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.
USLHT Shubrick was the first lighthouse tender steamer constructed by the Lighthouse Board.
USLHT Amaranth was a schooner-rigged, twin-screw, wooden-hulled lighthouse tender of United States Lighthouse Service, which served as a vessel of the United States Navy during World War I, and as part of the United States Coast Guard during World War II.
United States Naval Districts is a system created by the United States Navy to organize military facilities, numbered sequentially by geographic region, for the operational and administrative control of naval bases and shore commands in the United States and around the world. Established in 1903, naval districts became the foundational system for organizing U.S. naval forces ashore during the 20th century. The term "Naval" forces includes United States Marine Corps and current United States Coast Guard units.
The United States Coast Guard Cutter Fir was the last lighthouse tender built specifically for the United States Lighthouse Service to resupply lighthouses and lightships, and to service buoys. Fir was built by the Moore Drydock Company in Oakland, California in 1939. On 22 March 1939, the U.S. Lighthouse Tender Fir was launched. She was steam driven with twin screws, 175 feet (53 m) in length, had a beam of 32 feet (9.8 m), drew 11 feet 3 inches (3.43 m) of water, and displaced 885 tons. Fir was fitted with a reinforced bow and stern, and an ice-belt at her water-line for icebreaking. She was built with classic lines and her spaces were lavishly appointed with mahogany, teak, and brass. The crew did intricate ropework throughout the ship. The cost to build Fir was approximately US$390,000. Fir's homeport was Seattle, Washington for all but one of her fifty one years of service when she was temporarily assigned to Long Beach, California when USCGC Walnut was decommissioned on 1 July 1982.
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.
The second USS Suwannee and third USS Mayflower was a United States Lighthouse Board, and later United States Lighthouse Service, lighthouse tender transferred to the United States Navy in 1898 for service as an auxiliary cruiser during the Spanish–American War and from 1917 to 1919 for service as a patrol vessel during World War I. She also served the Lighthouse Board and in the Lighthouse Service as USLHT Mayflower from 1897 to 1898, from 1898 to 1917, and from 1919 to 1939, and in the United States Coast Guard as the first USCGC Mayflower (WAGL-236) in 1939 and from 1940 to 1943 and as USCGC Hydrangea (WAGL-236) from 1943 to 1945.
USLHT Azalea was built as a lighthouse tender and performed in that role on the Massachusetts coast from 1891 to 1917 and again from 1919 to 1933. During World War I, she served in the United States Navy as USS Azalea. Between the wars she was a commercial freighter in Chesapeake Bay, and later between Florida and The Bahamas. During World War II, she was reacquired by the U.S. Navy and served as USS Christiana, a seaplane tender which supported advanced bases in The Bahamas. Declared surplus in 1946, she was sold to Banana Supply Company, and spent a decade transporting bananas from the Caribbean to Miami. After 1956 her history is uncertain until she became a half-sunk derelict and was scrapped in Miami in 1965.
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.
USCGC Clover WAGL/WLB/WMEC-292, a Cactus (A) Class buoy tender was built by Marine Iron and Shipbuilding, Duluth, Minnesota. Her keel was laid 3 December 1941, and she was launched 25 April 1942. She was commissioned on 8 November 1942 in the United States Coast Guard as the United States Coast Guard Cutter Clover. She was built as a WAGL, redesignated a WLB in 1965, and again redesignated a WMEC in 1979.
USCGC Tupelo WAGL/WLB-303, was a Cactus (A) Class 180-foot buoy tender vessel built by Zenith Dredge Company of Duluth, Minnesota. Her keel was laid 15 August 1942, launched 28 November 1942 and commissioned on 30 August 1943. She was built as a WAGL and redesignated a WLB in 1965.
USLHT Armeria was a lighthouse tender in commission with the United States Lighthouse Board from December 1890 to March 1898. After Spanish–American War service in the United States Navy as USS Armeria from May to August 1898, she resumed her lighthouse tender duties, first with the Lighthouse Board from 1898 to 1910 and then with its successor organization, the United States Lighthouse Service, from 1910 until she was wrecked in 1912. She was the first lighthouse tender assigned to permanent duty in the Territory of Alaska.
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).
Patrol Boat No. 105 (第百五號) (ex-Arayat) was a former Philippine Commonwealth customs inspection and enforcement cutter that was sunk by the Japanese during the invasion of the Philippines and later raised and designated as a patrol boat in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
F. Mansfield and Sons Co. was built in 1912 for use as an oyster boat for a company of the same name. She had a varied career, serving as a U.S. Navy minesweeper in World War I, briefly as F. Mansfield and Sons Co. and then as Mansfield. She was transferred to the U.S Lighthouse Service where she became USLHT Shrub. After the Lighthouse Service was absorbed by the U.S. Coast Guard, she became USCGC Shrub. Shrub left government service in 1947. She was in use as a private yacht when she sank in a storm in the Bahamas in 1963. Her crew drifted to Cuba where they were briefly imprisoned as spies.
United States