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Lighthouse Tender Photo Archive

USLHT Arbutus



Call sign (1924):
Nan - Able - George - Mike

Call sign (1925):
Mike - George - Boy - Cast

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

Lighthouse Tender:

  • The second Arbutus was built in 1879 by William J. Malster and Co., Baltimore, Maryland
  • Commissioned USLHT Arbutus in September 1879
  • Transferred to the Navy by Executive Order of 16 April 1917
  • Commissioned USS Arbutus 4 June 1917
  • Returned to the Lighthouse Service 1 July 1919
  • Laid up due to a lack of funding in January 1921
  • Decommissioned 8 April 1924
  • Sold 3 March 1925
  • Registered in 1926 to the Union Shipbuilding Co. of Fairfield, MD as the miscellaneous use vessel Arbutus out of Baltimore, MD
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 500 t.
    1925 - 285 t.
  • Length 145'
    1925 - 146.5'
  • Beam 25'
    1925 - 25.6'
  • Draft 10' 7"
    1925 - 10.1'
  • Complement 19 (1907)
    1917 - 22
    1925 - 15
  • Speed 13
  • Propulsion: Two coal fired boilers, one 400bhp steam engines, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Arbutus 183k
    Namesake:

    Arbutus - Any of 20 species of evergreen shrubs or trees of the heath family found in southern Europe and western North America

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 9 March 2022
    Arbutus 58k Lighthouse Service photo The J. Candace Clifford Lighthouse Research Catalog
    View the Arbutus
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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