Lightships were placed where building a lighthouse wasn't practical because of water depth, currents or cost, according to the U.S. Lighthouse Society. They marked harbor entrances, such as the San Francisco station, and warned ships away from hazards like underwater reefs. The society says U.S. lightships served from 1820 to 1983 and that only 12 survive.
The Relief's career
WLV-605 was built by the Rice Brothers shipyard in Maine and launched in 1950. It was one of six lightships built for the Coast Guard. The ship was commissioned on Feb. 15, 1951, at the Overfalls station off Delaware. In 1960 it moved to the Blunts Reef station off Cape Mendocino. In 1969 it became the "Relief," the ship that filled in for other West Coast lightships while they went in for maintenance.
A huge mushroom anchor, which the Lighthouse Society says weighs 6,500 pounds, let the ship hold its position in any weather. Wikipedia lists the hull at 128 feet long with a 30-foot beam.
From surplus to landmark
The Coast Guard retired the ship in 1975. The city of Olympia, Washington, tried and failed to make it a museum, and a private owner later anchored it off Pillar Point near Half Moon Bay. He donated it to the Lighthouse Society in 1986. In 1987, volunteers sailed it to Oakland, where they spent years restoring it to its 1951 appearance. Wikipedia says it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
The ship opened to the public at Jack London Square in June 2002, after more than $400,000 and 19,000 mostly volunteer hours. The society says ownership passed in 2012 to the Anchor Program, a San Francisco marine trades education group, which still makes the ship available for tours. It is the last known lightship named RELIEF in the country.
Visiting
Tours are by appointment only and are run by the Anchor Program. You can schedule one through the U.S. Lighthouse Society website. While you're there, see Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon.