The Tacoma class of patrol frigates served in the United States Navy during World War II and the Korean War. Originally classified as gunboats (PG), they were reclassified as patrol frigates (PF) on 15 April 1943. The class is named for its lead ship, Tacoma, a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) S2-S2-AQ1 design, which in turn was named for the city of Tacoma, Washington. Twenty-one ships were transferred to the British Royal Navy, in which they were known as Colony-class frigates, and twenty-eight ships were transferred under Lend-Lease to the Soviet Navy, where they were designated as storozhevoi korabl, during World War II. All Tacoma-class ships in US service during World War II were manned by United States Coast Guard crews. Tacoma-class ships were transferred to the United States Coast Guard and various navies post-World War II.
USS Groton (PF-29), a Tacoma-class frigate, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for Groton, Connecticut.
USCGC Cowslip (WLB-277) is a 180-foot (55 m) sea going buoy tender (WLB). A Cactus-class vessel, she was built by Marine Ironworks and Shipbuilding Corporation in Duluth, Minnesota. Cowslip's preliminary design was completed by the United States Lighthouse Service and the final design was produced by Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Corporation in Duluth. On 16 September 1941 the keel was laid. She was launched on 11 April 1942 and commissioned on 17 October 1942. The original cost for the hull and machinery was $918,873.
USCGC Spar (WLB-403) was a 180-foot (55 m) sea going buoy tender. An Iris class vessel, she was built by Marine Ironworks and Shipbuilding Corporation in Duluth, Minnesota. Spar's preliminary design was completed by the United States Lighthouse Service and the final design was produced by Marine Iron and Shipbuilding. On 13 September 1943 the keel was laid, she was launched on 2 November 1943 and commissioned on 12 June 1944. The original cost for the hull and machinery was $865,941.
The United States Lighthouse Tender Clover is the third Lighthouse Service vessel to bear this name. She was privately built in 1899 and christened Two Myrtles, after the owner's wife and daughter. She was purchased by the Lighthouse Service in 1908 and retained her name. Originally assigned to the 11th Lighthouse District, she was based at Milwaukee where she service the Great Lakes, as an engineering tender.
USS Teal (AM-23/AVP-5) was a Lapwing-class minesweeper acquired by the United States Navy for the task of removing naval mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing. The ship entered service in 1918, was converted into a seaplane tender in the 1920s and took part in World War II, serving primarily in Alaskan waters. Following the war, the ship was decommissioned and sold in 1948. Teal was named after the teal, any of several small, short-necked, river ducks common to Europe and the Americas.
USS Manasquan (AG-36) was a cargo ship that served in the United States Navy at the end of World War I, and was reacquired during World War II and converted into a meteorological patrol vessel, and was also used in testing radio navigation systems.
USLHT Azalea was an American lighthouse tender that operated in the fleet of the United States Lighthouse Board from 1891 to 1910 and of the United States Lighthouse Service from 1910 to 1917 and from 1919 to 1933. During and in the immediate aftermath of World War I, she served in the United States Navy as USS Azalea from 1917 to 1919. During World War II, she became the U.S. Navy seaplane tender USS Christiana (YAG-32) in 1942.
The second USS Ossipee (WPG-50) was a United States Coast Guard cutter that served in the Coast Guard from 1915 to 1917, in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919, in the Coast Guard again from 1919 to 1941, and in the Navy again from 1941 to 1945.
The Barnegat class was a large class of United States Navy small seaplane tenders (AVP) built during World War II. Thirty were completed as seaplane tenders, four as motor torpedo boat tenders, and one as a catapult training ship.
USS Maple, was a lighthouse tender that served in the United States Navy from 1893 to 1899, seeing service as an auxiliary ship during the Spanish–American War in 1898, and from 1917 to 1919, operating as a patrol vessel during World War I. She also served as USLHT Maple in the United States Lighthouse Board fleet from 1899 to 1910 and in the United States Lighthouse Service from 1910 to 1933.
USCGC Woodrush (WLB-407) was a buoy tender that performed general aids-to-navigation (ATON), search and rescue (SAR), and icebreaking duties for the United States Coast Guard (USCG) from 1944 to 2001 from home ports of Duluth, Minnesota and Sitka, Alaska. She responded from Duluth at full speed through a gale and high seas to the scene of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinking in 1975. In 1980, she took part in a rescue rated in the top 10 USCG rescues when she helped to save the passengers and crew of the cruise ship Prinsendam after it caught fire in position 57°38"N 140° 25"W then while being towed sank off Graham Island, British Columbia. She was one of the first vessels to respond to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. She was decommissioned on 2 March 2001 and sold to the Republic of Ghana to serve in the Ghana Navy.
F. Mansfield and Sons Co. (SP-691), sometimes seen as Mansfield & Sons Co., was a United States Navy mine sweeper serving in non-commissioned status, thus not properly bearing the U.S.S. prefix, from 1917 to 1919. The vessel was a small commercial freighter that was acquired by the Navy for World War I service. After the war the vessel was transferred to the United States Lighthouse Service for operation as a tender on 28 October 1919 and renamed Shrub. Upon merger of that service with the U.S. Coast Guard the vessel was designated the buoy tender USCGS Shrub until 1947.
USS Lake Tulare (ID-2652) was a cargo ship of the United States Navy that served during World War I and its immediate aftermath.
USLHT Mangrove was a lighthouse tender in commission in the fleet of the United States Lighthouse Board from December 1897 to April 1898 and from August 1898 to 1910, in the United States Lighthouse Service from 1910 to 1917 and from 1919 to 1939, and in the United States Coast Guard from 1939 to 1941 and in 1946. She also saw commissioned service in the United States Navy as USS Mangrove on three occasions, operating as an armed supply ship from April to August 1898 during the Spanish–American War, during which she fought the last battle of that war; as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919 during and in the aftermath of World War I; and as a buoy tender from 1941 to 1946 during and in the aftermath of World War II.
USLHT Cedar was a lighthouse tender in commission in the fleet of the United States Lighthouse Service in 1917 and from 1919 to 1939, and – as USCGC Cedar (WAGL-207) – in the fleet of the United States Coast Guard from 1939 to 1950. She was in commissioned service in the United States Navy as the patrol vessel USS Cedar from 1917 to 1919 during and in the immediate aftermath of World War I. She also saw service in World War II under U.S. Navy control while in the Coast Guard fleet. She spent her career in the Pacific Northwest and the Territory of Alaska.
USLHT Camellia was a lighthouse tender in commission in the fleet of the United States Lighthouse Service from 1911 to 1917 and from 1919 to 1939, and – as USCGC Camellia (WAGL-206) – in the fleet of the United States Coast Guard from 1939 to 1947. During World War I she briefly saw war service with the United States Army in 1917 before serving as the United States Navy patrol vessel USS Camellia from 1917 to 1919. She also saw service in World War II under U.S. Navy control while in the Coast Guard fleet. After the conclusion of her United States Government career, she operated for decades in the service of the Dominican Navy as Capotillo.
USCGC Alder (WAGL-216) was a wooden-hull lighthouse tender in commission in the fleet of the United States Lighthouse Service as USLHT Alder from 1924 to 1939, and in the fleet of the United States Coast Guard as USCGC Alder from 1939 until 1948. During World War II, she was given the additional designation (WAGL-216).
USCGC Hemlock (WAGL-217) was a lighthouse tender in commission in the fleet of the United States Lighthouse Service as USLHT Hemlock from 1934 to 1939, and in the fleet of the United States Coast Guard as USCGC Hemlock from 1939 to 1958. During World War II, she was given the additional designation (WAGL-217).
USLHTBanahao was lighthouse tender that served in the Philippines.
United States