The Lightship "Chesapeake"...

It's always nice when someone posts photos of your work on the web, especially when they have expertise about the boat in question. This is a model of a lightship that we did back in the mid - 90's. The research involved taught me a lot about  the history and work of lightships in the United States over the last few centuries. These ships were used, not only in coastal waters, but within the Great Lakes. Almost every lightship station had a succession of different vessels as technologies improved. Lightships were different from each other and varied in size. Prior to being the "Chesapeake", this lightship was the "Fenwick". If I recall correctly, it came off of the ways in Charleston, S.C. in 1928. It's sister ship, LV117, on station as the "Nantucket", sunk when the "Olympic", sister ship to the "Titanic" hit her on a foggy day in 1934, killing several crew. It was dangerous and, as I understand it, very boring work. All of the lightships have been replaced now by "Super Buoys". http://www.lightshipmodeler.iwarp.com/custom3.html