Diamond Shoals No. 71: The Only
US Lightship Sunk by Enemy Action
uscg photo
O
ne of the most monotonous, arduous and dangerous duties performed by the Coast Guard and one of its predecessors, the US Lighthouse Service,1 was manning stationary vessels positioned in shallow water or near shoals, where, because of the difficult location, it was impossible to build a lighthouse. Quite frequently, these vessels marked the approach to a port or the outer limits of outlying dangers. Occasionally, they were used in inside waters. The primary purpose of a lightship is to serve as a beacon by day, a platform for a light by night, and a sound signal in time of fog. Moreover, with radio equipment, lightships are invaluable relay stations. Lightship duty was considered the most dangerous duty in the Lighthouse Service. Real danger generally came from two sources: stormy weather or collision with another vessel. Many a lightship was sunk by both over the years, and one, the Diamond Shoals lightship (No. 71), would be the only one sunk by enemy action!2 Great Britain’s first lightship took station at the Nore Sandbank in the Thames River estuary in 1731. In the United States the first recorded use of a lightship, then known as a “lightboat,” was at Willoughby
by C. Douglas Kroll, PhD
Spit in Virginia in 1820.3 America’s first true “outside” lightship—anchored in the open sea instead of within a bay or inlet— entered service in 1823 off Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The station’s name changed to Ambrose Channel in 1908. The first Diamond Shoals lightboat, built in New York in 1823–1824, assumed its station some thirteen miles ESE of Cape
Hatteras, North Carolina, in late June of 1824. The following February, a powerful storm ripped the vessel from its mooring and did considerable damage to the lightboat itself. It was forced to sail to Norfolk for repairs. Because there were no relief lightboats to take her place, the treacherous Diamond Shoals went without a beacon for the entire ten months that its lightboat was being repaired. Back on station in late December, the vessel remained there just five months, when another storm the following May snapped her moorings. With no spare anchor or chain, she had to put in to Norfolk again. The Diamond Shoals lightboat did not return to its station until November 1826. Nine months later, in August 1827, another storm parted her moorings again, and then drove the vessel up on the beach south of Ocracoke Inlet along North Carolina’s Outer Banks. She ended up so far aground that she was impossible to refloat and was broken up for salvage. Seventy years would pass before
uscg photo
Lightships served an important role in the safe navigation of shipping, but the life of a lightship crewmember serving aboard a ship that stayed anchor far from shore for months at a time was fairly boring. Here, a lightship crew passes the time playing cards down below. 38
SEA HISTORY 161, WINTER 2017–18