{"nrhp_refnum":"89001080","name":"LIGHTSHIP No. 101, PORTSMOUTH","other_names":["Lightship # 101","Wal 524","Cape Charles","Relief","Overfalls","Stoneh"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"London Slip, Elizabeth River","address_restricted":false,"city":"Portsmouth (Independent City)","county":"Portsmouth","state":"VA","lat":36.83700512200005,"lon":-76.29623176799998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1989-05-05","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1989-05-05","areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Lightship No. 101, a steel-hulled lightship built in 1916 by Pusey and Jones of Wilmington, Delaware, now preserved as a museum vessel in a concrete cradle on London Slip, Elizabeth River, in downtown Portsmouth, Virginia.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is one of a small number of preserved historic American lightships. It served on at least five stations guiding vessels into Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay and Nantucket Bay. It also retains remarkable integrity and reflects improvements in lightship design, including being the first lightship built with a single light tower amidships.","narrative":"Lightship No. 101, now called Portsmouth, is a steel-hulled vessel built in 1916 by Pusey and Jones of Wilmington, Delaware. She measured 101 feet in length and carried a crew of 11. Over her career she marked the entrance to Chesapeake Bay off Cape Charles, served at the Overfalls station at the Delaware Bay breakwater, and later worked Nantucket-area stations under the names Relief, Stonehorse and Cross Rip. She was the first lightship built with a single light tower amidships, and her design reflected Lighthouse Establishment advances such as metal hulls, steam power and a bow hawsepipe placed to carry strain to the strongest part of the hull. After retirement she became a museum in Portsmouth, where the city owns her. Original fittings survive, including the bell dated 1916, the wheel, telegraphs and a steam windlass. She is regarded as one of a few preserved American lightships, a type once essential to coastal navigation.","period_of_significance":"1916-1964","architect_builder":"U.S. Lighthouse Establishment / Pusey and Jones, Wilmington, Delaware","architectural_style":"Architecture (Naval)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Fully restored to her early 1920s appearance, in excellent condition, open to the public as a museum and still listed as an active aid to navigation.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.682666-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/5/6791/41679105/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/89001080_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001080/fa2e61c154-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001080/fa2e61c154-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":null,"credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portsmouth_with_mushroom_anchor.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown author</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portsmouth_with_mushroom_anchor.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679105","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_lightship_Portsmouth_(LV-101)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7890709"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/portsmouth/lightship-no-101-portsmouth-89001080/"}