The USS Lucid: Restoration Work Continues

The Stockton Maritime Museum aims to create a permanent museum on Stockton’s downtown waterfront that will provide public access to Stockton’s historical and cultural past. Its prominent feature will be the USS Lucid, which was acquired by the museum in 2010 and moved to Stockton in 2010, where restoration began.
The USS Lucid was one of 101 Aggressive Class minesweepers built in an emergency three-year shipbuilding program in the early 1950s in response to the U.S. Navy’s losses from Soviet high-tech mines during the Korean War. Stockton’s historic Colberg Boat Works was tasked to build three of the USS Lucid’s sister ships. The USS Lucid, which was built in 1953 by Higgins Industries in New Orleans, Louisiana, is the last surviving Aggressive Class minesweeper in the United States.

The Stockton Maritime Museum was awarded a $950,000 Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy Grant last year to cover design, architecture, engineering and permitting for the development of its one-and-a-half-acre site on the south shore of Stockton’s historic waterfront. “The restoration work on board Lucid is now approximately 85 percent completed,” David Rajkovich, president of the Stockton Maritime Museum board of directors, said. “All the work is done by San Joaquin Office of Education’s Building Futures Academy students and adult volunteers of the museum.”

San Joaquin Building Futures Academy, or SJBFA, is a public school for students in San Joaquin County who participate in the SJCOE YouthBuild program. SJBFA is a high school dropout credit recovery program that offers grades 9 through 12 and serves youth ages 18 to 24. Academic and construction curriculum are integrated and provide multiple opportunities for hands-on experiences, meaning that students earn credits for their work on the Lucid.

More than a dozen students are working on the Lucid. The students earn valuable experience, taking on restoration tasks such as carpentry, electrical, plumbing and more under the guidance of their instructors and experienced volunteers. John Van Huystee, a museum board advisor, is helping oversee restoration of the Lucid. He has a background as a building contractor and is a vocational instructor at Building Futures Academy. “A lot of life skills are taught, from showing up on time to how to conduct yourself in different situations and surroundings,” John said.

Students come out once or twice a week, depending on their school schedule, to complete work on the ship. There are adult volunteers on board five days a week. Scavenging parts for the ship has taken those involved in the project far and wide! “A group of ten museum volunteers recently returned from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where we removed approximately 50 tons of minesweeping gear and parts from the Ex-USS Implicit, MSO-455. She was the very last remining sister ship of the USS Lucid to be decommissioned anywhere in the world. An exact twin of Lucid, Implicit served our Navy from 1955 to 1995, then was sold to the Republic of China (Taiwan) Navy, where she served another 30 years as the Yung Yang in Taiwan’s Navy,” David said “We were able to retrieve much-needed gear including sonar consoles, anchors, anchor chain, taft rails, stern minesweep cranes, paravanes and electrical gear.”

The next project is to finish both engine rooms, which are being prepped for sanding, painting and lighting. It will take about two to three months to complete, since the engine rooms are the largest spaces on the ship.

David said the grant enabled the museum to hire an architect and to work through the permitting process. “Once permitting process is complete, we hope to begin construction on our permanent Weber Avenue location,” he said. “Fundraising efforts are under way with private and corporate supporters, as well as additional potential state and local agency funding.”

When completed, Stockton Maritime Museum, with the USS Lucid as its iconic attraction, will benefit the community with educational opportunities for all ages, offering community gathering spaces and highlighting the rich history of the waterfront’s ship-building past. The transformation is noticeable. “I have been on the ship for now 12 years, and I have seen a wreck of a vessel turn into the beautiful maritime piece of history it has become,” John said.

The ship is open to the public twice a year during spring and fall open house events. The next scheduled open house is set for Saturday, October 3, 2026. Additional details will be available as the date draws near. The museum’s website at stocktonhistoricalmaritimemuseum.org has a plethora of information as well as how to volunteer.
“We want to encourage folks in the community to come out to see the beautiful restoration work our students, adult volunteers and donors have helped accomplish thus far,” he said. “And we welcome financial support from the community, as that has been our main source of funding. With all work done by volunteers, we get a lot of work completed from every dollar we raise.”

For now, the USS Lucid is moored near Pixie Woods. “We hope to be able to move to our permanent, downtown waterfront location in another three years,” David said.