Lightship Relief

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Lightship Relief in 2001 - 37th trip

Oakland, California

Built: 1951

Decommissioned: 1975

The Lightship Relief was commissioned in 1951 as Light Vessel No. 605, and was built by the Rice Brothers Shipyard in Boothbay, Maine. She first went into service as Lightship Overfalls off Delaware until 1960 when she was transferrd to the Blunts reef station off Cape Mendocino, California. Then in 1969 she became Relief, relieving all west coast lightships when they left the station for overhaul. Decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1975, she was given to the City of Olympia, Washington in 1976. The city sold the vessel to Mr. Alan Hosking of Woodside, California in 1979 and he donated the ship to the U.S. Lighthouse Society in 1986. Well over 10,000 hours have been spent restoring the vessel by Society members. The ship has many historical artifacts on board, and has been designated as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Relief is 128 feet long, with a beam of 30 feet, a draft of 11 feet and a displacement of 617 tons. She is propelled by an Atlas Imperial 8 cylinder diesel engine (450 HP) and single screw. She has a speed of 11.5 knots with a range of 22,000 miles.

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Lighthouses: A Photographic Journey

Conceived and Developed by David S. Carter

Photographs by Donald W. Carter

Text by Diana K. Carter, Donald W. Carter & David S. Carter

Copyright © 1995-2011 David S. Carter, Donald W. Carter, & Diana K. Carter. All rights reserved. Reproduction by any means, physical or electronic, in part or in full, without the express permission of the authors, is strictly prohibited.

This article was last modified on 6/4/2009.