LV 79/WAL 506 Barnegat Lightship

Barnegat Lightship

Here is a newspaper picture that appeared at the time hailing the good work being done.

That was then, this is NOW, 2004.

As with all of the remaining USCG Lightships this Ship is on the National Historical Registry.

The City of Philadelphia PA was not that impressed with the fact they had a Lightship on display there. The Heritage Ship Guild at Penns Landing, Philadelphia PA. found out that their purchase was NOT a money maker. What did they do? Abandon it.. That's what they did. Ask your self, how can something on the National Historical Registry be abandoned? Are there no protection for pieces of history? Answer, there are no protections offered under the umbrella of the National Historical Registry!

Here is the frosting on the cake. Here is the final straw. This shows the total disregard for honesty in the City of Philadelphia PA How do you like this quote from Frommer's Philadelphia and the Amish Country, 11th Edition. We hope it really makes you mad enough to stand up and be counted!!

"Another group of boats occupies the landfill directly on the Delaware between Market and Walnut streets. The Gazela Primiero, a working three-masted, square-rigged wooden ship launched from Portugal in 1883, has visiting hours on Saturday and Sunday 12:30 to 5:30pm when it's in port. Adjoining are the Barnegat Lightship and the tugboat Jupiter; all of the above are operated by the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild (tel. 215/923-9030); admission $3 adults, $2 students."

They are still trading on the good name of that ship and it HAS BEEN GONE from Philadelphia FOR YEARS!!

We are talking about a ship that stayed on Station NO MATTER THE WEATHER! This was a Ship that Mariners depended on for safe passage! This is a Ship that her Crew depended on for their very lives in bad weather! This Ship was the FIRST thing some immigrants saw long before they saw the Statue of Liberty when coming into the United States for the first time.

Three or four years ago there were rumored to be plans put forth by the Camden Museum & Learning Center Inc or by some individual lurking in the background that someone was going to preserve and restore the Lightship for viewing in Camden.

For these past years the Ship has been sitting at a makeshift pier on it's bottom at each low tide. There are pumps keeping the water level down in the bilges. NOTHING is being done to restore the Ship.

The story goes that something will be done when the US Navy Ship the City or the Camden Museum & Learning Center Inc owns is restored.

NO consideration is being given to the Lightship that she was built in 1904 and has many items of wooden materials aboard it. NO protection is being afforded for termites.

Pictures taken a few years ago show areas of the Ship that have been carefully restored in the past.

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