV-112’s most critical phase of structural restoration will be virtually accomplished.
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Nantucket/LV-112 is presently in dry-dock at the Fitzgerald Shipyard, Chelsea, MA (Boston Harbor), where it has been undergoing a major phase of its restoration since August 2020.
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LV-112 during a recent nor’easter (December 17) that dumped over a foot of snow in Boston. The photo was taken by shipyard owner Peter Fitzgerald from his plow truck.
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A shipyard worker performs spot sandblasting to prepare LV-112’s hull for protective coatings, which are being donated by Sherwin-Williams Industrial Marine Coatings Division.
Although, LV-112’s restoration will be 70% completed after the completion of this dry-docking, we still need funds to complete the remainder of LV-112’s restoration and preservation. When restoring historic structures, especially steel constructed ships whose lives are spent in the corrosive environment of seawater, unanticipated hidden structural issues are virtually always discovered, requiring corrective action and additional funding. LV-112 is no exception.
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BEFORE: Typical condition of the majority of LV-112’s floor-frame webbing plates in the forward lower hold, revealed after sandblasting.
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A shipyard welder/fabricator carefully fabricates steel floor frame webbing plate to replace the numerous corroded sections in LV-112’s forward lower hold. This is a very time-consuming and comprehensive procedure, first requiring the creation of measured template patterns for sizing each floor frame section, cutting the steel plate, tack-welding the plate into place, then performing the final welding procedure. Before this work could begin, tons of hardened cement had to be jack-hammered, broken up and removed from the bilges that covered the bottom portions of the floor frames needing replacement. The cement was installed during LV-112’s final years of service as a USCG lightship to stop seawater leakage on station from the stresses of the pounding seas and constant strain of the deep-water anchoring had on the hull. The cement was only supposed to be a temporary measure until a more permanent solution could be engineered, but that never happened.
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AFTER: New steel floor-frame webbing plates installed; frame in front has tack-welded plate with a completed welded webbing frame plate behind it. This area of the ship is very tight quarters, requiring the welders to practically turn their bodies into pretzels to do the welding. All areas that are being restored will be thoroughly cleaned, prepped and painted with protective coatings. |
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To make the bulkheads watertight again, new lower forward-hold watertight bulkhead steel plates (gray color) are welded into place. Before LV-112's restoration, the bulkheads were badly corroded and no longer watertight. All new replacement steel used in LV-112’s restoration is pre-primed high-quality American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) certified steel.
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BEFORE AND AFTER: LV-112 stern-section ship’s stores in the lower hold. This area of the ship was cleaned and prepped, and new coatings were applied. The next step is detailing the proper identification with label plates and stenciling on the watertight compartments (nomenclature of decks), making the identification historically accurate.
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Meet the ultimate beneficiaries of your
generous contributions
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(All photos taken pre-COVID)
The U.S. Lightship Museum’s (USLM) mission is two-fold (1) to restore and preserve Nantucket LV-112, a National Historic Landmark and floating learning center, and (2) to provide educational programs to the general public, especially inspiring grade-school students in the areas of oceanography, the nautical, marine environment and climate/weather sciences, maritime crafts, history and historic preservation. The USLM’s goal is to make learning fun and rewarding. A significant portion of the USLM’s education initiative is outreach to schools, local and national maritime organizations, and public institutions.
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Standing in LV-112's engine room entrance above the main engine, this young girl turns to the chapter on lightship engine rooms in her book "Lightship" by Brian Floca. Emeline first learned about lightships in the book she borrowed from the public library in Portland, ME, which inspired her to visit an actual lightship. Nantucket/LV-112 is the closest lightship museum to Portland, where she lives. As she toured LV-112, she compared the lightship compartments in the book to those in LV-112. There are nine lightship museums in the United States. Nantucket Lightship/LV-112 is the only one in New England.
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The photos above represent the wide range of visitors who annually come to tour Nantucket/LV-112. In photo at bottom left, John Rogers, an East Boston school teacher and an LV-112 volunteer, helps students collect plankton with a tow net to view under a microscope on board LV-112. While in service as a commissioned USCG lightship on Nantucket Shoals Lightship Station, LV-112 was also an oceanographic research and reporting station working in conjunction with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. In addition, the ship served as a weather reporting station for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
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How you can
help LV-112's
light beacon
keep shining
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All electronic donations will be securely processed by PayPal |
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Support LV-112's restoration!
Become a USLM member today
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For a gift of $1,000 or more, donors will receive a limited-edition, fine-art print of the SS United States passing Nantucket Lightship/LV-112, signed by marine artist Gerald Levey.
Discover the value-added membership benefits when you become a member of the U.S. Lightship Museum (USLM). The USLM is a member of the Council of American Maritime Museums (CAMM). All USLM members will be granted reciprocal privileges (free admission) at participating CAMM institutions. For more information about the benefits and the USLM Membership program, click on USLM Membership.
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American Express
Amex Industrial Services, Inc.
Association of Public Safety Communications Officials - Atlantic Chapter
BAE Systems
Bluefin Robotics
Boston Forge & Welding Corp.
Boston Harbor
Shipyard & Marina
The Boston Foundation
ThreeBees Fund
Burnham Associates, Inc.
Burnham Marine
California Public Safety Radio Association
Cameron International Corporation
Charitable Adult Rides and
Services, Inc.
City of Boston
Community Preservation Act
C/J Towing & Recovery
Claflin & Son
Nautical Antiques
Crandall Dry Dock Engineers
Capt. Robertson P. Dinsmore Fund
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Donahue, Tucker &
Ciandella, PLLC
East Boston Foundation
Eastern Bank Charitable
Foundation
Egan Maritime Institute,
Nantucket Shipwreck &
Lifesaving Museum
Fitzgerald Shipyard
Foss Maritime
Friends of the
Boston Harbor Islands
H&H Propeller, Inc.
J. Hewitt Marine
Electrical Services
SR Johnson Fund
Kelly Automotive Group
H.F. Lenfest Fund
The Lightship Group, LLC
McAllister Towing &
Transportation Co.
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)
Joe and Pepette Mongrain
Fund
National Park Service
Save America's Treasures
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National Trust for
Historic Preservation
New England
Lighthouse Lovers
New London Maritime Society and Custom House Maritime Museum
Patriot Marine, LLC
The Sail Loft, LLC, Nantucket
Sherwin-Williams
Industrial Marine Coatings Division
State Street Corporation
T & M Services
Town of Oyster Bay,
Long Island, NY
U.S. Coast Guard Lightship Sailors Association
West Marine
U.S. Lighthouse Society
Westerbeke Company
USLM Members
Verizon Foundation
Zuni Maritime Foundation
USS Zuni / USCG Tamaroa
Individual Donors
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Nantucket/LV-112
Proudly made in USA
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USLM is a member
of the following organizations
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The United States Lightship Museum
The U.S. Lightship Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the rescue and preservation of Nantucket Lightship/LV-112, a National Historic Landmark and a National Treasure. LV-112 is a museum and floating learning center, open to the general public -- a place for people of all ages to learn about our nation's seafaring history and the technologies that advanced the nautical and marine sciences.
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