page_title: List of lightships of the United States
section_title: Lightships
hierarchical_section_title: List of lightships of the United States / Lightships
caption_attribution_description: English: Frying-Pan Shoals light-vessel, No. 1, N.C. (aka United States lightship LV-1)
context_page_description: This is a list of lightships of the United States, listing lightships operated by the United States government. The first US lightship was put in place off of Willoughby Spit in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, in 1820. Lightships remained in service in the United States until March 29, 1985, when the last ship, the Nantucket I, was decommissioned. During that period, lightships were operated by several branches of the government: by the Lighthouse Establishment from 1820 to 1852, the Lighthouse Board from 1852 to 1910, the Lighthouse Service from 1910 to 1939, and the Coast Guard from 1939 to 1985.
  The naming conventions used for lightships are not consistent. Until 1867, there was no uniform method to refer to individual lightships. Lightships in that period generally took the name of the station that they served, but occasionally other names. These names were not permanently assigned to an individual vessel. Rather, whenever a lightship was moved to a new station she took on that name. That made identifying individual ships nearly impossible. Beginning in 1867, lightship numbers were assigned to ships still in service.
caption: Lightship LV-1 in 1907.
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