USS Wachusetts (SP-548)

USS Wachusetts (SP-548) was an armed motorboat that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919. She was renamed SP-548 during her period of service. In 1919 she was transferred to the United States Bureau of Fisheries and renamed USFS Fulmar, and operated as a fisheries science research vessel on the Great Lakes until 1933 or 1934, when she was transferred to the Ohio Division of Conservation.

This article is about USS Wachusetts. For ships named USS Wachusett, see USS Wachusett.
"USFS Fulmar" redirects here. For ships named USS Fulmar, see USS Fulmar.
USS SP-548 (right) with two other section patrol boats in 1918 or 1919.
History
United States
Name:
  • W.C.T.U. (1916)
  • Wachusetts (1916–1917)
Owner: Private owners
Builder: W. A. and S. D. Moss, Friendship, Maine
Completed: 1916
Fate: Sold to U.S. Navy 26 April 1917
 United States Navy
Name: USS Wachusetts
Namesake: Previous name retained
Cost: US$18,000
Acquired: 26 April 1917
Renamed: USS SP-548 in 1918
Stricken: 25 October 1919
Fate: Transferred to U.S. Bureau of Fisheries 1919
U.S. Bureau of Fisheries
Name: USFS Fulmar
Namesake: Fulmar, a tubenosed seabird of the family Procellariidae
Acquired: 1919
Identification:
Fate: Transferred to Ohio Division of Conservation 1933–1934 (see text)
 United States
Name: Fulmar
Namesake: Previous name retained
Owner: State of Ohio
Operator: Ohio Division of Conservation
Acquired: 1933–1934 (see text)
General characteristics
(as U.S. Navy patrol vessel)
Type: Patrol vessel
Tonnage: 65 GRT
Length: 101 ft 0 in (30.78 m)
Beam: 16 ft 6 in (5.03 m)
Draft: 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) f.
Propulsion: 1 x 120 ihp (89 kW) Neisco diesel engine, 1,200 US gal (4,500 l; 1,000 imp gal) fuel
Speed: 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement: 6 or 17 (see text)
Armament:

Construction and early history

Wachusetts was built as the private motorboat W.C.T.U. in 1916 by W. A. and S. D. Moss of Friendship, Maine. She was powered by a 120 indicated horsepower (89 kW) Neisco diesel engine and carried 1,200 US gallons (4,500 l; 1,000 imp gal) of fuel. She soon was renamed Wachusetts.

U.S. Navy service

The U.S. Navy purchased Wachusetts for US$18,000 from the Howard Lumber Company of Boston, Massachusetts, for World War I service as a patrol boat in the section patrol. The Navy took possession of her on 26 April 1917 and commissioned her as USS Wachusetts (SP-548). The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships gives her crew in Navy service as six, but U.S. Navy Bureau of Construction and Repair data show a crew of two officers and fifteen men.[2][3]

Little is known of her U.S. Navy activities because her deck logs have been lost. As of 1 February 1918, Wachusetts was operating out of the section base at Boothbay, Maine, probably on local patrol duties, under the aegis of Commandant, 1st Naval District. Her commanding officer as of that time was Ensign J. B. Eckroll, USNRF.[2]

The name Wachusetts apparently was dropped somewhat later to avoid confusion with USS Wachusett (ID-1840), a cargo ship commissioned in January 1918 that served until October 1919, and the patrol boat became simply USS SP-548. Sometime after the conclusion of World War I, SP-548 was decommissioned, and she was struck from the Navy List on 25 October 1919.[2]

U.S. Bureau of Fisheries service
USFS Fulmar on a scientific cruise in the Great Lakes, circa 1931

By authority of an Executive Order of 24 May 1919, the U.S. Navy transferred three former section patrol boats – SP-548, Cobra, and Calypso – to the United States Bureau of Fisheries (BOF) for service as fishery patrol vessels in the Territory of Alaska. The vessels were turned over to the BOF at Quincy, Massachusetts, and towed to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, by the BOF steamer USFS Phalarope. Phalarope then towed Cobra, renamed USFS Petrel, and Calypso, renamed USFS Merganser, to Norfolk, Virginia, for transport to the Pacific Northwest aboard the collier Neptune, but SP-548, renamed USFS Fulmar, remained at the BOF's Woods Hole station for later shipment.[4]

After Fulmar arrived at Woods Hole, the BOF changed its plans for her. Instead of the originally planned Alaskan patrol service, the BOF decided to base her at Charlevoix, Michigan, and assign her to fish culture operations on Lake Michigan.[5] During July, September, and October 1921, Phalarope′s crew modified Fulmar at Woods Hole for use as a fisheries science research vessel,[6] including installation of a deckhouse from bow to pilothouse;[7] and supported her transfer to Charlevoix.[6]

Stationed at Charlevoix as the first research vessel at the BOF station there – which eventually became the United States Geological Survey′s Great Lakes Science Center – Fulmar was assigned initially to studying the prevention of the destruction of undersized and immature fish by commercial gillnetting.[8] She conducted the first experimental fishing survey in Lake Michigan from 1930 through 1932 using linen gill nets.[9][10]

During fiscal year 1934 (which ran from July 1, 1933 to June 30, 1934) the BOF turned Fulmar over to the State of Ohio.[11]

Ohio Division of Conservation

The State of Ohio placed Fulmar in service with the Ohio Division of Conservation, stationing her at Put in Bay station in Ohio on Lake Erie.[11] Her later history is unavailable.

References
  1. U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection, Merchant Vessels of the United States (Including Yachts and Government Vessels), Year Ended June 30, 1933, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1932, pp. 151, 1131.
  2. Naval History And Heritage Command (23 October 2015). "Wachusetts". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History And Heritage Command. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  3. Construction & Repair Bureau (Navy) (November 1, 1918). Ships' Data U.S. Naval Vessels. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 392–397. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  4. Bower, Ward T. (1921). Fishery Patrol — Bureau Patrol Boats. Alaska Fisheries and Fur Industries in 1919 (Appendix 9 to Commissioner's annual report) (Report). Washington: Government Printing Office. pp. 13–15. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  5. Vessel Service. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries to the Secretary of Commerce for the Fiscal Year Ended 1921 (Report). Washington: Government Printing Office. 1921. p. 46. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  6. Bureau of Fisheries, Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1922 with Appendixes, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1923, p. 49.
  7. "Photograph, Bureau of Fisheries R/V Fulmar on a scientific cruise (c.a. 1931)". U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  8. Vessel Notes (PDF). Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1932 (Report). Washington: Government Printing Office. 1921. p. XXVI. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  9. Smigielski, Tim (1911). "Dr. John van Oosten" (PDF). Eddies: Reflections on Fisheries Conservation. Vol. 3 no. 3. pp. 8–9. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  10. Wells, LaRue; McLain, Alberton L. (January 1973). Lake Michigan: Man's Effects on Native Fish Stocks and Other Biota (Technical Report No. 20 (PDF) (Report). Great Lakes Fishery Commission. pp. 29, 44. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  11. Vessels (PDF). Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1934 (Report). Washington: Government Printing Office. 1921. p. 100. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
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