USLHT Azalea
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USLHT Azalea |
| Namesake | Azalea |
| Operator | |
| Builder | Jonson Foundry & Machine Company |
| Cost |
|
| Commissioned |
|
| Decommissioned |
|
| Fate | Sold |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Lighthouse tender |
| Tonnage | 516 tons |
| Length | 154 ft (47 m) |
| Beam | 24 ft 3 in (7.39 m) |
| Draft | 12 ft 4 in (3.76 m) |
| Installed power | 400 hp (300 kW) |
| Complement | 5 officers, 14 crew |
| Armament | None |
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.
U.S. Lighthouse Board and U.S. Lighthouse Service, 1910–1917
Built in 1891 for the United States Lighthouse Board as USLHT Azalea, Azalea assigned to the Second Lighthouse District and based at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.[1] In 1910, when the Lighthouse Board was abolished and replaced by the United States Lighthouse Service, she became part of the Lighthouse Service fleet.
U.S. Navy, 1917–1919
The United States entered World War I on 6 April 1917, and the Lighthouse Service transferred Azalea to the United States Navy for war service on 16 April 1917. The Navy commissioned her 9 May 1917. In Navy service, she salvaged navigational aids, adjusted buoys, and tended anti-submarine nets. The war ended on 11 November 1918, and the Navy returned her to the Lighthouse Service on 1 July 1919.[2]
U.S. Lighthouse Service, 1919–1933
Once again USLHT Azalea, the ship returned to duty in the Second Lighthouse District. She collided with the schooner Lavinia M. Snow off Pollock Rip Shoal near Monomoy Island in Chatham, Massachusetts, in 1921 but was repaired and returned to service. The Lighthouse Service decommissioned and sold her in 1933.[1]
U.S. Navy, 1942
The United States entered World War II on 7 December 1942, and the U.S. Navy reacquired the ship in August 1942. The Navy commissioned her on 9 November 1942 as USS Christiana for service as a seaplane tender.[3]
See also
References
- ^ a b "Azalea, 1891" (PDF). U.S. Coast Guard History Program. U.S. Coast Guard. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
- ^ "Azalea II". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command.
- ^ "Christiana". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command.
Further reading
- United States Coast Guard, Aids to Navigation, (Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1945).
- Price, Scott T. "U. S. Coast Guard Aids to Navigation: A Historical Bibliography". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office.
- Putnam, George R., Lighthouses and Lightships of the United States, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1933).
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