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After more than 33 years of resting along the banks of the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal, the lightship Overfalls is going to sea – sort of.
The Overfalls Maritime Museum Foundation has opted to have the Lewes landmark towed about 35 miles up the Delaware River to a shipyard on the Maurice River in Dorchester, N.J.
David Bernheisel, Overfalls foundation president, said shipyard repairs for the vessel would cost an estimated $200,000, with the entire project - including constructing a berth for the ship - costing an estimated $1.2 million.
He said the boatyard repair option would cost at least $1 million less than any of the other options considered.
One option included constructing a dry dock, where the hull would have been completely out of the water at all times. Another was to construct a coffer dam, where the ship would float and water could be pumped out of the dam to allow access to the hull as the ship rested in a cradle.
“To have her floating doesn’t take a lot of structure. The water is the structure that is supporting it. Mother Nature is providing the cradle, and that’s the big savings,” Bernheisel said.
He said plans call for the ship to be towed early in 2008 and returned to Lewes in August 2008.
The Overfalls foundation earlier this year signed an $80,000 contract with Wilmington-based Duffield Associates Engineering to have the company develop plans to assess the hull’s condition and come up with methods to make it accessible.
Duffield gave its recommendation to the foundation last month.
The foundation used costs, risks to the vessel, esthetics and long-term sustainability as criteria in reaching a decision to tow the ship to the Dorchester Shipyard in New Jersey.
Bernheisel said hull repair would probably involve replacing all of the ship’s steel hull plating. The hull’s thickness is down to half of its original 3/8-inch.
Bill Reader, chairman of the Overfalls restoration committee, said in the foundation’s newsletter that Duffield is in the design phase of the project as efforts to obtain the “dead tow” permit from the U.S. Coast Guard proceed.
Bernheisel said the Coast Guard is concerned the Overfalls could sink as it’s towed, creating a navigational obstacle.
He said the first step in obtaining a tow permit, inspection of the ship by a marine surveyor, was done last week. Bernheisel said the surveyor noted two holes in the hull – one the size of a tennis ball, the other about three times the size of a tennis ball.
Bernheisel said the holes would be patched before towing the ship, even though the Overfalls’ unique hull construction would probably compensate for any water entering the vessel.
“The hull is lined with 10 individual tanks on each side. There’s a combination of fuel tanks, water tanks and ballast water tanks,” he said. He said even without patching the one tennis ball-sized hole, which is in a fuel tank, the tank would fill with water in place of fuel and float just the same.
Bernheisel said that while the hull is being repaired, a three-sided boat slip would be built along the canal where the ship is now located. Two test pits dug adjacent to the vessel in February confirmed there are no large boulders or old pilings that could interfere with moving the ship.
The area would be dredged and the ship returned to the location where it would permanently float. The foundation also plans to construct a new, user-friendly public entrance to the ship.
The project would be partially funded by grants totaling about $400,000 from Save America’s Treasures and Delaware Department of Transportation’s Transportation Enhancement Fund. Reader said the foundation would also continue its aggressive fundraising campaign.
“The Dirty Hands Gang,” a group of Overfalls restoration volunteers, has restored much of the Overfalls above the water line.
Contact Henry Evans at hevans@capegazette.com
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