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Language: en

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So let's say it is 1908.
You need a lighthouse somewhere.

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But, there aren't any rocks to put it on.
There's just dangerous shores and shoals.

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The solution nowadays would be to build a large tower, anchor it to the sea bed,

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but 1908? The technology wasn't there, so the result is this:  The Ambrose.

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This is Mike Weiss, he's the waterfront foreman at the South Street Seaport Museum.

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Tell me about the Ambrose.
-It's a floating lighthouse.

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This ship is a lightouse. So she'd sit out in the channel, twelve crew at a time,

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all weathers that came through.
In the middle of winter, it was freezing cold, snow on deck

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or it's hurricane season, or there's massive waves coming through, storms, heavy fog...

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-And she has to stay there with the light on, 
no matter what?

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-Yes, she must hold her place, 
she must keep her station.

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-So there's a heck of an anchor on this thing, presumably?

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-Yes, she's fitted with two mushroom anchors.
She'd use one at a time

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unless things got really bad, I'd imagine, but they're each 5000lbs. [~2200kg]

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It sat there in the channel, and ships would aim for it,

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now that isn't always a good thing, though 
-I was going to say, that sounds dangerous!

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-You're sort of a sitting duck sometimes.
-Yeah, because a lighthouse is on rocks, you'll hit the rocks...

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-Right so you'd aim for this area near the lighthouse.

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But, here, ships sometimes, especially in fog, there's always the very serious risk

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that they will run into the lightship that was at station there.

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-So this ship saved lives? In a time where you couldn't put a lighthouse down,

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you couldn't put anything solid 
to the seabed, there wasn't the technology,

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This ship saved lives?
-Oh, without question, absolutely saved lives.

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-So the lightship Ambrose, one of very few
lightships remaining in the United States,

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and in the world. Something that not just saved lives, but made this port city possible.

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Something you might not have known.

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Thank you very much to the
 South Street Seaport Museum

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Their staff and volunteers are preserving a load of historic ships

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if you're visiting New York 
do stop by,

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and if you're living in New York, 
they could always use some volunteers.

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