Today's classic warship, USLHT Mangrove (WAGL-232)
Mangrove class lighthouse tender
Displacement. 821 t.
Lenght. 164'
Beam. 30'
Draft. 8'
Speed. 10 k.
Complement. 31
Mangrove was built for the Lighthouse Service in 1897 at Elizabethport, N.J., as a cargo tender. She served the Light House Service and Coast Guard as a navigation aids tender for nearly fifty years.
In the Spanish-American War she saw early action, having a brush with a small Spanish gunboat at Caibarien, Cuba, 14 August 1898.
She was acquired by the Navy with the entire Lighthouse Service 11 April 1917. After serving as a patrol boat throughout World War 1, she returned to the Lighthouse Service 1 July 1919.
Until 1939 Mangrove served as a lighthouse and buoy tender and was assigned permanent station at Charleston, S.C. She was acquired from the Lighthouse Service in 1939 when that service became part of the Coast Guard.
Executive Order 8929 of 1 November 1941 transferred the entire Coast Guard to the Navy. Mangrove continued naval service as a buoy tender until 1 January 1946, when she returned to the Treasury Department. She decommissioned shortly after the end of hostilities and was sold for scrap in March 1947.