SOS-RELIEF may be scrapped!

I have just heard some disturbing news: lightship WAL-605, now known as RELIEF (her last station was West Coast Relief) may meet the shipwrecker if hull plates need replacing when she goes to dry-dock. The ship has not been hauled out since 1976 and her hull is in an unknown condition. I have been informed that hull plates on another lightship on the east coast cost approx. one million dollars. The United States Lighthouse Society, who owns the ship, does not have that kind of money. The ship is awaiting funds to be freed to allow dry-docking. She could go in at any time.

Folks, please help. Please send your letters to the USLHS asking them to try their best to find a way to save the RELIEF. I don't know if there is a Federal fund that may be tapped to help defray the costs of new hull plates, if they are needed, but please, folks, send letters in support of the ship. The USLHS needs to know that RELIEF is an important part of our lighthouse/maritime history and must be saved. Remember, there are only 15 lightships left. I know there are plenty of people out there who are waiting for the ship to be opened to the public. The USLHS needs to know that the ship is not a 'white elephant' and will be visited by many lighthouse and maritime enthusiasts. If you can spare a donation, earmarked for the RELIEF, please do so. I am a member of USLHS, but I am not representing the group in writing this post. I am a concerned lighthouse/lightship enthusiast and HL collector who got involved in the restoration of the ship because it was the closest thing to LH restoration near me. I am just trying to get the word out about what may happen to the ship before it is to late and sold to the wrecker. Too many lighthouses and lightships have been lost because action was not taken quickly enough. I hope that your letters will help make a difference when the fate of WAL-605 is decided. It is very likely that there is damage to the hull. However, we are still afloat, and we will go down fighting, if need be!

Please address letters to:

Wayne Wheeler
United States Lighthouse Society
244 Kearny St-5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94108

Thank you for your support of the RELIEF!

DPL,

Worst case scenario, and the hull needs major work perhaps they could find a location that would allow the Relief to be permanently beached. This is how the Huron and Portsmouth are now displayed. Not very mobile, but it beats the scrapyard.

Dave

[This message has been edited by Dave H (edited 11-03-99).]

Hi Dave!

I thought of that as a possible alternative to scrapping also. If we can just convince USLHS! And someone else to allow a beached lightship to hang around! I thought maybe it could be beached and opened as a museum. If funds come in later it could be repaired and relaunched. I really don't know if that is feasible, but dang, they shouldn't scrap it! Once it's gone, that's it! No bringing it back! I know there have been concerns over the hull for quite awhile. I have no idea if they can repair smaller rusted areas or if large sections will be rusted thin. The way that thing rusts, I wonder if it is really just a floating piece of rust! We haven't sunk yet!!!

I saw a wonderful slide lecture last May in Cape Cod during their annual Maritime Week. It was sponsored and held at the Salt Pond Visitor Center at the National Seashores Park. (this maritime festival is an annual event each mid-May, where all lighthouses are open for tour and climbs; plus many special lighthouse cruises, lectures, symposiums etc. Look for it on the internet on Cape Cod's website).

The topic of this program was LIGHTSHIPS, and it was presented by Doug Bingham, who is an authority on the subject. He knows about every ship out there; has extensive archival photo articles, and used many of these old photos for his presentation. He has also been actively involved in saving at least one lightship here in New England area. Harbour Lights contacted him for help when they designed their Anchor Bay lighthship series.

I would suggest contacting him for any insight on how your group might go about saving the RELIEF. Write to him at 45 West St., #B-1, Randolph, MA 02368. Hope this might help you and your group. Have you tried writing to your US Senators and Reps for backing? How about the Maritime Museum right down in San Francisco Bay? They have several other ships; I should think this would be a grand addition, if they could put it in position out of the water (if the rust is so bad). How about appealing to the Coast Guard personnel themselves, both active and retired? THere is a website out there just for them that I have contacted for other matters. Will try to find the address for you. Famous words: "Never Give Up the Ship".

Another possibility perhaps, is to berth it in a cradle. We have a WWII destroyer here named the USS Kidd on a cradle in the Mississippi River. It can't sink, yet maintains the look and feel of being afloat. When the river level is very high it does float within the confines of the cradle.

Anyway, they built the cradle then floated the Kidd onto it at the river equivalent of high tide.

Lamar's reference to the KIDD is a good one, and one which I have a particular interest in.

KIDD is acutally U.S.S. KIDD, DD 661, a World War II FLETCHER class destroyer, and only one of three left of the 175 which were built during the war. It's recognized as the most authentically restored and back-dated warship memorial extant in the United States.

The cradle Lamar refers to was very expensive to create, but it does allow the ship to maintain it's berth next to the museum as the river rises and falls about 16 feet seasonally.

If you have the interest, you can access the KIDD's Web site at:

http://www.premier.net/~uss_kidd/home.html

Bob Steinbrunn
Nautical Research Guild
Member, Louisiana Naval War Memorial-U.S.S.KIDD

[This message has been edited by Bob Steinbrunn (edited 09-24-99).]

Thanks for all the great ideas. I will get more information on the RELIEF when I am there on Oct. 2. Dry-docking may not happen this season (we don't have much time left) and the funds have not been released yet. SO we may have time to really check into alternatives. Of course there could be a miracle and the hull could be in perfect shape. Or only minor damage. We console ourselves with "we are still floating!" every Sat. I've seen pictures of her when she was first brought up from Half Moon Bay in 87-she looked like she was ready for the wrecker then. No one knows what condition the hull is in. I think I need to get some idea of alternatives and head over to San Francisco with a report drawn up and present it to the Head Keep' himself. I'm sure if there were some sort of alternative plan and an obvious public interest, he and the board might consider the alternatives to scrapping.

The USS Hornet is in Alameda now, as a museum. I would like to see the RELIEF join her over there as the new maritime and air museum takes shape. It would be wonderful if she could be in the water, but maybe a cradle would work (she's smaller than the KIDD-128 ft long, 30 ft beam) so maybe it would be feasible. Or some kind of dry land thing. I would like to see her some day return to the sea when money could be raised to repair her hull. I dream of the day when I can be aboard when she gets underway again. I want to help find a spare engine for her so we can do that again. I just don't want to see her go to the wrecker. One of our volunteers was a lighship sailor for 4 years. He liked it and now feels an obligation to help this one survive. For 12 years he has devoted at least one day every weekend to working aboard the ship. In talking to him as we work I have found he truly loves the ship. He taught me to splice rope. He tells me about living on the ship. I know there are others out there like him. There must be others willing to help. There is really no publicity about the RELIEF, and that just adds to the problem-if people know about the ship, there would be more volunteers and more public outcry if she were to be scrapped. As it is, she can slip away unnoticed, and few will ever know what has been lost.

Here's a photo of Relief by Dove Point Light:

Stand tall and fast. Make sure anyone and everyone knows about this situation. Write your local newspapers about it and its situation.... reach out and let others help out. Keep up the great work, and keep me posted, I will write all the letters I can from this end to anyone you need them sent to. Email me at Coasty@xensei.com
Rick Bennett mk1 ret last keeper of Isles of Shoals Light Portsmouth NH and crew of Portland Lightship WLV612 and Nantucket 1 WLV612 the one we are trying to save on the east coast near Boston.

Even though there aren't as many lightships around as lighthouses, they are still part of the maritime history of our country and deserve to be saved and become part of a museum somewhere. I hope bringing to light the plight of the RELIEF will help for the West Coast. There is one on the East Coast in MA that is in big trouble also and needs to be saved. Finances seem to be the problem there.

I have been emailing to Coasty above and also to another person who comes from MI where he voluneeers on the Huron in MI and also comes all the way to NE to help on the lightship based in Bridgeport, CT, which is now open for public tours, in case your vacation takes you this way.

We don't see lightships along the shores like we do lighthouses, so most of us probably don't know that much about them. Is there a certain portion of you HL'ers who are interested in lightships? If HL stops making Anchor Bay, those other lightships will never get made -- too bad.

The remaining lightships can be found at:

www.HarbourLights.com/lightships/

John,
Do you know if the Overfalls made the trip to Old Saybrook last spring as planned? Perhaps Barbara or another CT area person knows.

Dave

I'm interested in lightships and have the Anchor Bay models of the ones I've seen - Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and Columbia. I used to live in Astoria OR and had a view of the Columbia River from my house. One day someone mentioned the LS Columbia as being permanently moored at the maritime museum. I said, oh, no, it still goes out. I was positive, because sometimes I could see it from my house and sometimes it wasn't there. It turned out that the tide coming in and out made the ship go up and down and I could see it when it was up, but not when it was down!

Dixie

Dave H
The lightship WAL 539 is still in Lewes Delaware and has not made the trip to Saybrook Conn. as yet. I will check with the Lewes Historical Society next time I am down there and find out what is going on. It is really in bad shape and hope it will be able to make the trip without problems. It has not been taken very good care of. It served as the Cornfield Cross Rip and Boston stations before it was decomissioned and sent to Lewes De. It never served as the Overfalls lightship station. The Lewes Historical Society brought it there and put Overfalls name on it to be used as a tourist attraction which I think was misleading to the public.
Hal

Here's a site I found on the 15 remaining lightships:

http://www.maritimeman.com/lightships.htm

John, I stand corrected. It's the WLV612 I saw in Boston, not the 613.