Historic Nantucket Lightship - North Cove, Battery Park City
Stay Aboard, Attend A Party, Take A Cruise

Text & Photos By Theodore W. Scull

The Nantucket Lightship, once a strategic beacon for ships making transatlantic passages between New York and Europe, has come to Manhattan as a cozy bed and breakfast inn and a location for meetings and party functions.

Externally, you will find her looking very much as she did when on station 45 miles southeast of Nantucket Island, until retired in 1983 as last active lightship in the U.S. Her bright red hull is embossed with NANTUCKET, except when the starboard side shell door is open; she then reads NANTU KET. At night when viewed from a position at the Winter Garden at Battery Park City, she is festooned with lights outlining her masts and the superstructure above and below the pilot house. She makes a pretty picture set against the Goldman Sachs office tower and neighboring buildings across the Hudson at Exchange Place, Jersey City.

Her workaday exterior belies what is revealed within. Going aboard, you enter the elegant world of a hard-wood paneled private yacht, the fine workmanship crafted by New Bedford Portuguese. After taking off your shoes and donning slippers, go right into a lovely dining room cum lounge with a table set for up to 10 to one side and a comfortable upholstered sofa and armchairs to the other.

The main lounge with an original painting
of the Nantucket walking beam steamer Island Home.

The formal dining section set up for dinner for eight.

Between the brass outlined portholes, the bulkheads are hung with oil paintings of racing yachts and a particularly fine portrait of the Nantucket walking-beam steamer Island Home. A second lounge lies to the left of the door.
The 128-foot vessel has five bedrooms on two decks with nine beds in all and an overnight capacity of 16 when the larger beds are occupied by two guests. Every cabin is different, in furniture, bed arrangements, decor and style. All are attractively paneled and come with private shower and toilet. One cabin is large enough to be called a suite and another has lower beds arranged Pullman style with privacy provided by drawn curtains. Another roomy cabin sleeps four with upper/lower bunks for kids.

A cabin for a family of four.

The cabins are so inviting that one might want to spend five nights to sample them all. The room rates are $395, with breakfast, regardless of the room, so it‘s first come. On the lower deck, reached by one of two wooden spiral staircases, a second lounge has more recreation room atmosphere with deep leather chairs and couch facing a large flat-screen TV/DVD player and a table football game set off in one corner.

Two Pullman-style lower berths; note the curtains.

An original upper and lower berth crew cabin.

The pilot house is open to view, and when operating, the vessel cruises at a speed of 8.5 knots. One original upper and lower iron bunk cabin is still extant and is used by the catering staff after a long evening‘s work or by the ship‘s crew when cruising. In the warmer months, deck chairs are set up for morning coffee, a drink at sunset or a quiet read and a snooze in a hammock. All about is the original gear that provided the lightship‘s raison d‘etre – fog horns, light beacons, crow‘s nest, spars and navigating equipment. The permanent staff on board is a licensed port captain and business manager/director of operations. Additional personnel are on hand for private functions and when underway. On charters, she cruises in New England and recently accompanied the New York Yacht Club cruise.

Built in 1950 in Curtis Bay, Baltimore, the lightship passed through the Panama Canal to be stationed off San Francisco and Portland, Oregon before taking up her last position at the Nantucket station. She was to be scrapped, the fate of many redundant lightships, but happily that did not happen. She served as a family home in Boston, with some summers tied up in Nantucket, until bought by the present owners. Her yacht-style interiors date from 2003.

She will remain in New York as long as business warrants. The docking rates are quite low at present but they quadruple in the warmer months. While she lies adjacent to the World Financial Center, many financial firms have suspended hosting special events until the economy improves. However, her room rates are competitive with what one might pay for a better room in a nearby chain hotel. Ah! but what a different experience you can have, gently rocked to sleep in North Cove Marina, surrounded by the bright lights of the metropolis.

The website www.nantucketlightship.com still has her located in Boston.
Her Manhattan phone number is 212-560-1095 or e-mail Luke Webster at lucaswebster@mac.com

A second lounge on the main deck with an informal dining banquette.

The lower deck lounge with a big-screen TV/DVD.

The lower deck lounge with the table football game.

A canopied bed cabin.

A large suite.

The suite‘s adjoining commodious bathroom.

A pillow designed to resemble a ship‘s telegraph and placed on one of the Pullman berths

The original pilothouse sees active use on cruises.