Bar Point Shoal Lightship LV 59

YEAR BUILT: 1893

BUILT AT: Toledo (OH)

BUILDER: Craig Shipbuilding Co

APPROPRIATION: $25,000
(Approp. for a lightship for Bar Point (Ml) to replace privately owned vessel)

CONTRACT PRICE: $13,490

SISTER VESSELS: LV 60,61,62

DESIGN: Wood framed & planked, white oak fastened with 3/4" iron bolts; foremast with spencer; short after mast; stack amidships; fog signal ahead of stack; daymark on foremast; single large deckhouse; hull painted black initially

LENGTH: 87'2" (loa); BEAM: 216"; DRAFT: 8'0"; TONNAGE: 160 displ (fresh water)

PROPULSION: None-riding sail rigged on after mast

ILLUMINATING APPARATUS: Cluster of 3 oil burning lens lanterns hoisted to foremasthead

FOG SIGNAL: 6" steam whistle

CONSTRUCTION NOTES - MODIFICATIONS - EQUIPMENT CHANGES & IMPROVEMENTS: LV 50
-Built under separate contract, but otherwise identical to LV 60, 61 and 62
-Repairs were made while the vessel was withdrawn during the period the Lakes were closed to navigation, usually Dec-Mar/Apr each year
-1907: Mar, submarine bell signal installed and placed in operation

STATION ASSIGNMENTS: LV 59

1893-1910: Bar Point Shoal
1911-1914: Poe Reef (MI)

(Bar Point Shoal lies in Canadian waters near the mouth of the Detroit River, Lake Erie. It was marked by the US with permission of the Canadian Government)

HISTORICAL NOTES' LV 59
-1893: Sep 20, placed on Bar Point Shoal, mouth of Detroit River, Lake Erie;
black hull, white lettering; fog signal 10 sec blast, :30 sec silent; 1 FW light
-1893: Dec 6 withdrawn for winter to Detroit Lighthouse Depot
-Typical of Great Lakes lightships, the vessel. was withdrawn from station during
the period the Lakes were closed to navigation, usually early December through
March or April - Necessary repairs and refitting were performed during winter
-1898: Dec 11, carried off station by moving ice, drifting in western end of Lake
Erie for 10 days, when picked up and towed to Detroit Dec 21
-1899: Smokestack replaced
-1900: Boiler repairs
-1902: Under repair at opening of navigation; station marked by lighted buoy
until Apr 29 when lightship took station
-1906: Oct 17, damaged in collision with barge under tow
-1907: Mar, equipped with submarine bell signal
-1911: Mar/Apr, transferred and placed on Poe Reef (MI) in Lake Huron
-1914: Surveyed Sep/Oct, rated un seaworthy and condemned

More notes:

RETIRED PROM LIGHTSHIP DUTY: 1914; AGE: 21

SUBSEQUENT DISPOSITION: Oct 1, 1914 sold at public auction - $314
Said to have been later registered as tug LEATHEM D SMITH

COMMANDING OFFICERS: LV 59

1894-1897: Thomas Cooney, Master
1897-1902: William Wybrands Master
1902-?: Edwin J Wilkinson, Master

?-1914: Martin Tellefson, Mate
1914: Ernest LeBahn, Mate
?-1914: G J Navarre, Master

Back to Bar Point Shoal Lightship Station History