YEAR BUILT: 1876

BUILT AT: Portland (CT)

BUILDER: S. Gildersleeve & Sons

APPROPRIATION: $50,000
(Approp. Jan 23,1874 "for fog signals on lt-ships at entrance to Vineyard Sound"

CONTRACT PRICE: $33,000

SISTER VESSELS: None

DESIGN: Wood-white oak & locust; copper & galvanized iron fastened; bowsprit;
2 masts with daymarks; stack forward of mainmast; 2 aux. steam boilers

LENGTH: 120'6" (loa); BEAM: 26'9"; DRAFT: ll"0"; TONNAGE: 387 gross

PROPULSION: Sail- schooner rig, fore and main carried on spencer masts

ILLUMINATING APPARATUS: 2 lanterns, each having 8 oil lamps

FOG SIGNAL: "Browns fog siren", operated by compressed air supplied by a
caloric engine; hand operated bell

CONSTRUCTION NOTES - MODIFICATIONS - EQUIPMENT CHANGES & IMPROVEMENTS: LV 41
-1877: Dec, new "trumpet" supplied, hull resalted
-1882: Steam fog signal machinery substituted for hot air system
-188?: Bowsprit removed
-1910: Equipped with submarine bell signal
-1911: Compressed air fog signal machinery and 12" whistle replaced steam siren
-1913: Fog signal changed to air siren
-1919: Equipped with radio; discontinued 1923
-1920: Illuminant changed from oil to acetylene; light characteristic from 2
fixed red to 1 flashing white; forward lantern house and spencer mast removed;
acetylene lens lanterns installed at both mastheads
-1929: Submarine bell signal discontinued

STATION ASSIGNMENTS: LV 41
1876-1910: Vineyard Sound (MA)
1910-1915: Hedge Fence (MA)
1915-1924: Vineyard Sound (MA)
1924-1930: Handkerchief Shoal (MA)
1930-1933: Hedge Fence (MA)

(Records for 1881 state "she is moored NNE and 55W" with two 75 fathom chains
leading to a swivel and thence with 60 fathoms of chain leading inboard)
(1933 Jun 12, Hedge Fence station discontinued)

HISTORICAL NOTES: LV 41
-1876: Nov 13, stationed on Vineyard Sound (MA), replacing LV 39
-1879: Appropriation requested for replacement of" unsuitable" fog signal
-Broke adrift 1879 Feb 21 and once in 1881
-1883: Nov parted chain, came to anchor in Tarpaulin Cove but fouled a schooner
"doing much damage to both" returned to station Feb 2, 1884
-1886: Jan 9, broke adrift, replaced on station 12 using a single anchor
-1889: Oct parted chain and went adrift. Apr 19 in collision with steamer
-1890: May 10-11, parted chain and adrift
-1891: Feb 15-19, adrift and replaced on station by tender GERANIUM from Boston;
again broke adrift Mar 4, in NW gale, coming to anchor oft East Chop Light
-1891: "lights shown were changed from fixed white to fixed red"; fog signal
operated 1, 134 hours during the year using 62 tons of coal out of 1 03 tons
total coal consumption
-1893: In collision with barges Jan 1 and Oct 23
-1904: In collision with tug AARON N BANGS
-1915: Jun 10, placed on Vineyard Sound, withdrawn 1924, Oct


More notes:
-1923: Apr 29, took aboard 21 survivors from 55 SEACONNET which sank 1 ml. south of lightship with loss of 7 crew. Lightship provided food and dry clothing until survivors removed by tender ANEMONE and taken to New Bedford
-1924: Oct 28, placed on Handkerchief Shoal withdrawn 1930 Aug 28
-1930: Oct 19, placed on Hedge Fence
-1933: Jun 12, withdrawn when Hedge Fence station discontinued and assigned as Relief; laid up and out of commission Jul 1, 1933

RETIRED FROM LIGHTSHIP DUTY: 1933 ; AGE: 41

SUBSEQUENT DISPOSITION: Sold Oct 29, 1934

COMMANDING OFFICERS: LV 41

1887-1893: George W Thompson , Keeper
1894-1897: George W Thompson, Master
1897-1899: Francis Hallett, Master
1899-1903: George W Thompson, Master
1903-1913: Ernest West, Master
1913-1921: Joseph F Baxter, Master
?-1914: Jahn Hansen, Mate
1914-1915: Zemira C McDonald, Mate
1915-1922: Frank H Nickerson, Mate
1921-1930: R E B Phillips, Master
1925-1927: Ernest L Snow, Mate
1927-1928: John B Dupre, Mate
1928-1933: Louie V Veeder, Mate
1930-1931: J B Frizzel, Master

Back to Vineyard Lightship Station History.

 

Copyright © 2003  United States Coast Guard Lightship Sailors Association INC. All rights reserved. Copyrights also protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998
Revised: 10/23/06.