After being ignored for decades, the Barnegat Lightship will get a new start.

As part of Camden County’s purchase of Camden’s Pyne Poynt Marina earlier this year, the county also acquired Barnegat Lightship, which has been docked in the mud there since the ’90s. It is one of only 15 lightships still in existence and the only one that hasn’t been restored. The county plans to renovate the marina into a new park and hopes to refurbish the ship so people can go aboard.  

The ship operated as a floating lighthouse, helping ships navigate the Atlantic Ocean from 1904 to 1967. It was first stationed off the coast of Cape May and later moved to Barnegat. The decommissioned ship was displayed in the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and then at Penn’s Landing, but when the nonprofit who owned it in Philadelphia could no longer afford to keep the ship, it was towed across the river to Pyne Poynt Marina.   

Camden County bought the property for a little over $630,000 earlier this year, using county and state Green Acres funds.