Mistletoe, 1939
WAGL / WLM-237
Any of various American parasitic shrubs, as Phoradendron flavescens of eastern North America.
Builder: Pusey & Jones Company, Wilmington, Delaware
Length: 173' 4"
Beam: 34'
Draft: 11'
Displacement: 799 tons (fl)
Cost: $378,800
Launched: 1938
Commissioned: 15 September 1939
Decommissioned: 15 August 1968
Disposition: Sold
Machinery: 2 triple-expansion steam engines fired by 2 Babcok & Wilcox watertube boilers; 1,000 SHP; twin propellers
Performance: 11.5 knots (maximum); 1,734 nm range @ 10.0 knots; 1,800 mile range @ 7.0 knots.
Deck Gear: 20-ton boom capacity; hoist was steam powered.
Complement: 41 (1945); 38 (1961)
Electronics: SO-8 radar; WEA-2 sonar (1945); SPN-11 radar; UNQ-1 sonar (1961)
Armament: 1 x 3"/50; 2 x 20mm/80 single mount; 2 depth charge tracks (WWII); no armament during other periods.
Tender History:
The Mistletoe, one of three Violet-class coast-wise tenders, was built by Pusey & Jones Company of Wilmington, Delaware. She entered service on 15 September 1939 and was home-ported at Portsmouth, Virginia. She serviced aids to navigation, enforced laws, and conducted search and rescue operations, when needed, in the Hampton Roads area. She was armed and given the hull number and designation WAGL-237 sometime in 1942 and served out of Portsmouth during the war.
After World War II she continued service out of Portsmouth and saw a marked increase in her search and rescue operations. On 8 September 1950 she patrolled the President's Cup Regatta. On 31 May 1951 she assisted dragging for a plane near Langley Field. On 25 July 1951 she assisted refloating PC-572 near Cedar Point Lighthouse. In September, 1951 and again in September, 1952, she patrolled the President's Cup Regatta. On 24 February 1953 she refloated and towed the tug Fortuna from horn Harbor, Virginia to Portsmouth. On 17 July 1953 she towed the CG-95304 from the Potomac River. On 7 January 1959 she assisted the cutter Madrona which was aground at Point Lookout. On 26 August 1959 she assisted in a search for survivors following a mid-air collision off Old Plantation Flats. On 28 September 1961 she assisted two skin divers off Stingray Point. From 6 to 7 March 1963 she dragged for a Piper Cherokee.
She was decommissioned on 27 September 1968 and was sold on 14 August 1969.
Sources:
Cutter History File. USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ, Washington, D.C.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Washington, DC: USGPO.
Douglas Peterson. United States Lighthouse Service Tenders, 1840-1939. Annapolis: Eastwind Publishing, 2000.
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.