Type: Lightship
Launched: 1938
At: Rice Brothers Shipyard, East Boothbay, Maine
Length: 114 feet, 9 inches
Beam: 26 feet
Draft: 13 feet, 4 inches
Weight: 422 tons
Light: Dual 375 mm electric lens lanterns, 15,000 candle power (1,000 watts). 12 Mile range.
Fog Horn: Dual air diaphones, switchable to single horn with a range of 5 miles.
Radio Beacon: range of 20-25 miles.
Address:
Overfalls Foundation
Post Office Box 413
Lewes, DE 19958-0413
Email: tmulveny@comcast.net/
http://www.overfalls.org/
Latitude: 38.7779915107, Longitude: -75.141055584
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The Lightship Overfalls was the last lightship built by the United States Lighthouse Service. She was commissioned as the LV (light vessel) 118 in 1938 and was considered at that time to be “state of the art” in lightship design.
Overfalls had a distinguished career before arriving in Lewes, DE. Between 1938 and 1972 she was stationed at three different lightship stations: first, at Cornfield Point off the coast of Connecticut, then at the Cross Rip Station off the coast of Massachusetts, and finally the Boston Station just off Cape Cod. After suffering major structural damage in a December, 1970 storm, the Overfalls was taken out of service in 1971, and decommissioned in 1972.
Overfalls is one of only 17 remaining lightships out of a total of 179 built from 1820 to 1952. She was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. Overfalls was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2011.
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