Lightship Huron: A Floating Lighthouse

Before GPS, before reliable radio beacons, ships entering treacherous or shallow waters depended on lightships: vessels anchored in fixed positions to serve as floating lighthouses. The United States Lightship Huron, designated LV-one oh three, was launched in nineteen twenty and spent decades guiding commercial traffic across the Great Lakes. Lightships like the Huron were the last resort for sailors in places where building a lighthouse on the lakebed was impossible.

When advances in navigation technology made lightships obsolete, the Huron was retired and brought ashore to Port Huron, Michigan, where it sits today as a museum ship in Pine Grove Park on the St. Clair River. Port Huron is itself the gateway between Lake Huron and the St.

Clair River, one of the busiest freshwater shipping corridors in the world, so the Huron found an appropriate final home watching over the water it once served.