So let's say it is 1908. You need a lighthouse somewhere.
But, there aren't any rocks to put it on. There's just dangerous shores and shoals.
The solution nowadays would be to build a large tower, anchor it to the sea bed,
but 1908? The technology wasn't there, so the result is this: The Ambrose.
This is Mike Weiss, he's the waterfront foreman at the South Street Seaport Museum.
Tell me about the Ambrose. -It's a floating lighthouse.
This ship is a lightouse. So she'd sit out in the channel, twelve crew at a time,
all weathers that came through. In the middle of winter, it was freezing cold, snow on deck
or it's hurricane season, or there's massive waves coming through, storms, heavy fog...
-And she has to stay there with the light on, no matter what?
-Yes, she must hold her place, she must keep her station.
-So there's a heck of an anchor on this thing, presumably?
-Yes, she's fitted with two mushroom anchors. She'd use one at a time
unless things got really bad, I'd imagine, but they're each 5000lbs. [~2200kg]
It sat there in the channel, and ships would aim for it,
now that isn't always a good thing, though -I was going to say, that sounds dangerous!
-You're sort of a sitting duck sometimes. -Yeah, because a lighthouse is on rocks, you'll hit the rocks...
-Right so you'd aim for this area near the lighthouse.
But, here, ships sometimes, especially in fog, there's always the very serious risk
that they will run into the lightship that was at station there.
-So this ship saved lives? In a time where you couldn't put a lighthouse down,
you couldn't put anything solid to the seabed, there wasn't the technology,
This ship saved lives? -Oh, without question, absolutely saved lives.
-So the lightship Ambrose, one of very few lightships remaining in the United States,
and in the world. Something that not just saved lives, but made this port city possible.
Something you might not have known.
Thank you very much to the South Street Seaport Museum
Their staff and volunteers are preserving a load of historic ships
if you're visiting New York do stop by,
and if you're living in New York, they could always use some volunteers.
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