From 1958 to 1962, LV-118 (our Overfalls) was assigned to Cross Rip Lightstation in the middle of Nantucket Sound. The history of Cross Rip Station shows that it was a particularly hazardous location for a lightship to endure. From 1826 to 1953, twelve different lightships served here. Many collisions were reported and two ships were lost.
In 1915 LV-6 was assigned to Cross Rip. She was built in 1855 as an 80-foot wood-hulled coastal schooner. In 1915 her masts were removed and replaced with an iron skeleton to display the light before being assigned to the hazardous Cross Rip Shoal. The ship lacked any modern features of the era, operating without an engine, sails, or a wireless radio.
The winter of 1918 was a particularly brutal one. By late January, Nantucket Sound was completely frozen over. This rare occurrence meant no shipping could traverse the Sound, making the Cross Rip lightship’s mission irrelevant. In the same freeze three other lightships in the area were stuck in pack ice as well. Two were able to steam out under their own power and one was towed free from the ice. LV-6, however, was too far out in the ice for any rescue vessels to reach her and her condition was not good. The lightship’s captain was on shore leave at the time so First Mate Henry F. Joy, was in command. The ice was so thick that Joy was able to walk across seven miles of sea ice to Nantucket Village in order to ask permission to abandon ship. He was ordered by the local USLHS District Officer to return to his ship and maintain station. Some reports indicate that Joy was actually reprimanded for leaving his ship. On February 4 the pressure of the ice pack around the Cross Rip caused her to part her mooring cables. Rising temperatures thawed the ice which started to move with the strong tidal currents, carrying the trapped lightship out to sea. On February 5, the light-keeper at Nantucket’s Great Point light spotted the trapped ship sliding helplessly out of the Sound, into the open Atlantic. Her ensign was flying upside down, the maritime signal of extreme distress.
The lightship and her crew were never seen again.
