Ambrose

Ambrose. , The Ambrose lightship was built in 1908 to guide ships safely into the broad mouth of lower New York Bay between Coney Island, New York and Sandy Hook, New Jersey – an area filled with sand bars and shoals invisible to approaching vessels. She is a descendant of the port’s – and the nation’s – first offshore lightship, which was placed off Sandy Hook in 1828. While a lighthouse is normally used for this purpose, the water here was too deep, and the bottom too soft, and this floating alternative was devised., A vessel approaching the port would search the horizon for the lightship, identifying it at night by a pattern of light flashes at the top of its mast, and in daylight by its distinctive hull color and name lettered on the side. In rain or fog the lightship would announce its location using a powerful foghorn. Starting early in this century, lightships began employing radios to communicate with ships., The South Street Seaport Museum’s Ambrose lightship occupied her original station until 1933, then served as the Scotland lightship closer to Sandy Hook until 1963. She was given to the museum by the United States Coast Guard in 1968. The Ambrose Channel’s last lightship was replaced in 1964 by a tower built on four tall legs anchored to the sea bottom. The tower had comfortable quarters for Coast Guard personnel and a helicopter landing pad for resupplying. The living quarters have been unoccupied since 1988 when the Coast Guard automated the tower’s signals.,

Extreme length: 135’ – Beam: 29’ – Rig Height: 67’ , Length on deck: 134’ – Construction: Steel Hull – Displacement tonnage: 683 , Length at waterline: 113’ – Draft: 13’ – Gross tonnage: 488 , Rig: Lantern masts