Nantucket Lightship/LV-112 – the world’s largest and most famous lightship – will return to Boston Harbor, its original home port. The National Historic Landmark is being towed to Boston via tugboat from Oyster Bay, N.Y., to become a permanent floating learning center.
For nearly 40 years (1936-1975), the ship operated out of the Coast Guard First District headquarters in Boston. It was stationed nearly 100 miles off the U.S. mainland, serving as a floating lighthouse to guide transoceanic ships through the shipping lanes into the New York and New England seaports, past the notoriously treacherous Nantucket Shoals.
The 150-foot lightship with two tall light-signal masts was expected to arrive in Boston in the late afternoon Sunday after departing Oyster Bay today and traveling through the Cape Cod Canal.
A welcoming celebration will take place at Pier 4, adjacent to Charlestown Navy Yard, across from where water shuttle docks (parking at 1st Avenue and 5th Street, Charlestown).
