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Lighthouse Tender Photo Archive

USCGC Orchid (WAGL 240)



Call sign:
Nan - Roger - William - Queen

ex-USLHS Orchid



Call sign (1919):
George - Vice - Rush - Mike

Call sign (Late 1919):
Nan - Love - Mike
Manzanita Class Lighthouse Tender:

  • Built in 1908 by American Brown Boveri Electrical Corp. (a subsidiary of the New York Shipbuilding Co.), Camden, NJ
  • Commissioned USLHS Orchid 5 August 1908
  • Acquired by the Navy 11 April 1917
  • Returned to the Department of Commerce 1 July 1919
  • Rebuilt in 1919
  • Transferred to the Coast Guard in 1939 and designated USCGC Orchid (WAGL 240)
  • Decommissioned 1 December 1945 and sold to the Philippine Government
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,057 t.
    1919 - 677 t.
  • Length 174'
  • Beam 30'
  • Draft 13'
    1919 - 16'
  • Speed 12 kts.
    1945 - 13.5 kts.
  • Complement 42
    1919 - 33
    1945 - 44
  • Armament: None
    1945 - One 3"/23 mount, two 20mm mounts and two short depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two Scotch boilers, two 550ihp triple expansion inverted direct acting steam engines, two shafts
    1919 - 1,000ihp
    Converted to oil in the late 1920s and replaced the Scotch boilers with water-tube boilers.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Orchid 122k 20 January 1943
    Off Norfolk Navy Yard
    Photo from "U.S. Lighthouse Service Tenders, 1840-1939" by Douglas Peterson. Annapolis: Eastwind Publishing, 2000    		 Robert Hurst
    Orchid 87k 1 March 1946
    U.S. Coast Guard photo 3330-11    		 Coast Guard Cutter Website
    View the Orchid
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by David Wright
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