The Ambrose at the South Street Seaport, July 2006

Lightship Ambrose served as the sentinal beacon marking Ambrose Channel, the main shipping channel for New York Harbor, from 1823 until the station was replaced by Ambrose Lightstation, a Texas Tower, in 1967. Between 1823 and 1967 several ships were commissioned Lightship Ambrose and served at the station.

The Lightship Ambrose (LV87), built 1908, served her station until 1933 when she was reassigned to serve as the Lightship Scotland, a station much closer to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. In 1968, the U.S. Coast Guard gifted the ship to the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City where she remains berthed and can be visited by the public.

In 1952, the Lightship Ambrose (WLV 613) was commissioned and became the last lightship to mark the Ambrose Channel when she was replaced by a Texas Tower lightstation on August 24, 1967. She was reassigned as a relief ship on the Massachusetts coastline from 1967–75. And finally, after being renamed Nantucket II, she was reassigned to Nantucket Shoals, where she alternated with her sister ship, the Lightship Nantucket (WLV 612), relieving each other approximately every 21 days, until 1983.

Text from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightship_Ambrose