The Ambrose lightship station was established in 1908 when the Sandy Hook lightship was moved to a new location 8 miles east of Rockaway Point N.Y. and renamed Ambrose lightship. The LV 87/WAL512 built in 1907 was assigned to the Ambrose station where it remained until 1932. In 1932 the LV 111 / WAL 533 replaced the LV 87 and remained on duty until 1952. Then in Aug. 1952 the new lightship WLV 613 replaced the WAL 533. It remained on Ambrose   until Aug. 23 1967, when it was replaced with a $2.5 million Texas tower. The Texas tower was manned by 6 Coast Guardsmen with at least 4 personnel on board at all times until 1988 when the tower was automated.

During the second world war the Ambrose remained on station while a lot of other lightships were taken off station during the war. German U-boats did not bother the Ambrose because it aided them as much as it did the nations' shipping.

In 1927 the Ambrose recorded a severe storm. A strong NE gale picked up a force 9 {48-56 mph} and seas broke over midship and much of the equipment on deck was lost overboard and finally the ship broke its moorings and drifted off station. The captain radioed his situation and headed for the depot at Staten Island but was back on station a week later.

Tragedy struck the Ambrose station on a early foggy morning of June 24 1960. The Relief lightship WAL 505 was on Ambrose station as the WLV 613 was at St. George base at Staten Island getting its yearly maintenance. The freighter Green Bay was outbound from N.Y. to the Red Sea with general cargo at 10,270 tons when the captain miscalculated his radar and saw the lightship as directly in front of him and ordered full astern on his engines but it was too late and the Green Bay struck the Relief on the starboard side just to the rear of midship, putting a 12 foot gash in the lightship that allowed water to pour in at such a rate there was no way of saving the lightship. There were 9 crewman aboard and there was no time to launch their motor lifeboat so they had to abandon the lightship by using an inflatable raft.

The Chief Boatswains mate of the Relief ordered the crew to use their hands to paddle the raft away from the lightship as he feared it would be caught in the undertow of the lightship going under. They managed to do it successfully. The lightship was struck at 04:05 and went down under at 04:15. The Green Bay dropped anchor and launched a lifeboat picking up the survivors of the lightship. Luckily the Green Bay did not strike the lightship at midsection because it would have struck the crews' quarters. The crew of the lightship was transferred to a 95' Coast Guard patrol boat and taken to St. George base at Staten Island. About 2 hours after the sinking the Coast Guard cutter Yeaton was on the Ambrose station until the Ambrose WLV 613 returned later that day to man the station.

All of the lightships have been replaced either by a Texas tower platform or a large navigational buoy.

Researched & Prepared by Hal Dean