Lyra, 1872

Feb. 7, 2021
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Lyra, 1872


A constellation in the Northern Hemisphere.


Builder: William Foster, Mobile, Alabama

Length: 45'

Beam: 15' 3"

Draft: 3'

Displacement: 15 tons

Cost: $1,100.00

Commissioned: 1872

Decommissioned: 1875

Disposition: Sold

Rig: Schooner-rigged launch

Machinery: None

Complement: ?

Armament: None


History:

One of four Lyra-class wooden-hulled launches built for the Lighthouse Service.  They were paid for with funds appropriated for the construction of the Trinity Shoals and Timbalier lighthouses in Louisiana.

Each was used as a freight boat in the 8th Lighthouse District.  The Lyra was laid up in 1875 and sold the following year.  Note that these were the first craft in the Lighthouse Service that were not named for flora and fauna.


Sources:

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