YEAR BUILT: 1912

BUILT AT: Muskegon (MI)

BUILDER: Racine-Truscott-Shell Lake Boat Co

APPROPRIATION: $50,000

(Appropriations Mar 3, 1903 and May 14, 1908)

CONTRACT PRICE: $42,910

SISTER VESSELS: None

DESIGN: Steam screw; steel hull with whaleback forecastle deck; single lantern mast forward, short jigger mast aft; daymark on main; stack amidships

LENGTH: 95'2"(loa); BEAM: 21'0"; DRAFT: 7'6"; TONNAGE: 187 displ, fresh water (Records also show draft as 8'l0" and 10' and show displacement as 209 in 1915)

PROPULSION: Steam - one 90 IHP reciprocating engine; main boiler 14' dia, 120 psi; cast iron propeller 5' dia x 7'2" pitch


ILLUMINATING APPARATUS: Cluster of three 200mm oil lens lanterns on sleeve, hoisted to masthead; each lamp rated l70cp

FOG SIGNAL: 10" steam whistle; submarine bell, hand operated bell


CONSTRUCTION NOTES - MODIFICATIONS - EQUIPMENT CHANGES & IMPROVEMENTS: LV 82-
1915: Illuminating apparatus converted to acetylene-
1931: Submarine bell discontinued

STATION ASSIGNMENTS: LV 82

1912-1913: Buffalo (NY)
1916: Relief (laid up)
1917-1925: Relief (10th District)
1926-1936: Eleven Foot Shoal (MI)

(1914-1915: In process of being located, raised and repaired after having sunk during a hurricane on Nov 10, 1913)
(Eleven Foot Shoal station discontinued in 1936; replaced by Eleven Foot Shoal Lighthouse)

HISTORICAL NOTES: LV 82-
1912: Jul 12, delivered-
1912: Aug 3, placed on Buffalo (NY), 13 miles off entrance to Buffalo Harbor
"temporarily to mark approaches to Buffalo pending construction of LV 96"-
1913: Nov 13, sunk during hurricane with loss of all 6 personnel aboard; (station
temporarily marked by LV 96 during 1914 then LV 98 assigned in 1915)-
1914: May 9, wreck located 1 7/8 mi NNE from station in 63 feet; diver reported
hull intact but interior wrecked, and no bodies found. Contract let for salvage.-
1914: Oct, new contract ($19,500) awarded for raising vessel since former
contractor had failed to perform-
1914: Oct 29, body of C.W. Butler, Engineer was recovered in Niagara River,
at Buffalo, nearly 13 miles from where the lightship went down-
1915: Sep 16, vessel raised by means of pontoons; repaired and returned to
service-
1920: Assigned to Relief duty until 1925, then laid up in 1926 at Detroit-
1926: Placed on Eleven Foot Shoal (MI) until station discontinued in 1936-
1936: Transferred to 2d District Hq, Chelsea MA


RETIRED FROM LIGHTSHIP DUTY: 1936; AGE: 24

SUBSEQUENT DISPOSITION: 1936 Jul, acquired by Boston VFW, USS Constitution Post for use as floating Hq in the Fort Point Channel, South Boston. Said to have been scrapped in 1942; also said to have been sunk by vandals in 1945

COMMANDING OFFICERS: LV 82

1912-1913: Hugh M Williams, Master (lost in sinking Nov 10, 1913)
1912-1913: Andrew Leahy, Mate (lost in sinking Nov 10, 1913)
1916-?: Conrad Christiansen, Master
1916-1917: Thorwald Berntsen, Mate
1917-1919: Richard Tobin, Mate
1922-?: Edwin J Wilkinson, Mate

Back to Buffalo Lightship Station History

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Revised: 10/23/06.