Happy birthday LV118
Big Red is celebrating its 75th birthday. The Lightship Overfalls, LV118, has become an icon in the Cape Region, but that shiny red ship in Lewes' Canalfront Park never actually served at the Overfalls lightship station in Delaware Bay.
The Overfalls in Lewes is an adopted lightship that served at three stations off the coast of New England from 1938 to 1972. When it was towed to Lewes in 1973, the name Boston was painted in bold white letters on its hull.
To confuse matters even more, two restored Overfalls lightships are serving in ports on opposite sides of the country – in Portsmouth, Va., and Oakland, Calif. A lightship served off the coast of Lewes from 1898 to 1960.
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OVERFALLS TIMELINE 1938-1957: First station, Lightship Cornfield Point, off coast of Connecticut. 1958-1962: Second station, Cross Rip, off coast of Cape Cod, Mass. 1962-1972: Third and final station, Boston harbor. 1973: Donated by U.S. Coast Guard to Lewes Historical Society. 1988: Placed on National Register of Historic Places by U.S. Park Service. 1999: Friends of Lightship Overfalls formed as historical society subcommittee. Preliminary work starts on plans for renovations. 1999: Open for public tours. 2001: Overfalls Maritime Museum Foundation is formed – the name is eventually changed to Overfalls Foundation. Out of that group, The Dirty Hands Gang is formed. 2005: Restoration effort gets major push with a $275,000 grant from Save America's Treasures and $200,000 grant from the national Transportation Enhancement Fund. 2005: Restoration management committee is formed. 2006: In collaboration with City of Lewes, an engineer is hired to determine options to repair ship. 2006: Volunteers put two new coats of red paint on the hull. 2007: Engineers lay out options ranging from $1.2 million to $2 million for major ship repairs; most relate to the deteriorating hull. It's determined ship must be towed away from Lewes to Norfolk for repairs. Sept. 2, 2008: Dredging takes place to get ship out of the thick mud. Oct. 14, 2008: Under tow, Overfalls leaves Lewes and arrives in Norfolk two days later. Eleven members of Dirty Hands Gang are aboard. Dec. 3, 2008: Overfalls lifted out of the water for the first time since 1973. 2009: $400,000 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds available for a new slip in Canalfront Park. May 30, 2009: Overfalls leaves Norfolk. May 31, 2009: More than 2,000 people welcome Overfalls back to Lewes. 2010: The Overfalls' new slip and landscaped park is complete. 2011: Named a National Historic Landmark. June 4, 2013: 75th birthday celebration. |
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Overfalls served three New England stations
LV-118 was built by Rice Bros. Corp. of East Boothbay, Maine, and served at three different stations over a 34-year period, including Cornfield Point in Connecticut; Cross Rip off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass.; and Boston.
Overfalls was donated by the U.S. Coast Guard to the Lewes Historical Society in 1973, but no significant work was done to restore the ship for nearly three decades. It sat in up to 7 feet of mud in the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal near the Lewes Little League Park as people wondered if accepting the donation was a mistake.
It wasn't until 1999, when the ship was given to the newly formed Friends of Lightship Overfalls, that serious thought was given to overhauling the deteriorating ship. The group saved the ship from the scrap heap.
When the Overfalls Foundation was formed not long after, the wheels were put in motion to restore the Overfalls. It was also around this time that The Dirty Hands Gang was formed. Every inch of the ship had to be scraped, sanded and repainted, said Bill Reader, leader of The Dirty Hands Gang. Some parts of have been repainted several times, Reader said.
It took volunteers nearly five years to restore the ship to its original look.
Volunteers did many welding repairs, re-worked and upgraded the electric system, overhauled the ship's winch to lift heavy objects and removed by hand 28,000 pounds of pig iron ballast from the ship's bilge.
About $1.2 million has been raised by the foundation to restore the ship.
A hull of a tough job
The Dirty Hands Gang could do everything except the heavy lifting – literally. Restoring the hull was not a job for volunteers, and everyone knew it would come with a hefty price tag, but the work had to be done to save the ship.
Reader said the hull was rotting away and three major holes had developed allowing water to enter the ship.
Of all the work done on the Overfalls, no project was as daunting as removing the ship from its 30-year muddy berth to Norfolk for its hull restoration. Amid fanfare, Overfalls went to sea on Oct. 14, 2008, for the first time since 1973 for the two-day trip south.
Ironically, the same tugboat, Carey, owned by the Rowland family, performed both towing operations as a donation.
Reader said the ship was built with a three-eighths inch thick hull. When tests were done, most of the hull's thickness had been reduced to one-eighth inch or less. “I think we were on our last year or it would have sunk in the canal. That's how close we were,” Reader said. “I know it sounds crazy, but I really think the thick marine growth on the bottom of the hull was holding everything together.”
Reader said God was with the crew. “During the tow to Norfolk and back, the ocean and bay were like a sheet of glass; we were so lucky,” he said.
After seven months at the Norfolk shipyard, Overfalls returned home to Lewes May 31, 2009. With a Coast Guard escort, the Lewes fireboat, a flotilla of local boaters and more than 2,000 well-wishers cheering, a pair of tugboats maneuvered the lightship into its slip. Richard Perez of Lewes fired off his antique Lyle guns to make it official.
About a year later, another celebration occurred to honor the completion of a new slip and landscaping to tie in with Canalfront Park.
Reader said The Dirty Hands Gang is now in maintenance mode with all of the major work completed. “We all look on this as one of the most satisfying things we have ever done,” he said.
