Continuing with Ben Steelman's article.
Salvors raised it in June 1866, and took it to Cassidey and Beery Shipyard in Wilmington where it was repaired and refitted as a lightship and served from 1867 until it was condemned in 1878.
Lightship No. 28 resumed the Frying Pan Shoals station in 1865 and was the first ship to have the famous "Frying Pan Shoals" name painted in big letters on the hull. It had two lights mounted 40 feet above the water.
Other lightships followed, the longest-serving was the 133 feet long No. 115 (WAL-337) built in Charleston, SC, in 1929.
In 1964, the Frying Pan Shoals Light Tower took station. It is a 125 foot tall Texas tower built in Louisiana and manned by the Coast Guard until 1970. Then, an unmanned weather station operated on the tower until 2003. The tower suffered severe damage from Hurricanes Fran and Floyd.
Recently, the tower was auctioned off, amid quite a bit of controversy.
Oh, Give Me a Light. --B-Runner
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
Showing posts with label lightships. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lightships. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
So, What Are the Frying Pan Shoals? --Part 3-- The CSS Arctic
I went to good ol' Wikipedia and found a list of lightships.
It had Lightship D, which it said was built c1854 and served duty until 1860 when it was sunk or captured by the Confederate States Navy.
Lightship No. 8, or LV-8 (Light Vessel I presume) was built in 1855 and originally called the Thomas G. Haight and then commissioned in the US Navy as the USS Arctic and sold to the Lighthouse Establishment sometime prior to 1859. It was sunk by the CS Navy and later salvaged and repaired and used as a lightship again at Hans and Chickens from 1867 to 1877, and then relief from 1877 to 1879.
I seem to remember there being a CSS Arctic at Wilmington during the war. Could this have been the LV-8.
UPON FURTHER RESEARCH
The Dictionary of American Fighting Ships list a CSS Arctic at Wilmington.
It says the CSS Arctic was built at Wilmington in 1863 as an ironclad floating battery. and also a receiving ship for Flag Officer Robert F. Pinkney's North Carolina Defense Force. It was stationed on the Cape Fear River from 1862-1864 (Hard to be 1862 if it was built in 1863) with Lt. C.B. Poindexter, CSN, in command.
The machinery was removed in 1862 to be used on the CSS Richmond ironclad being constructed in Richmond. It was sunk Dec. 24, 1864, in the Cape Fear River as an obstruction.
There sure is a lot of confusion as to this ship. But the fact that the lightship had at one time had the name USS Arctic leads me to believe that perhaps the CSS Arctic and this vessel were the same.
So That's What Happened to Those Lightships. --B-R
It had Lightship D, which it said was built c1854 and served duty until 1860 when it was sunk or captured by the Confederate States Navy.
Lightship No. 8, or LV-8 (Light Vessel I presume) was built in 1855 and originally called the Thomas G. Haight and then commissioned in the US Navy as the USS Arctic and sold to the Lighthouse Establishment sometime prior to 1859. It was sunk by the CS Navy and later salvaged and repaired and used as a lightship again at Hans and Chickens from 1867 to 1877, and then relief from 1877 to 1879.
I seem to remember there being a CSS Arctic at Wilmington during the war. Could this have been the LV-8.
UPON FURTHER RESEARCH
The Dictionary of American Fighting Ships list a CSS Arctic at Wilmington.
It says the CSS Arctic was built at Wilmington in 1863 as an ironclad floating battery. and also a receiving ship for Flag Officer Robert F. Pinkney's North Carolina Defense Force. It was stationed on the Cape Fear River from 1862-1864 (Hard to be 1862 if it was built in 1863) with Lt. C.B. Poindexter, CSN, in command.
The machinery was removed in 1862 to be used on the CSS Richmond ironclad being constructed in Richmond. It was sunk Dec. 24, 1864, in the Cape Fear River as an obstruction.
There sure is a lot of confusion as to this ship. But the fact that the lightship had at one time had the name USS Arctic leads me to believe that perhaps the CSS Arctic and this vessel were the same.
So That's What Happened to Those Lightships. --B-R
Saturday, August 8, 2009
So, What Are the Frying Pan Shoals? -- Part 2
A HISTORY OF THE FPS
The shoals were first shown on a 1738 map by James Wimble and called Cape Fair Shoals. A 1790 map had them listed as Frying Pan Shoals.
They get their name because of their shape and they are formed by silt carried out to sea by the Cape Fear River. They are hazardous because they occasionally shift and over the years have cause numerous shipwrecks.
Lightships were stationed there from 1854 to 1964 with the exceptions of the Civil War and World War II. Lightship D too station from 1854 to 1861 when it was removed to Fort Caswell and burned by the Union Navy the night of Dec. 30-31, 1861. It was a first-order lightship, mounting two lights 40 feet above the water.
The Navy Department tried to send Lightship No. 8 to replace it, but it was seized by Confederates. On December 1864, it was sunk in the Cape Fear River 3 miles south of Wilmington as an obstruction.
That Light Is Still On. --Blockade-R
The shoals were first shown on a 1738 map by James Wimble and called Cape Fair Shoals. A 1790 map had them listed as Frying Pan Shoals.
They get their name because of their shape and they are formed by silt carried out to sea by the Cape Fear River. They are hazardous because they occasionally shift and over the years have cause numerous shipwrecks.
Lightships were stationed there from 1854 to 1964 with the exceptions of the Civil War and World War II. Lightship D too station from 1854 to 1861 when it was removed to Fort Caswell and burned by the Union Navy the night of Dec. 30-31, 1861. It was a first-order lightship, mounting two lights 40 feet above the water.
The Navy Department tried to send Lightship No. 8 to replace it, but it was seized by Confederates. On December 1864, it was sunk in the Cape Fear River 3 miles south of Wilmington as an obstruction.
That Light Is Still On. --Blockade-R
So, What Are the Frying Pan Shoals?-- Part 1
The Wilmington (NC) Star News reporter Ben Steelman answered the question of what are the Frying Pan Shoals, located off the Cape Fear River.
They are a line of shallow sandbars extending southeast of Bald Head Island for 28 miles into the Atlantic Ocean, and they have always been a menace to navigation, and during the Civil War, made it particularly difficult to blockade for Union ships, especially with the fact there were two entrances blockade-runners could choose.
Two lighthouses were built over the years to mark it as well as several lightships, and one Texas tower. Today, it is very popular with fishermen, especially for blue fin tuna. Recently, the tower was auctioned off, but the deal apparently has fallen through.
Since 2003, the NOAA has operated a 3-meter discus buoy about 8.22 miles off the Frying Pan Shoals Light Tower.
We'll Leave the Light On Again. --Old B-Runner
They are a line of shallow sandbars extending southeast of Bald Head Island for 28 miles into the Atlantic Ocean, and they have always been a menace to navigation, and during the Civil War, made it particularly difficult to blockade for Union ships, especially with the fact there were two entrances blockade-runners could choose.
Two lighthouses were built over the years to mark it as well as several lightships, and one Texas tower. Today, it is very popular with fishermen, especially for blue fin tuna. Recently, the tower was auctioned off, but the deal apparently has fallen through.
Since 2003, the NOAA has operated a 3-meter discus buoy about 8.22 miles off the Frying Pan Shoals Light Tower.
We'll Leave the Light On Again. --Old B-Runner
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