Lightship #83, formerly known to Puget Sound sailors as RELIEF and renamed SWIFTSURE in 1995, was launched in Camden, New Jersey, in 1904. She steamed around the tip of South America to her first station at Blunts Reef in California, where she saved 150 people when their ship ran aground in dense fog. 

This was the beginning of 56 years of continuous lightship duty. Number 83 had numerous names on her sides, all of which indicated the location of her station. 

In 1929 she move to San Francisco Bay, and in 1935 diaphone whistles were installed. Her 1000 pound bell on the foredeck was a backup to the fog whistle. Sails were used to help keep the ship on station in early years. 

Coming under Coast Guard jurisdiction in 1939, she continued at San Francisco Station. During World War II, #83 was pressed into service in the Navy. With guns installed on her foredeck, bridge, and stern, a coat of gray paint and the crew's quarter enlarged to 40, she patrolled marine traffic in harbor areas. When the war ended, she returned to former Coast Guard duties. 

In 1951, she became a substitute when other lightships went off duty to be maintained--hence her previous name RELIEF. As such she served as the lightship on the Swiftsure Bank at the entrance to the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, Umatilla Reef and Columbia River entrance. 

She not only was the guide for the commercial and cruise ships entering and leaving the Pacific Ocean, but the turning mark for the prestigious annual international Swiftsure Yacht Race. 

SWIFTSURE is one of the oldest lightships in the country and the only one to have her original steam engines. She was decommissioned in 1960 and purchased by Northwest Seaport in 1969. She was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and declared a National Landmark in the spring of 1989.

Researched & Prepared by Jim Anderson