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Lighthouse Tender Photo Archive

USLHT Columbine



Call sign (1924):
Nan - Love - Love

Call sign (1927):
George - Vice - Negative - Mike

Call sign (1929):
Mike - George - Quack - Sail

Call sign (1942):
William - Queen - Baker - Fox

Columbine served the Lighthouse Service and the U.S. Navy

Lighthouse Tender:

  • The first Columbine was built in 1892 by the Globe Iron Works, Cleveland, Ohio
  • Commissioned USLHT Columbine in September 1892
  • Transferred to the Navy 11 April 1917
  • Commissioned USS Columbine
  • Returned to the Lighthouse Service 1 July 1919
  • Rebuilt in 1920
  • Laid up in 1923
  • Returned to duty in 1925
  • Laid up again in April 1927
  • Decommissioned in May 1927
  • Registered in 1929 to the Union Shipbuilding Co. of Fairfield, MD as the miscellaneous use vessel Columbine out of Baltimore, MD
  • Abandoned in 1942.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 643 t.
    1927 - 424 t.
    1929 - 456 t.
  • Length 155'
    1927 - 145'
    1929 - 145.5'
  • Beam 26' 6"
    1927 - 27'
    1929 - 26.4'
  • Draft 15' 2"
    1927 - 15'
    1929 - 14'
  • Complement 21
    1929 - 22
  • Speed 13 kts.
  • Propulsion: Two coal fired cylindrical single-ended Scotch-type boilers, two 400hp compound inverted fore and aft steam engines, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Columbine 104b
    Namesake:

    Columbine - A flowering herb of the genus Aquilegia, having variously colored flowers with five conspicuously spurred petals

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 10 March 2022
    Columbine 103k Photo from Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library Great Lakes Maritime Collection John Spivey
    Columbine 250k Off Tillamook Light [Oregon] in 1893. O. W. Farenholt, Inspector
    Courtesy of Rear Admiral Ammen Farenholt, MC, USN, collection, 1933
    U.S. Navy photo NH 414    		 Naval History and Heritage Command
    Columbine 250k Steaming, at 15 Knots, Columbia River, 10 May 1894
    U.S. Navy photo NH 55298
    Columbine 230k Alongside the wharf of the U. S. Buoy and Supply Depot, Astoria, Oregon, in 1894. USLHT Manzanita on the left with Columbine on the right
    U.S. Navy photo NH 55298-A
    Columbine 250k At Victoria, British Columbia, on 26 May 1894. Columbine on the left with USLHT Manzanita to the right
    Courtesy Rear Admiral Ammen Farenholt, MC, USN
    U.S. Navy photo NH 55299
    Columbine 375k 26 October 1892
    U.S. Navy photo NH 55300
    View the Columbine
    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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