Historic Ship in Oyster Bay Sold to Boston Group
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nass ... -1.1537827
Quote:
Historic ship in Oyster Bay sold to Boston group
October 21, 2009 By BILL BLEYER
After deteriorating for more than six years at the Waterfront Center in Oyster Bay, the historic Nantucket Lightship has been sold for $1 by the National Lighthouse Museum to a new nonprofit group in Boston that plans to move it there next month and restore it as a museum.
Jerry Roberts, a board member of the National Lighthouse Museum, which has been trying to open for a decade on the Staten Island waterfront, said he and Robert Mannino Jr., head of the new United States Lightship Museum group, signed the transfer documents Tuesday.
The ship was based in Boston when it was not stationed off Nantucket Island to guide ships toward New York.
Because the planned museum site in Staten Island could not accommodate the lightship, it was brought temporarily to Oyster Bay, where it languished as the museum plans for a city-owned site stalled after Sept. 11, 2001. A succession of planned transfers to cities in Connecticut and Rhode Island fell through.
Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto had said that the ship could remain at the town pier at no charge until its future was assured. "As long as the lightship is going to be in good hands and be utilized for an appropriate purpose, I'm very satisfied with it," he said of the transfer. "It's time to put it to good use. We would still cooperate with whatever it takes" to make the transfer successful.
Roberts, director of the Connecticut River Museum in Essex, Conn., said the new group has raised almost $200,000 for a restoration. The transfer documents prevent the group from reselling the 73-year-old vessel for more than $1.
The 150-foot-long ship was built after its predecessor was rammed and sunk by the RMS Olympic, sister ship of the Titanic, marking the shoals off Nantucket, Mass. The British paid for the replacement, the world's largest lightship.
During World War II, the vessel was painted gray and outfitted with guns before being assigned to guard the harbor at Portland, Maine.
Retired in 1975, the ship was designated a national historic landmark in 1989. It was docked at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in Manhattan before being acquired by the HMS Rose Foundation in Bridgeport, Conn., which sold it to the lighthouse museum in 2002 for $1.
Go shoot it while you can...
http://www.moose135photography.com/p..._PgfsJ-L-3.jpg
Re: Historic Ship in Oyster Bay Sold to Boston Group
Re: Historic Ship in Oyster Bay Sold to Boston Group
where is the ship located now? i'm looking for any excuse to go play with my D200..
Re: Historic Ship in Oyster Bay Sold to Boston Group
Oyster bay
106 all the way up at
Westend Ave & Bayside Ave
if you hit Bayville, you went too far. Happy hunting! :borat:
Re: Historic Ship in Oyster Bay Sold to Boston Group
Great pictures Fred...
Did anyone know there are actually three "historic" lightship Nantuckets out there these days?
http://www.seateamimages.com/big103361.html
http://seateamimages.com/STI/pics/103/103361_big.jpg
Nantucket WLV-612 has been in New York before, but usually its in New
England. Not sure if it spent part of the winter in Battery Park or was I lucky to catch it that
day. This was taken the day the USAir was supposed to be lifted out of the Hudson River.
The Lightship Nantucket that Moose posted and Fred took those wonderful shots of is actually
LV-112.
Lightship WLV-613, Nantucket II is currently tied up in Wareham, MA.
http://www.cyberlights.com/cgi-bin/show ... gi?id=ma34
http://www.cyberlights.com/lh/mass/i...nantucket1.jpg
All three ships are of interest but its almost an embarrassment of riches considering many vessel types have no survivors at all...
Tom
Re: Historic Ship in Oyster Bay Sold to Boston Group
Very interesting, Tom - I remember seeing the ship when I was shooting USAir, and was wondering about it, since I hadn't heard anything about moving the one from Oyster Bay.
Matt, to get there, take Rt. 106 north into the village of Oyster Bay. Take a left onto Audrey Avenue. You'll pass the parking lot for the OB LIRR station on your right. At the stop sign at the end of the lot, you'll see the park entrance to your right, across the RR tracks. Drive straight in, and you can't miss the ship.
http://www.moose135photography.com/p...29_UeYDo-L.jpg
And let me know when you are going - I'm literally 2 minutes away, and if I'm around, I'd be glad to meet up with you.
