Cost $85,000 Decommissioned 18 July 1960 Length 39 m Beam 8.69 m Added to NRHP 23 April 1975 | Acquired c. 1905 Launched 1904 Weight 678.7 tons Year built 1904 | |
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Name Lightship No. 83
Lightship WAL-508 Owner U.S. Lighthouse Service; later U.S. Coast Guard Builder New York Shipbuilding Co. Similar Arthur Foss, Forceful, Roann, Luna, Joseph Conrad | ||
Swiftsure (LV-83), is a lightship launched in Camden, New Jersey, in 1904 and now moored in Seattle, Washington. She steamed around the tip of South America to her first station at Blunts Reef in California, where she saved 150 people when their ship ran aground in dense fog. Formerly known as Relief, Number 83 had numerous names on her sides, all of which indicated the location of her station. Swiftsure refers to the Swiftsure Bank near the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which separates Washington from Vancouver Island. She also guided ships near Umatilla Reef and the Columbia River Bar.
Swiftsure is one of the oldest lightships in the country and the only one to have her original steam engines. She is 129 feet (39 m) long, with a beam of 28 feet 6 inches (8.69 m) and a draft of 12 feet 6 inches (3.81 m). Her displacement is 668 tons. Her aids to navigation include a 1,000 watt primary light, a 140-decibel Diaphone horn, and a 1,000-pound (450 kg) foredeck fog bell.
The ship was decommissioned in 1960, and purchased by Northwest Seaport in 1969. She is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989, and is on the Washington State Heritage Register. She is moored on Lake Union, in Seattle, Washington, for restoration.