PORTSMOUTH, Va. - The Lightship Portsmouth Museum reopens for the 2020 season beginning Friday, March 6!
The museum will be open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., and Sundays from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. from March through mid-November. There is a suggested donation of $2 per person to visit the ship.
The Lightship Portsmouth Museum is located on the Elizabeth Riverfront in Portsmouth, at the foot of London Street. The museum is adjacent to the scenic waterfront seawall, where visitors can stroll and observe the constant maritime traffic of ships large and small, and view naval ships being repaired in dry docks across the river.
The Lightship Portsmouth is an authentic, 104 year-old museum ship that has been a part of the Portsmouth waterfront since the spring of 1967, when it was first open to visitors after being dry berthed at the foot of London Street in Olde Towne Portsmouth. Visitors to the ship tour the interior of the main deck, where they can see the enlisted crew’s quarters, the ship’s pantry and galley, the officer's quarters, and the windlass room, as well as peer down into the engine room and get a glimpse of some of the storage and working areas through hatches or via convex mirrors.
Museum staff will be on hand to interpret the ship’s history for visitors and give them an inkling of the daily duties and occasional dangers faced by lightship sailors. New this year are a series of interpretive panels and installations in the ship’s interior that provide more detailed information about the mid-1950s crew that served aboard the ship, as well as technical information related to the ship’s engine room and other equipment.
For more information, please call the offices of the History Division of the Portsmouth Museums, which are located at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum at 2 High St., Portsmouth, at (757)-393-8591.
The Lightship Portsmouth Museum is part of the City of Portsmouth’s Museums Department. Its sister history museums include the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum at 2 High Street, and the Portsmouth Colored Community Library Museum at 904 Elm Ave., Portsmouth.
