There are no photos of LV-25 marked as Choptank known to exist. If one is found, please contact the Chapter Historian. (See contact information at the bottom of this page)
Choptank River Station, 1870-1871
LV-25 was placed at the entrance to the Choptank River at the junction with the Tred-Avon River in January 1870 to serve as a temporary light while the Choptank River Lighthouse was being built. This station was also the furthest northerly location up the Chesapeake Bay that lightships were used.
LV-25 was a 69-foot wood schooner completed in 1827 and rebuilt in 1845 by William Easby of Alexandria, Virginia. The lighting apparatus was a single lantern, an oil lamp with 11 cylindrical wicks. There was also a hand-operated bell and horn which served as the fog signal. The vessel had previously been stationed at the Hooper Strait Station from 1827-1867 and as the District Relief lightship, served for an additional three years during the construction of Deep Water Shoals Lighthouse.
LV-25 was removed from the Choptank station when the Choptank River Lighthouse was completed in 1871. The lightship was then towed to Long Island Sound where it served several more stations before being sold at a public auction in Connecticut for $101.02 on January 1, 1885.
Crew Members: P.J. Lecompte, Keeper (1871)
Sources:
- Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board, various years.
- Forgotten Beacons, Patrick Hornberger & Linda Turbyville, 1997
- Lightships-Floating Lighthouses of the Mid-Atlantic, Wayne Kirklin, 2007.
- Hoopers Strait Lightship Station History. (n.d.). Retrieved July 11, 2020, from http://www.uscglightshipsailors.org/hoopers_straight_lightship_lv25.htm
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