Thank you for joining us today. Port Huron has a rich history as showcased at our four unique historical sites including: the Carnegie, the HURON Lightship, the Thomas Edison Depot, the Fort Gratiot
Hospital, and the Fort Gratiot Light Station. Now for our HURON Lightship Site Manager, Jerry.

Welcome to the HURON Lightship. The HURON Lightship was built in 1920 and was used until 1970.
As a lightship, it was used as a floating lighthouse. Wherever a lighthouse couldn’t be built, either because it was too sandy and unstable, too rocky, or too deep, a lightship would be put in that area. So this ship, in April, would go six miles North of Blue Water Bridge, three miles offshore, right at the start of a large sandbar called Corsica Shoal. That shoal got its name after the first unfortunate ship on record, the Corsica, that went aground on it. So, in a lake that’s 758 feet deep at the deepest, this ship was anchored at the start of the sandbar in 12-15 feet of water. Now, depending on the particular water level that year, on top of that shole could be as shallow as 6-8 feet. Now those freighters draft, depending on if they’re loaded or not, 35 feet. 35 feet of steel underneath the water would have definitely got hung up on that big sandbar out there. So this ship would be out there from April to the end of December, basically the shipping season for the Great Lakes, with a crew of 11, 7 on board, 4 ashore for one week. So the crew was actually rotated. So at the end of three weeks aboard the ship, they would get one week off. That would go on from April to the end of December. At the end of December, our lake starts freezing over. And at that point, the freighters start tying up for the Winter time. This ship would go in and tie up one mile South of us in the Black River for January, February, and March, and the first of April, back out on station again.

So this ship was used for 50 years, and today aboard those freighters you have GPS, depth finder, satellite navigation, which has taken the place of lightships. So, in 1970, the ship was decommissioned as the last lightship on fresh water for the United States Government. The Nantucket lasted until 1985 on salt water, so the end of an era, 1985 with the Nantucket Lightship. In 1972, with the aid of a tugboat, the ship was pushed into where it currently is today. They brought it in here, built a seawall, pumped the water back into the river, and filled it in with sand. So that’s helping to protect this ship. It’s not salt water, but water is still corrosive, and the ship is also protected by a cathodic system which helps to protect the integrity of the steel of this ship.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this brief audio recording. There is so much more for you to enjoy with
a guided tour. For more information, click “PortHuronMuseums.com”
Recorded and produced by Van Rohr