Hickory, 1933 (WLI-219)

Jan. 31, 2021
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Hickory, 1933

WAGL / WLI-219


Builder:  Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine

Length: 131' 4"

Beam: 24' 6"

Draft: 9' 5"

Displacement: 438 tons

Cost: $152,480 (bid price)

Commissioned: March, 1933 

Decommissioned: 10 January 1967

Disposition: Sold

Machinery: 1 triple-expansion steam engine; 1 Babcock & Wilcox watertube boiler; single propeller; 500 SHP

Deck Gear: Steam-powered winch; 10-ton boom capacity

Performance & Endurance:

        Max: 10.4 knots
        Cruising: 9.5 knots; 1,700 mile range

Complement: 41 (1945); 23 (1962)

Armament: None (As launched and after 1946); 2 x 20mm; 2 x depth charge tracks (1942-1945)

Electronics: SO-8 detection radar (1945); CR-103 detection radar (1962)


History:

The Hickory was built as a coastwise tender to replace the Pansy.  She was assigned to the 3rd Lighthouse District for use in tending aids to navigation in New York Bay and Long Island Sound.  She was based out of the depot at St. George, Staten Island.  During World War II she was given light armament and continued to tend aids to navigation in New York Bay and Long Island Sound.  From 1946 until her decommissioning, the Hickory continued operating out of Coast Guard Base St. George.  On 2 July 1950 she assisted the M/Vs Sandcraft and Melrose following their collision in New York harbor.  On 9 March 1957 she assisted the M/V Steel Admiral, the tanker Val T, and water taxi Oscar Gordon following their collision off Brooklyn.

She was decommissioned on 10 January 1967 and was sold on 28 April 1969.


Sources:

Cutter History File.  USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ, Washington, D.C.

Douglas Peterson.  United States Lighthouse Service Tenders, 1840-1939. Annapolis: Eastwind Publishing, 2000.

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

Robert Scheina.  U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft, 1946-1990.  Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990.