United States lightship Chesapeake (LS-116/WAL-538/WLV-538) is a museum ship owned by the National Park Service and on a 25-year loan to Baltimore City, and is operated by Historic Ships in Baltimore Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. A National Historic Landmark, she is one of a small number of preserved lightships. Since 1820, several lightships have served at the Chesapeake lightship station and have been called Chesapeake. Lightships were initially lettered in the early 1800s, but then numbered as they were often moved from one light station to another. The name painted on the side of lightships was the short name of the Light Station they were assigned to and was the daytime visual aspect of the many Aids to Navigation on board lightships. The United States Coast Guard assigned new hull numbers to all lightships still in service in April 1950. After that date, Light Ship 116 was then known by the new Coast Guard Hull number: WAL-538. In January 1965 the Coast Guard further modified all lightship hull designations from WAL to WLV, so Chesapeake became WLV-538.
The USCGC Conifer was a 180 foot seagoing buoy tender. Conifer and her sister ships, commonly referred to as "one-eighties", served as the backbone of the Coast Guard's Aids to Navigation fleet for over 50 years before their replacement by the newer Juniper-class cutters.
A lighthouse tender is a ship specifically designed to maintain, support, or tend to lighthouses or lightvessels, providing supplies, fuel, mail, and transportation. The work is often carried out by ships which also act as buoy tenders.
USCGC Maple (WLB-207) is a Juniper-class seagoing buoy tender operated by the United States Coast Guard. She was based at Sitka, Alaska for 16 years and is currently homeported at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. Her primary mission is maintaining aids to navigation, but she also supports search and rescue, law enforcement, oil spill response, and other Coast Guard missions.
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.
The Nantucket Lightship LV58 was a lightvessel of the United States Lighthouse Board from 1894 to 1905. During those years, she primarily served the coast of Fire Island in New York and the Nantucket Shoals, though she was a relief vessel and served as needed in other locations off the northeast coast as well. From 1898 to her sinking in 1905, she was occasionally used as a lighthouse tender.
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.
USCGC Elm (WLB-204) is a U.S. Coast Guard Juniper-class seagoing buoy tender home-ported in Astoria, Oregon. She is responsible for maintaining aids to navigation on the coasts of Oregon and Washington, including the Columbia River.
USCGC Lilac (WAGL/WLM-227) is a former Coast Guard buoy tender which is now a museum ship located in New York City. Lilac is America's only surviving steam-powered buoy tender, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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 Elm was a motorized derrick barge which was used to build and maintain aids to navigation. She was classed as a lighthouse tender and operated by the United States Lighthouse Service. Elm was launched in 1918 and sold in 1934.
USCGC Elm(WAGL-260/WLI-72260) was an inland buoy tender used maintain aids to navigation by the United States Coast Guard.
USLHT Jessamine was a steam-powered sidewheel lighthouse tender built in 1881 for the United States Lighthouse Board. She spent forty years in government service, homeported in Baltimore, Maryland as part of the 5th Lighthouse District. Her primary mission was to build and maintain lighthouses in Chesapeake Bay and nearby waterways in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. Some of the lighthouses she built still stand.
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.
USLHT Arbutus was built as a lighthouse tender for the Massachusetts coast. She served in that role from her launch in 1933 until World War II. In 1939, the Lighthouse Service was merged into the United States Coast Guard and the ship became USCGC Arbutus. During the war she was under United States Navy control. She served as an anti-submarine net-tender at Newport, Rhode Island. After the war she was posted to New York and resumed her buoy tender responsibilities. She was decommissioned in 1967 and sold in 1969.
USLHT Arbutus was a wooden-hulled, steam-powered lighthouse tender built for the United States Lighthouse Board in 1879. She served on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts in this role until 1925. During World War I, she was transferred to the United States Navy and was commissioned as USS Arbutus, but her duties largely remained those of a lighthouse tender.
USLHT Iris was a steel-hulled, steam-powered ship built in Philadelphia in 1897. She began life as an excursion boat for day trips between Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts as Plymouth. She was purchased by the Lighthouse Board and became a lighthouse tender in 1899. She was transferred to the United States Navy during World War I and became USS Iris. She returned to her duties with the United States Lighthouse Service in 1919. She was sold in 1939 and became a collier and bulk freighter named Big Chief. In 1942, after the American entry into World War II, the ship was requisitioned into military service with the United States Army Corps of Engineers. She was transferred to the Navy for the second time in 1943 and became USS Big Chief (IX-101). Declared surplus after the war, she was sold back into private hands in 1948 and became a fishing boat for the remainder of her career. Her name was changed yet again after a 1954 refit to B. O. Colonna. She was scrapped in 1973.
USLHT Lilac was a steel-hulled steamship built as a lighthouse tender in 1892. During her career in the United States Lighthouse Service her longest assignments were at Portland, Maine, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. During World War I she was transferred to the United States Navy and became USS Lilac.
USLHT Columbine was a steel-hulled steamship built as a lighthouse tender in 1892. During her career in the United States Lighthouse Service she was based in Portland, Oregon, Ketchikan, Alaska, Honolulu, Hawaii, San Juan Puerto Rico, and Baltimore, Maryland. During World War I she was transferred to the United States Navy and became USS Columbine. She returned to the Lighthouse Service in 1919. The ship was decommissioned and sold by the in 1927.
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