| History | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name | USS Mistletoe |
| Completed | 1872 |
| Commissioned | April 1917 |
| Decommissioned | July 1919 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 455 tons |
| Length | 153 ft |
| Beam | 26 ft |
| Draft | 6 ft 9 in |
| Speed | 10 knots |
| Complement | 20 |
| Armament | (As lighthouse tender) none |
The second USS Mistletoe was a wooden lighthouse tender built in 1872 by Robinson Hoffman and Company in Chester, Pennsylvania. [1]
The ship was operated by the Lighthouse Service of the Commerce Department. On 11 April 1917, she was transferred to the Navy with the entire Lighthouse Service by executive order.
Assigned to the 3rd Naval District, Mistletoe served during World War I as a patrol boat out of Section Base No. 8, Tompkinsville, Staten Island. Following the end of the war, the vessel was returned to the custody of the Department of Commerce, 1 July 1919.
The United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use a hull classification symbol to identify their ships by type and by individual ship within a type. The system is analogous to the pennant number system that the Royal Navy and other European and Commonwealth navies use.
A ship's tender, usually referred to as a tender, is a boat, or a larger ship, used to service or support other boats or ships. This is generally done by transporting people or supplies to and from shore or another ship.
The United States Lighthouse Service, also known as the Bureau of Lighthouses, was the agency of the United States Government and the general lighthouse authority for the United States from the time of its creation in 1910 as the successor of the United States Lighthouse Board until 1939 when it was merged into the United States Coast Guard. It was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of all lighthouses and lightvessels in the United States.
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.
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 Fern was originally a lighthouse tender built in 1871 by Delameter and Stack of New York City. She was transferred to the United States Navy from the United States Treasury Department on 30 January 1891. Fitted out as a gunboat, Fern was commissioned on 22 April 1891, with Lieutenant Commander A. J. Iverson in command.
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 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.
USS Holly (1881) was a lighthouse tender borrowed by the U.S. Navy from the U.S. Commerce Department during World War I and armed as a patrol craft. Holly was used to patrol the waters near Norfolk, Virginia. Post-war she was returned to the Commerce Department.
USS Zizania was a patrol craft tender that served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919 and again as USS Adario from 1943 to 1946.
USS Water Lily was a motor launch that served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919.
The third USCGC Mistletoe, originally designed for duty with the Lighthouse Service as a buoy tender, was built in 1939 by the Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Company, Duluth, Minnesota. As the Lighthouse Service became part of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939, Mistletoe commissioned as a Coast Guard coastal buoy tender.
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.
HMAS Cape Leeuwin was a lighthouse tender which was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) between mid-1943 and the end of 1945.
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.
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).
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .The entry can be found here.