In the fall of 1962, the Lightship CHESAPEAKE (WLV-116) was struck by the full force of an Atlantic hurricane. Other vessels could run for cover as the storm rose, but CHESAPEAKE had to stay on station, marking the approaches to the Chesapeake Bay as she had done since 1933. The 1,000-watt lamp at her masthead was a sign of life for other ships, and the safety of others came first.

The storm hit. In a heavy sea, a huge wave broke over CHESAPEAKE'S 20-foot high bow, carried away her foredeck fittings, damaged her steel pilot house and swept both of her lifeboats overboard. The ship's anchor rode - 1,00 feet of one and a half inch thick cast iron chain - snapped and her main 7,500 pound mushrooms anchor was lost. Badly hurt and drifting from her station, CHESAPEAKE made for her base in Norfolk, Virginia. There emergency repairs were made so quickly that the Lightship was back on station within 24 hours!

There are no lightships on duty anymore; they have all been replaced by automated beacons. But ships like CHESAPEAKE were once a common sight along our shores, marking the entrances to channels and warning of hazards to navigation. These ships also provided weather information and helped in rescue operations.

Complements of 16 officers and men served two weeks on and two weeks off. The work was mostly routine, often boring and sometimes extremely dangerous.

Until 1939, this work was done by employees of the U.S. Lighthouse Service, a civilian government agency which also operated the lightships. That year, the Lighthouse Service was absorbed by the U.S. Coast Guard, a change which brought lower pay and more rigid working conditions to those who decided to stay. In 1940, the Coast Guard came under U.S. Navy command. Then, on 7 December, 1941 the United States entered the Second World War. Shortly after that, CHESAPEAKE was drafted.

Sporting two rapid-fire 20mm guns, CHESAPEAKE spent the war years (1942-1945) as a Harbor Patrol and Security vessel based in Sandwich, Massachusetts - near the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal. With the return to peace, CHESAPEAKE resumed her old duties in the approaches to the Chesapeake Bay. Delaware Bay was her next and last duty station, and there she stayed until 1971. That year, she was transferred to the National Park Service, which used her as a sea-going environmental classroom. In 1982, she was turned over to the city of Baltimore, and in 1988 she became part of the Baltimore Maritime Museum. CHESAPEAKE is a National Historic Landmark.