Nantucket South Shoals Lightship Time and Tide Nantucket

Lightship service in the United Sates spans a period of 165 years from 1820-1985. These floating lighthouses marked shifting shoals and sandbars, harbor entrances, river mouths or any other hazardous location on the water where the building of a stationary lighthouse was an impossibility. 179 lightships were built between 1820 and 1952. In the early years the ships were made of wood, powered only by sail and fitted with oil lanterns, as technology advanced, ships were eventu...