Thistle, 1890
Any of numerous weedy plants, chiefly of the genera Cirsium, Carduus, or Onopordum of the composite family, having prickly leaves and variously colored flower heads surrounded by prickly bracts.
Builder: John C. Froehlich & Company, Baltimore, Maryland
Length: 60'
Beam: 15' 4"
Draft: 7'
Displacement: 32 tons
Cost: $9,000 (purchase price)
Commissioned: 13 May 1890
Decommissioned: 1912
Disposition: Sold
Machinery: Keel condensing steam engine; Marine return flue coal-fired boiler; 45 IHP; single propeller
Deck Gear: None
Performance & Endurance:
Max:
Cruising:
Complement: 6 (1907)
Armament: None
Tender History:
Thistle was built in 1890 as the private steam tug Cynthia. She was purchased for use as an engineering tender and commissioned as Thistle on 13 May 1890. She was assigned to the 5th Lighthouse District and was based out of Baltimore, Maryland. She was driven ashore at Black River, New Jersey, during a storm in 1903 but was repaired and returned to service.
She was condemned in 1912 and sold.
Sources:
Douglas Peterson. United States Lighthouse Service Tenders, 1840-1939. Annapolis: Eastwind Publishing, 2000.