Messenger, 1946
CG-85009
Builder: Equitable Equipment, Company New Orleans
Length: 86'
Beam: 23'
Draft: 9' 6"
Displacement: 230 tons
Cost: $300,000 (Army construction cost)
Commissioned: 1944 (US Army); 5 September 1945 (USCG)
Decommissioned:
Disposition:
Machinery: 1 700 HP Enterprise diesel engine
Performance & Endurance:
Max: 9.5 knots
Cruising:
Complement: 10
Armament: None
Electronics: Radar
History:
The Messenger was a 230-ton former U.S. Army tug (ST-710) that was built in 1944. She was acquired by the Coast Guard Captain of the Port at Baltimore, Maryland, on 5 September 1945. She was transferred to the Coast Guard Yard on 26 September 1946 where she was used as a support vessel. Her duties included drydocking, undocking and escorting cutters to and from the Yard and fire-fighting along the waterfront when needed.
Sources:
Cutter History File. USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ, Washington, D.C.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Washington, DC: USGPO.
Robert Scheina. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1982.
Robert Scheina. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft, 1946-1990. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990.