Lightship Overfalls celebrates 78 years
Residents of Lewes came out en masse to celebrate the 78th birthday of the Lightship Overfalls, a national monument that has been docked along the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal for more than 40 years.
More than another historic sight in old Lewes, the 114-foot, all-steel lightship was the last such ship commissioned by the U.S. Lighthouse Service when it was built in 1938.
Since the boat came to Lewes in 1973, Overfalls Foundation Treasurer Eric VanGilder said the lightship has become a center for maritime heritage in the historic community.
“The Overfalls has been a rallying point for the community,” VanGilder said. “The community raised a lot of money to save it from extinction, and now it’s a showpiece for the community.”
In 1999, the Overfalls Foundation was formed and began to restore the floating landmark, putting in thousands of hours to raise funds and repair the riveted lightship, VanGilder said.
By 2008, the ship was towed to Norfolk, Va., for a hull replacement and returned to dock in Lewes the following year before it was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2011.
Overfalls Foundation President Albert Didden said the organization has launched a fundraising campaign to raise $200,000 in order to paint and seal the hull this fall.
The lightship last served active duty at the entrance to the Boston Harbor before being decommissioned in 1972 and donated to the Lewes Historical Society the following year. Formerly known as LV-118, the Coast Guard changed the ship’s designation to WAL-539 before it was again renamed Overfalls in honor of the station at the mouth of the Delaware Bay where lightships served until 1960.
Longtime Overfalls guide Guy Townsend said crews of 14 men operated lightships at the Overfalls station, nearly three miles off shore, on rotation in three-week cycles. The ship was ordered to stay on station regardless of weather. As an anchored ship, collisions were most feared by the crew, although lives and ships were lost to bad weather and conditions during the 62 years that the Overfalls was an active lightship station.
“Just about the time you were going out of your mind, you finally got some time off,” Townsend said.
To volunteer or find more information about the Lightship Overfalls, go to www.overfalls.org or call 302-644-8050.
