By Ben Fractenberg and Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Staff
SOUTH STREET SEAPORT — The historic Ambrose lightship — after undergoing months of repairs on Staten Island — glided back into the South Street Seaport Monday afternoon.
The 105-year-old boat — which once served as a floating lighthouse guiding ships into New York Harbor — was pulled out of the water this winter for an extensive tune-up at Staten Island's Caddell Dry Dock and Repair.
Workers fixed the Ambrose's steel-plated hull and applied a protective sealant, then added a fresh coat of gleaming red paint.
Now that the ship, a national landmark, has returned to the Seaport's Pier 16, workers with the South Street Seaport Museum will repair its deck, which is still leaking, said Jonathan Boulware, the museum's waterfront director.
The museum will also update the Ambrose's interior spaces, including the former crew quarters, so that the boat can welcome visitors in a couple of months.
"We're working hard to get her open," Boulware said.
The financially struggling South Street Seaport Museum, which was taken over by the Museum of the City of New York on an interim basis last fall, reopened to the public in January and plans to launch public programs on the Pioneer, a historic tall ship, in late April or early May, Boulware said.
The museum is still figuring out what to do with some of its other historic vessels, including the Peking, which is for sale, and the Lettie G. Howard, which needs hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs.
