Name USLHT Azalea Length 47 m | Namesake Azalea | |
Operator United States Lighthouse Service
United States Navy Builder Jonson Foundry & Machine Company Cost $79,792.40
($2,126,911 in modern dollars) Commissioned 25 June 1891 (US Lighthouse Service)
9 May 1917 (US Navy) | ||
The USLHT Azalea, briefly the USS Azalea was a lighthouse tender built in 1891 for the United States Lighthouse Service. She was assigned to the Second Light House District out of Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
She was transferred to the United States Navy on 16 April 1917 and commissioned 9 May 1917. Her role in the Navy was to salvage navigational aids, adjust buoys, and tended nets during World War I. She was returned to the Lighthouse service 1 July 1919.
She returned to duty in the Second Light House District. Azalea collided with the schooner Lavinia M. Snow off Pollock Rip in 1921 but was repaired and returned to service. She was decommissioned and sold in 1933.
She was reacquired by the U.S. Navy in August 1942 and commissioned on 9 November 1942 as USS Christiana for service as a seaplane tender.