Armeria, 1890
Any of a group of small, stemless, perennial herbs with narrow evergreen leaves.
Builder: John H. Dialague, Camden, New Jersey
Commissioned: 4 December 1890
Decommissioned: Wrecked on 20 May 1912; hulk sold at auction in 1914
Length: 201' 8"
Beam: 34' 9"
Draft: 17' 7"
Propulsion: Independent vertical compound steam engine with two HP cylindrical Scotch-type coal fired boilers producing 1,350 horsepower.
Complement: 7 officers, 27 crewmen (1908)
Armament: None
History:
Armeria--a lighthouse tender built in 1890 at Camden, New Jersey for a cost of $178,930.09, she served the Third Light House District out of New York. During the Spanish-American war, she was transferred to the Navy from the Lighthouse Service on 24 March 1898 and was converted for naval service at the Norfolk Navy Yard. Armeria's commissioning date in the Navy is unknown, but her commanding officer was LCDR Leavitt Curtis Logan. Assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron for the duration of hostilities in the Spanish-American War, she made two voyages from the United States to Cuba carrying ammunition. She entered Key West, Florida, on 9 August 1898 and, two days later, she was returned to the Lighthouse Service. In 1907 Armeria transferred to the Thirteenth Light House District. She again moved, in 1911, to the newly established Sixteenth Light House District out of Ketchikan, Alaska, becoming the first tender permanently assigned to Alaska. She grounded on 20 May 1912 while landing supplies for the Cape Hinchinbrook Lighthouse. She was declared a total loss.
Sources:
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. I, Part A; p. 391.
Douglas Peterson, U.S. Lighthouse Service Tenders, 1840-1939 (Annapolis: Eastwind Publishing, 2000), p. 60.