USS Hickory Running Lights

A row of weatherproof marine navigation lamps—compact metal housings with red and green sidelights, a white stern lamp and a steaming/anchor light—mounted along the cutter USS Hickory's rail and mast. Salt-smeared lenses and spray-darkened fittings normally throw steady, distinctive glows through night sea spray; here the lamps are described as extinguished or flickering amid 80‑foot seas, their silence reported over a crackling radio and prompting frightened, urgent reactions from Harold and the shore listeners.

2 appearances

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S1E7 · The State Dinner

Kneeling to the Storm: The Last Line to the Hickory

The USS Hickory running lights are reported by Harold as extinguished or failing; narratively they act as a hazard (a carrier may run the cutter down in the dark) and a concrete measure of the cutter's peril — visual testimony to the ship's reduced signature and vulnerability.

Before: Running lights normally function as navigational markers on the cutter's rails and masts.

After: Reported as lost or failing in the storm, increasing the risk of collision and reducing the ship's visibility.

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S1E7 · The State Dinner

Hickory: Bartlet's Call to Harold Lewis

The USS Hickory's running lights are referenced as lost — a concrete nautical detail that raises the stakes (risk of being run down by large carriers) and translates technical failure into imminent mortal danger.

Before: Normally illuminated to signal the cutter's position at night.

After: Extinguished or unreliable, increasing collision risk and contributing to Harold's alarmed report.

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