According to the book "Lost Voyages: Two Centuries of Shipwrecks in the Approaches to New York," lightships, while being a definite aid to navigation, were also prone to be directly involved in many maritime accidents. Those included the Scotland. She was rammed no fewer than six times by other vessels between 1892 and 1905 yet somehow managed to stay afloat.

for those foggy days and nights.

This is a pre-steamship sailing vessel! There are no smokestacks other than the "Charlie Noble" stack for the galley stove.

The lights have been "struck below" for the day and replaced with those "daymark" screens. I'm surmising that the little sheds at the base of the light stanchions might shelter the lights during the day. They might also be somehow involved in the illumination, perhaps housing apparatus to generate acetylene gas from calcium carbide and water.

Interesting schooner rig. The fore boom and gaff are rather short. There's a furled staysail between the two masts.

Another sail-era detail is the "wind sail" to catch the breeze and route some of it below for ventilation.

This is the lightship LV-7, which entered service in 1854 and was retired in 1909. Scotland is the name of the location where the ship was anchored, in this case, the wreck of the SS Scotland, from 1881 until 1902.