Lightship Returns Home After Repairs
6/12/2009
Festive crowd greets floating museum in Lewes after seven months in shipyard
By Molly Murray – The News Journal – June 1, 2009
With a salute from a Lyle gun on shore and the help of a tugboat, the Overfalls Lightship backed into its berth along the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal on Sunday afternoon in a festive return from seven months at a shipyard in Norfolk, Va. Hundreds of people lined the banks of the canal as the ship -- pushed by the tug -- slowly made its way up the canal to downtown Lewes. The Lewes fireboat, the Coast Guard and a flotilla of pleasure boats accompanied Overfalls on the final leg of her journey home -- a 27-hour trip that started at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Colonna Shipyard in Norfolk. "You can't describe it," Robert Humes, president of the Overfalls Maritime Museum Foundation, said of seeing the ship back in its berth. "It's just been one great story."
The only dicey moments came as the volunteers aboard the Overfalls and a crew on the ground worked to tie up the 114-foot-long ship. Before the Overfalls left Lewes, it was stuck in the mud and the lines that held it in place were almost unnecessary. But this time, with the ship watertight and the berth deeper, the lines were a necessity. It took the crew several minutes to get everything just right. Humes said he thought the most exciting thing would be watching the tug turn Overfalls around and push it into the slip. "I figured it would be like watching somebody parallel park the first time," he said. But the tug and launch crews did a quick and flawless job.
The Overfalls cannot run under its own power, so Wilmington Tug Co. provided a tug and crew -- at no cost. The tug company has a long history with the Overfalls. The company's founder, the late Capt. Harry Rowland Sr., provided tug service at no cost when the Overfalls was first brought to Lewes in 1973. His son Hick Rowland Jr. provided the tug both to get the Overfalls to Norfolk and bring it back to Lewes this time around.
Lightships such as the Overfalls were floating lighthouses, complete with beacons and foghorns. Lewes got its first Overfalls in 1901. LV69 was a lightship that was driven ashore off Cape Hatteras, recovered from the surf and then brought to the Overfalls station. Several times during its 24-year career, it was dragged off station by ice. The current Overfalls never served off Lewes but it was similar to lightships that did. It began duty in 1938 and was stationed mostly in New England. Its last working post was in Boston Harbor. The ship came to Lewes in 1973, a year after it was decommissioned, and was renamed the Overfalls for the lightship station that had been closest to Lewes Harbor.
The current Overfalls never served off Lewes but it was similar to lightships that did. It began duty in 1938 and was stationed mostly in New England. Its last working post was in Boston Harbor. Lightships were given new names at every duty station because they became floating landmarks for mariners, Humes said. In Lewes, the Lewes Historical Society converted it into a floating museum. The ship told the story of the crews who manned the floating stations, the dangers they faced and what navigation was like before global positioning systems and radar were common.
Elaine Simmerman, a past president of the Overfalls foundation and chairwoman of fundraising efforts, said Sunday that she sees the lightship as an important piece of coastal maritime history. If you think back to a time before electricity, "you had a string of pearls -- the lighthouses and lightships" to guide sailors along the coast, she said. "It is really history. ... We're doing this for the next generation. ... We knew we didn't want to lose our ship."