South Lake Union in Seattle in King County, Washington — The American West (Northwest)
Swiftsure
1904 LV-83 (No. 83) Lightship
National Historic Landmark
Photographed by Douglass Halvorsen, August 22, 2024
1. Swiftsure Marker
Inscription.
Swiftsure. 1904 LV-83 (No. 83) Lightship. Lightship No. 83 is the oldest lightship in the United States, and the last with its original steam engine. Built at Camden, New Jersey in 1904 with an auxiliary sailing rig, this ship travelled around South America to take station on the West Coast (the Panama Canal had not yet been completed)., Lightships were extremely seaworthy vessels designed to be semi-permanently anchored offshore as floating lighthouses, guiding shipping traffic in and out of safe harbor channels or marking dangerous reefs. Each lightship had a 10-15 member crew, powerful beacon lights on the mast tops, sound signals for foggy weather (steam whistles, fog bells, and foghorns), a bright paint job for daytime visibility, and, after World War I, radio beacons. , Lightship No. 83 is one of about a dozen remaining examples of a now-extinct type of vessel (between 1820 and 1955, 179 lightships were built in the US alone). Modern technologies such as computers, radar, sonar, LORAN, GPS, and AIS rendered lightships and lighthouses obsolete after World War II. The last active US lightship was retired in 1983. The survivors, like Lightship No. 83, are now museums dedicated to preserving the history of coastal navigation and safety at sea. , During its 55 years of service, including a stint as a US naval patrol vessel during World War II, Lightship No. 83 rescued shipwreck survivors, narrowly survived a collision with another vessel, transitioned from oil lanterns to electricity, weathered many storms, participated in joint US-Canadian bathythermographic surveys, and safely guided thousands of ships along the coast. Upon retirement in 1960, its last station was Swiftsure Bank, marking the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, gateway to Puget Sound and the port cities of Vancouver, Victoria, Bellingham, Everett, Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia., Today, Northwest Seaport is restoring the ship, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989, as a museum telling the story of Pacific Coast navigation. Contact us today!
Lightship No. 83 is the oldest lightship in the United States, and the last with its original steam engine. Built at Camden, New Jersey in 1904 with an auxiliary sailing rig, this ship travelled around South America to take station on the West Coast (the Panama Canal had not yet been completed).
Lightships were extremely seaworthy vessels designed to be semi-permanently anchored offshore as floating lighthouses, guiding shipping traffic in and out of safe harbor channels or marking dangerous reefs. Each lightship had a 10-15 member crew, powerful beacon lights on the mast tops, sound signals for foggy weather (steam whistles, fog bells, and foghorns), a bright paint job for daytime visibility, and, after World War I, radio beacons.
Lightship No. 83 is one of about a dozen remaining examples of a now-extinct type of vessel (between 1820 and 1955, 179 lightships were built in the US alone). Modern technologies such as computers, radar, sonar, LORAN, GPS, and AIS rendered lightships and lighthouses obsolete after World War II. The last active US lightship was retired in 1983. The survivors, like Lightship No. 83, are now museums dedicated to preserving the history of coastal navigation and safety at sea.
During its 55 years of service, including a stint as a US naval patrol vessel during World War II, Lightship
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No. 83 rescued shipwreck survivors, narrowly survived a collision with another vessel, transitioned from oil lanterns to electricity, weathered many storms, participated in joint US-Canadian bathythermographic surveys, and safely guided thousands of ships along the coast. Upon retirement in 1960, its last station was Swiftsure Bank, marking the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, gateway to Puget Sound and the port cities of Vancouver, Victoria, Bellingham, Everett, Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia.
Today, Northwest Seaport is restoring the ship, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989, as a museum telling the story of Pacific Coast navigation. Contact us today!
Location. 47° 37.677′ N, 122° 20.199′ W. Marker is in Seattle, Washington, in King County. It is in South Lake Union. It can be reached from Terry Avenue North. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 860 Terry Ave N, Seattle WA 98109, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Washington’s Puget Sound Region. It is also on the American Pacific Coast, in the Pacific Northwest, and in the Lewis & Clark Corridor. Globally, it is in North America, in the Cascade Range, in the Inside Passage, on the Ring of Fire, in the Pacific Rim, in the Western Hemisphere, in the Western World, and in the Anglosphere.
Other nearby markers.
Photographed by Douglass Halvorsen, August 22, 2024
Also see . . . National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. <blockquote>NRHP Statement of Significance: The 1904 lightship No. 83, now known by her last official designation of "Relief," is one of a small number of preserved historic American lightships. Essential partners with lighthouses as aids to navigation along the coast of the United States, lightships date to 1820 when No. 83 was commissioned. Built as part of a five-vessel contract, No. 83 and her surviving sister are the earliest surviving examples of American lightships. Of these various vessels, only No. 83 has retained her original marine steam engine and machinery, and hence is not only one of the oldest surviving American lightships, but also the lightship with the greatest
Photographed by Douglass Halvorsen, August 22, 2024
3. Swiftsure Marker
integrity of design and form. As such, "Relief" is of national significance. Uhile her superstructure and lights were "modernized" in the early 1930s, these changes reflect modifications to better enable the vessel to carry out her historic function. Built to serve as the second lightship in California and one of the first four lightships on the Pacific coast of the United States, No. 83 served to guide mariners to three major ports--Eureka on Hurnboldt Bay, San Francisco, and Seattle, with much of her career spent on the two former stations. While regionally based, No. 83 had a profound impact on the nationally-significant Pacific coast trade and on arriving and departing intercoastal and international vessels. (Submitted on February 7, 2025, by Douglass Halvorsen of Klamath Falls, Oregon.)
Credits. This page was last revised on February 8, 2025. It was originally submitted on February 7, 2025, by Douglass Halvorsen of Klamath Falls, Oregon. This page has been viewed 165 times since then and 22 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3. submitted on February 7, 2025, by Douglass Halvorsen of Klamath Falls, Oregon. • James Hulse was the editor who published this page.
