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Lighthouse Tender Photo Archive

USLHT Dahlia



Call sign:
Nan - Romeo - Zulu - Delta
Lighthouse Tender:

  • Built in 1874 by Neafie and Levy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Commissioned USLHT Dahlia in May 1874
  • Decommissioned in 1909
  • Sold 17 February 1909 to E.W. Seymour of Chicago, IL
  • Acquired in 1910 by the Hill Steamboat Line of Kenosha, WI and renamed Flora M. Hill 12 May 1910 at Milwaukee, WI
  • Crushed by ice 11 March 1912 and sank 600' southeast of the Two-mile Crib, off Chicago, IL

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 426 t.
    1910 - 623 t.
  • Length 141' 6"
    1909 - 131'
    1910 - 130.75'
  • Beam 25'
    1910 - 26.33'
  • Draft 10' 6"
    1909 - 17.25'
    1910 - 19.66'
  • Complement 21
  • Speed 10 kts.
  • Propulsion: One single coal fired boiler, one steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USLHT Dahlia
    Dahlia 73b
    Namesake:

    DahliaA genus of flowers of the aster family

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 19 February 2022
    Dahlia 86k Photo from Historical Collections of the Great Lakes John Spivey
    SS Flora M. Hill
    Dahlia/Flora M. Hill 77b The Hoosier State Chronicles
    Coast Guard History: The United States Lighthouse Tender Dahlia was the first tender built specifically for service on the Great Lakes. She was an iron-hulled steamer of over 400 tons displacement when fully loaded.

    She was assigned as an inspection tender to the 11th Lighthouse District on Lake Michigan.

    She was sold for $5,400 on 17 February 1909 and became the passenger steamer Flora M. Hill. She later sank off Chicago Harbor on 11 March 1912.

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