Swiftsure LV83 Lightship Editorial Image

Swiftsure (LV83) is a lightship and museum ship moored at the Northwest Seaport in Seattle, Washington. Launched in 1904 at Camden, New Jersey and in active service until 1960 at a variety of posts on the American west coast, she is one of the oldest surviving lightships in the United States, and the only one carrying its original steam engines. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1969, and completed a long-running restoration in 2013. The lightship once served as a floating lighthouse and was stationed in the open ocean a few miles off the mouth of a bay or inlet. Their beacon served to warn ships entering or leaving the waterways. The lightship No. 83 “Swiftsure” is a heritage vessel and museum ship, and in 1989 the vessel was declared a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service.