Review: Collision at Sea tells important tale of Lightship Relief sinking

Friday, 14 October 2011 06:33 Written by Joe Follansbee

Collision at Sea: The True Story of the Collision and Sinking of USCG Lightship Relief LV-78/WAL-505, by J.F. “Jay” McCarthy. Infinity Publishing, 84 pages, softcover, $11.95.

One of the great hidden treasures of small historical societies and associations is the books produced by members to record small, though important events. The books don’t sell in the millions of copies, and the authors don’t get on Oprah. But they often tell long-forgotten stories in a unique way. Collision at Sea is one such book. Written by a former lightship sailor, Jay McCarthy, this slim, but rich and likeable volume relates the last hours of the Lightship Relief LV-78/WAL-505 and the nightmare experienced by its nine-man crew.

In the predawn hours of June 24, 1960, most of the men were asleep as Relief performed her duties as a temporary stand-in on the Ambrose station at the entrance to New York Harbor. The lightship Ambrose herself was in port for maintenance, but Relief was more than capable of guiding the cargo ships and passenger liners that constantly transited one of the busiest shipping channels in the world. The crew of one of those cargo vessels, the Green Bay, would make a series of tragic errors that would destroy Relief.

As a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard’s lightship service, McCarthy is unique qualified to tell the story, and he doggedly pursues it, tracking down most of the survivors of the collision and getting their version of events, while fleshing out the official version. McCarthy also adds telling details of their lives aboard Relief with personal photos and recollections, adding some background of the lightship service to give the tragedy context. And he offers his own view of what happened to Relief, which now lies on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

McCarthy also reminds us that many of these lightship veterans, who lived a life that has now passed into history, are themselves passing and with them, their stories. That’s the real value of this book and hundreds of books like it published by small historical societies or written by men and women of associations such as the USCG Lightship Sailors Association. McCarthy performs an incredible service to future generations by gathering stories that might otherwise be missed, ensuring that someone will remember the tales long after their actors are gone.

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