Jousting at Lightships
They're iconic, and Bill Golden saved two of only 12 remaining. Now what?
Don Quixote, idealist and dreamer, jousted at windmills.
Bill Golden jousts at Lightships.
What he’s attempted surely can be called “quixotic.” Then again, what he’s accomplished is more than whimsical. He and his wife Kristen have rescued and in one case refurbished two of the most historic Lightships in United States history — therefore two of the most historic vessels afloat.
How, why, and what might happen next, is a tale worthy of Cervantes.
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Lightships occupy a unique niche in maritime history.
They served the same purpose as lighthouses, shining beacons to guide ships through dangerous waters, at the true vanguard because they were moored in tempestuous places offshore where nothing could be built. Often they became the first sign mariners perceived of land’s proximity, greeted with sighs of relief. Lightships had 19 servicemen onboard, dangerous if stationary duty.
The first one documented was dispatched in England in 1734 to illuminate safe passage at the River Thames (though ancient Egyptians purportedly employed them signaling the mouth of the Nile). The first in the US was moored in Chesapeake Bay in 1820. Of 179 built in the United States, wooden-hulled then steel, the last two were among the most illustrious, saving many Cape Cod lives:
The Nantucket Lightships.
Bill Golden owns them both, two of only 12 Lightships remaining.
Golden was a Massachusetts State Senator from the South Shore, a star in the Democratic Party when he ran for lieutenant governor in 1990. He lost, meaning he vacated his Senate seat as well. That led to a reckoning and as he puts it, “I disappeared.”
He vanished to the Pacific Rim, Indonesia, Taipei, South Korea, where he was putting together deals like selling big tankers. So he was on an email list in 2000 that let him know a Nantucket Lightship was about to be sold.
Lightship #612 greeted vessels arriving in New England waters from Europe. Bi-coastal, before that she flashed a welcome to vessels reaching California from Asia. She was among the last in service (with a sister ship replaced by an unmanned buoy in 1985), becoming a rusted hull of 605 tons with red paint still showing — the biggest item ever sold on eBay.
At an open house on the waterfront, it became clear “the ship was filled with diesel and asbestos,” Golden remembers. “Everyone was seeing it as scrap, assessing what it was worth in metal and artifacts. But I couldn’t get it out of my head ... Here was a world-famous vessel, an iconic symbol of resilience and salvation with the sole mission of lifesaving. People working Lightships lost their lives for people they never knew and would never meet. And this should become scrap?
“I made 150 phone calls in the next 24 hours, got a marine surveyor to see if it could be resurrected. His report was inconclusive. I decided the whole thing was too risky, but my wife Kristen said, ‘Hey, let’s go for it.’”
Golden figured scrap value at $250,000; therefore companies wouldn’t bid more than $125,000 to account for add-on expenses and still see a return. So he bid $126,100 — and became the proud owner of a Lightship.
They stripped her in New Bedford, filling eight 60-yard containers. They welded new steel, overhauled four propulsion engines. There wasn’t “a toothpick of wood” when they began. But foghorns and beacons were still onboard, a place 128 feet long, 30 feet wide, height for spiral staircases.
Their goal, Kristen as de facto general contractor, was to turn a Lightship into a luxury yacht for hire.
It took two years, many craftsmen and much work, before their first charter cruised in October, 2002. The Lightship hosted famous parties, moored in Newport, New York, Nantucket. Ted Kennedy chartered, Goldman Sachs, the BBC, Monty Python’s crazy crew. When the Lightship’s sister came on the market, Nantucket Lightship #613, Golden couldn’t resist. That one he kept “exactly as it is, thinking perhaps it could become a museum, or a classroom.”
#612 escaped Hurricane Sandy’s wrath in 2012, sheltering up the Hudson River. Charters continued less frequently, then came COVID. These days “neither of the Lightships is ready for primetime,” Golden diplomatically puts it, one dormant in Fall River, one in New Bedford.
But Cervantes-style plans percolate.
“Here’s what I think should happen,” he says. “I want to use the Lightship as a mobile platform, help focus on the reality of climate change, how it’s impacting people and our identify, threatening coastal places that define us.
“Take her on a national tour. The Statue of Liberty, our monuments in Washington DC, Mobile Alabama, Galveston and Houston, right here in downtown Charlestown. We need to think about ports and create public will. The impact of climate change and how to address that shouldn’t be a political thing, Democrats vs Republicans. If we can focus on historic and cultural landmarks that are in jeopardy, maybe we could bring the country together.”
He is scheming, dreaming, hoping to raise money for the Lightship’s next incarnation, embracing a mission more socially satisfying than luxury charters.
In the meantime, even Don Quixote must address the question of how, without visible means of support, he can continue:
“Some people are land poor, we’re Lightship poor,” smiles Golden. “It’s been an enormous challenge, I’ll leave it at that.”
They’ve had some success with a Lightship clothing brand, but then he pivots to his next project that might spigot cash flow, keep steel hulls afloat. It’s also maritime-themed but very different:
He’s opened a pirate museum in Salem in partnership with Barry Clifford, akin to Clifford’s museum in West Yarmouth, to showcase Black Sam Bellamy and the Whydah.
The jousting continues.
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Remember seeing it off Nantucket. The lightships are( still) so cool. Hope his plans work out, they sound good.
Sara and I visited the Nantucket after it was renovated. At first I think the Goldens were going to live on the ship. Then it was a Bed and Breakfast. They did a fabulous job renovating the Lightship. It really was a work of love.