page_title: USS Lucid (MSO-458)
section_title: Civilian service
hierarchical_section_title: USS Lucid (MSO-458) / Civilian service
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of the ex USS Lucid (MSO-458) under restoration at the Building Futures Academy on the San Joaquin River in Stockton, CA - May 2020
context_page_description: USS Lucid is an Aggressive-class minesweeper acquired by the U.S. Navy for the task of removing naval mines that had been placed in the water to prevent the safe passage of ships. She was launched soon after the Korean War, sailed on five Western Pacific cruises and served four tours in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Lucid was decommissioned at the end of 1970 and placed in mothballs after only 15 years of service, as the Vietnam War was winding down and there was no longer a need for a large fleet of minesweepers. She was purchased by civilians and served as a houseboat for ten years before being sold again and used as a warehouse in the Sacramento Delta. In 2005, Lucid was acquired by a foundation seeking to save a ship of this class and is now undergoing restoration as a museum ship by a maritime museum in Stockton, California. Lucid is the last Aggressive-class minesweeper afloat in the United States.
context_section_description: Lucid was next converted to a houseboat. W. Dean Kirkpatrick and his wife Vicki, and later Dan Keller and his wife Anneli, lived aboard for several years.  They were moored in various locations including Pier 4 at the western end of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, the Oakland estuary below Alameda's Park Street Bridge, and a Richmond shipyard. This ended in late 1986 when Dean gave up the ship to (William Gardner) who towed it up to Bradford Island in the Sacramento Delta where it sat for years. Gardner removed and sold everything of value from the ship and used it as a storage building, cutting a hole in the hull on the port side near the waterline to use as a door. On 7 September 2004, Gardner was fatally shot by his neighbor.
  In 2005, Gardner's widow donated the ship to United States Navy veteran Mike Warren, who served on Lucid as an engineman in the 1960s. Since late 1999, Warren and his "Save an MSO Foundation" had unsuccessfully tried to save an Aggressive-class minesweeper as a museum ship as they were being decommissioned and replaced by the new Avenger class. The government refused to give one of the last six MSOs to the public, claiming that it was governmental policy not to donate wooden ships due to the cost and magnitude of the maintenance required for upkeep. Eventually, all six ships were dismantled at a cost to the government in excess of $3.5 million. Warren and a group of volunteers began the monumental task of restoring Lucid by first removing the tons of junk that had accumulated over the years and then repairing the hole in her side.
caption: USS Lucid (MSO-458) under restoration at the Building Futures Academy on the San Joaquin River in Stockton, CA - May 2020.
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