This is the primary anchor for the nearby Lightship that is on display. It can be accessed without a tour.
As for the lightship Overfalls, it was a United States Coast Guard lightship that served from 1938 to 1972. It currently resides docked along the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal in downtown Lewes.
Lightvessels or lightships act as lighthouses in places where it was difficult to build one or easier to utilize a ship. While this is a relatively simple idea, even when anchored, the ship will migrate from its intended location. The crew's main purpose is to ensure it is located properly to ensure safety of navigation for others.
As for Overfalls, this ship never served at the Overfalls location, it actually served Cornfield Point, Cross Rip and Boston. Normally the ship would be named for the station where they are served so some ships changed names over time. The lightship that served at Overfalls is located in Portsmouth, Virginia.
History of the ship via Wikipedia (
visit link)
This ship was built to replace LV-44, badly damaged in the New England Hurricane of 1938, for the Cornfield Point station. Patterned after the LV-112, she has a hull unlike that of any of her sisters; in effect, a single-ship class. She is the last riveted-hull lightship built for the United States Lighthouse Service, all subsequent ships having welded hulls. Propulsion was diesel, with a set of diesel generators and compressors providing power for the beacon and auxiliaries. The light was a duplex 375 mm (14.8 in) lantern on a single mast, at 57 ft (17 m) above the water line. Dual diaphones were provided for a fog signal, as well as a bell and radiobeacon. A radar unit was installed in 1943. The crew complement was fourteen, to serve on a two weeks on/one week off basis. When the lighthouse service was merged into the coast guard in 1939, she was renumbered WAL 539.
LV 118 / WAL 539 served at these stations:
1938-1957: Cornfield Point, Connecticut
1958-1962: Cross Rip, Massachusetts
1962-1972: Boston, Massachusetts
Unlike most US lightships WAL 539 remained on station during World War II. A severe storm in December 1970 damaged the ship, leading to her decommissioning on November 7, 1972. Upon retirement WAL 539 was donated to the Lewes Historical Society and placed on display in Lewes, Delaware, painted for the "OVERFALLS" station, though she never served there. The Lightship that actually served on the Overfalls station, is on display in Portsmouth Virginia. The ship's condition deteriorated and a failed attempt in 1999 to sell her led to the formation of a separate group, the Overfalls Maritime Museum Foundation, to take over the maintenance and restore the vessel. She remains in Lewes and is available for tours.