Althea, 1930 (WAGL-223)

April 14, 2020
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Althea, 1930 (WAGL-223)


Named for a genus of plants of the mallow family. It includes the officinal marsh mallow, and the garden hollyhocks. An ornamental shrub (hibiscus syriacus) of the mallow family.


Builder: New London Ship & Engine Company, Groton, Connecticut

Length: 80' 9"

Beam: 19'

Draft: 3' 8"

Displacement: 120 tons

Cost: $80,892

Launched: 1930

Commissioned: 30 April 1930

Decommissioned: 10 November 1962

Disposition: Sold, 26 November 1963 to the Leeward Trading Company of Miami for $2,567.50.

Machinery: 2 Cummins 4-cylinder, 4-cycle diesels; twin propellers

Performance: 7.0 knots (max); 6.0 knots (cruise); 875 mile range at 6.0 knots

Deck Gear: 1.5 ton boom capacity with an electric hoist

Complement: 9

Armament: None


History:

Althea was built by the New London Ship & Engine Company of Groton,CT for the U.S. Lighthouse Service. She, and her sister-tender Poinciana, were small, light-draft bay and sound tenders designed for service in the inland waters of the South Atlantic coast. The Althea, built to replace the tender Water Lily, was assigned to the 6th Lighthouse District at Fort Pierce, FL. Here she conducted general aids to navigation work through 1962. On 24 and 25 October 1952 2 she aided in a hurricane evacuation. On 29 November 1952 she transported plane wreckage to Patrick Air Force Base.

She was decommissioned on 10 November 1962 and was sold on 26 November 1963 to the Leeward Trading Company of Miami for $2,567.50.


Sources:

Cutter Files, Coast Guard Historian's Office

Douglas Peterson. U.S. Lighthouse Service Tenders, 1840 - 1939. Annapolis, Maryland: Eastwind Publishing, 2000.

Robert Scheina. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1982.