United States lightship Nantucket (LV-112)

United States lightship Nantucket (LV-112), also known as Lightship No. 112, Nantucket, is a National Historic Landmark lightship that served at the Lightship Nantucket position. She was the last serving lightship and at time of its application as a landmark, one of only two capable of moving under their own power. She served as the lightship for such notable vessels as SS United States, RMS Queen Mary, and SS Normandie. Her $300,000 cost, greater than that of any predecessor, was paid for by the White Star Line in compensation for the collision and sinking of United States lightship LV-117 at the Lightship Nantucket position by RMS Olympic, a sister ship to RMS Titanic. Seven of the eleven crew aboard the lightship were killed. LV-112, the permanent replacement, was built to be indestructible, and outlasted all others, serving until 1983.

She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989. At that time, the ship was located at the Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute Pier in South Portland, Maine, but touring along the New England Coast. An organization was seeking a permanent home for her in Portland, Maine.

She later was planned to be located permanently in Staten Island, New York, but sojourned for several years at Oyster Bay, New York. Some controversy has arisen over damage to wharves and unsightliness at Oyster Bay; other locals have wanted her retained there.

She was purchased in October 2009 by the United States Lightship Museum (USLM) under the leadership of Robert Mannino, Jr. for $1 and arrived under tow in Boston Harbor on 11 May 2010. She will be restored in two phases over the next several years, a job that will cost $1 million. She is currently undergoing renovations as a floating museum, but is open to the public at Boston Harbor Shipyard and Marina at 256 Marginal Street in East Boston, Massachusetts.

Additional reading

 * United States Coast Guard, Aids to Navigation, (Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1945).
 * Putnam, George R., Lighthouses and Lightships of the United States, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1933).
 * Putnam, George R., Lighthouses and Lightships of the United States, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1933).