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.