USLHT Jessamine was a steam-powered sidewheel lighthouse tender built in 1881 for the United States Lighthouse Board. She spent forty years in government service, homeported in Baltimore, Maryland as part of the 5th Lighthouse District. Her primary mission was to build and maintain lighthouses in Chesapeake Bay and nearby waterways in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. Some of the lighthouses she built still stand.
In 1922 the ship was sold to private interests. She spent most of the rest of her career carrying freight between Salisbury, Maryland and Baltimore. When competition from trucks on improved roads and bridges rendered her service uneconomic in 1957, she was repurposed to carry bananas from Mexico to Brownsville, Texas. She sank on this route in October 1959.
Construction and characteristics During the 2nd session of the 46th Congress, Congress appropriated $90,000 for the construction of two "steam-tenders for general service on the Atlantic Coast." The Baltimore shipbuilding firm of Malster & Reaney secured the contract and began work on Jessamine and her sistership USLHT Holly in 1880. Jessamine's original cost was $41,911.
The ship had a composite hull with wood frames and iron sheathing. She was long, with a beam of , which extended to including her paddlewheel guards. Her draft was when light and when fully loaded. Jessamine displaced 369 tons when light and 427 tons when fully loaded.
She had a walking-beam steam engine with a cylinder that was 36 inches in diameter with a stroke of 7 feet. Its indicated horsepower was 350. Her initial boiler was 26 feet 6 inches in length and 7 feet 10 inches in diameter. Her original boiler was coal-fired. Her boiler was replaced in March 1884, in May 1889, and again in 1902. Her engine drove two side-mounted paddlewheels. One of the paddlewheel shafts was replaced in 1911.
Jessamine had one mast forward which served both as a derrick to enable her construction work, and to fly a foresail and staysail.
The ship had a regular complement of 4 officers and 16 enlisted men.
Jessamine sailed on a sea trial on 22 September 1881. Evidently, the trial went well, as General Orville E. Babcock, Engineer for the 5th Lighthouse District, accepted her from her builders within the week.
Jessamine replaced USLHT Tulip, while USLHT Holly, her sistership, replaced USLHT Heliotrope. Jessamine's namesake was the twining vine Jessamine, native to the Southeast United States and the state flower of South Carolina.
After she entered commercial service as part of the Victor Lynn Transportation Company in 1924, the ship's steam engine, boiler, and sidewheels were replaced with two Diesel engines driving two propellers. The refit was done at the shipyard of Smith and Williams in Salisbury. With her new propulsion machinery, she achieved a speed of . In this new configuration, Victor Lynn had a gross register tonnage of 372, and a net register tonnage of 240.
United States government service Jessamine was commissioned on 1 October 1881. During her forty years of government service, her primary responsibility was building and maintaining lighthouses and other aids to navigation in Chesapeake Bay, the rivers that flowed into it, and the northern coast and sounds of North Carolina. During her government career she was part of several different organizations.
Jessamine first sailed when the U.S. Lighthouse Service was controlled by the U.S. Lighthouse Board, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In this quasi-military organization, each Lighthouse District had an Inspector, typically a Naval officer, and an Engineer, typically an Army officer. Jessamine supported the Engineer, whose responsibility was constructing and maintaining lighthouses and other aids to navigation. In 1903, the Lighthouse Board was transferred to the newly created U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor. Since the Lighthouse Board still had operational control of the U.S. Lighthouse Service, little changed in Jessamine's operations. In 1910, Congress abolished the Lighthouse Board and replaced it with an all-civilian bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor. Jessamine became part of this new organization. This change did impact the ship's work in that District Inspectors and Engineers were replaced by a single District Supervisor. All ships did any work they were assigned. On 11 April 1917 President Wilson issued Executive Order 2588 transferring a number of lighthouse tenders to support the American effort in World War I. Jessamine was transferred from the administrative control of the Commerce Department to the War Department and she came under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Navy. Little changed in her day-to-day responsibilities, however, and at the conclusion of the war, Jessamine and the rest of the Lighthouse Service was returned to the Commerce Department on 1 July 1919.
Regardless of her organization, Jessamine was busy. Her activities in 1907, reported by the Lighthouse Board, were typical:
Jessamine- The vessel was employed during the year in making repairs and improvements on 69 light-stations and two light-house depots and in the inspection of 60 light-stations and two light-house depots. She made borings at the site of Ragged Point and Pungoteague Creek light-station, Virginia, to determine the character of the foundation. She rendered assistance to a schooner in distress off Pamlico Point, North Carolina. She sounded around four light-houses to ascertain the extent of erosion of the shoal. She was used in the investigation of damage done to two light-stations by colliding vessels. She was engaged in loading and unloading materials for light stations 16 days, in cleaning and painting tender 63 days, in cleaning boiler 7 days, and was undergoing repairs 29 days. She steamed about 7,086 miles during the year, consuming some 675 tons of soft coal.While the Engineers of the 5th Lighthouse District changed with the regularity of Army careers, Jessamine's captain from her launch in 1881 through his death in April 1901 was John E. Wyatt. John David Brown served even longer as the ship's engineer, from her launch through his retirement in 1906.
Lighthouse support
Jessamine's principal work in the 1880s was building new lights in Chesapeake Bay. In November and December 1881, shortly after her commissioning, Jessamine hauled a new tower to replace the Sharp's Island Light which had been destroyed by ice in the previous winter. This structure is still in place today, but leaning noticeably due to pressure from winter ice. In 1894 Jessamine, along with USLHT Thistle participated in the erection of the Pages Rock Light in the York River. Jessamine hauled material and men for the construction of the Boush's Bluff, Gull Shoal, Kent Point, Lower Cedar Point, Maryland Point, Cape Charles, Hog Island, North River Bar, Sharkfin Shoal, and Wolf Trap Lights, making five separate trips to the Cape Charles during construction.
As the aids to navigation environment evolved, there were also lighthouses which were dismantled. Jessamine salvaged useful equipment from these sites for use elsewhere. Lighthouses which she dismantled include Wade Point, Lambert's Point, and Clay Island Lights.
Exposed to corrosive saltwater, and buffeted by wind, wave, and ice, lighthouses required periodic maintenance. Jessamine made maintenance visits to the Bloody Point, Cape Henry, Cove Point, Great Wicomico, Holland Bar, Hooper Strait, Jones' Point, Love Point, New Point Comfort, Thimble Shoal, Thomas' Point, Turkey Point, Windmill Point, York Spit, Blaistone Island, Back River, Cape Charles City, Cape Hatteras, Choptank River, Cobb Point Bar, Craighill Channel, Craney Island, Croatan, Cutoff Channel, Deep-Water Shoals, James Island, Jordan Point, Laurel Point, Lower Cedar Point, Mathias Point, Neuse River, Northwest Point Royal Shoal, Ocracoke, Old Plantation Flats, Pamlico Point, Piney Point, Point Lookout, Point of Shoals, Pooles Island Lights, Roanoke Marshes, Seven-Foot Knoll, Solomons Lump, Smith Point, Stingray Point, Upper Cedar Point, Wade Point, Watts Island, and White Shoal lights .
Lighthouses were operated by lighthouse keepers, who kept the lanterns fueled, their wicks trimmed, and their lenses clean. Many lighthouses were inaccessible from land, so lighthouse keepers depended on lighthouse tenders for supplies. Jessamine was used to deliver food, water, coal, lantern fuel, and other supplies to lighthouses.
Public Safety Jessamine assisted ships and people in danger when she came upon them during her cruises.
The passenger steamer Wakefield suffered an explosion in her steam plant on 30 October 1892 while ascending the Potomac River. Jessamine took off the wounded and a dozen passengers and landed them at Quantico, Virginia.
In 1901 Charles Davis was saved from drowning when he was lassoed by Captain Wyatt and pulled aboard Jessamine.
In 1905 a stevedore who was wheeling coal aboard Jessamine fell overboard. He hit his head during the fall, and was rescued by one of the tender's crew just as he was about to sink.
In 1910 the ship assisted the steamer Hampton Roads, which was aground in Mobjack Bay, Virginia.
In 1913 Jessamine assisted the schooner Alonzo Toulane, which was sinking.
in 1915 Jessamine towed the disabled gasoline tanker Margaret Atkinson to safety in Annapolis. Separately, she rescued two men whose boat had capsized.
In 1916 she towed the derelict schooner James H. Hargraves to port. In a separate event, she rescued a drowning man near the Love Point Light.
In 1917 she floated the schooner Jessie Irving ashore and in a separate incident saved a drowning man. She received a letter of commendation for her assistance to the schooner Otis Hubbard, which was caught in ice off Fort Carroll, Maryland on 16 December 1917.
In 1918 Jessamine assisted the gasoline tanker Speedway to refloat after grounding.
In 1920 she found the schooner Richmond frozen in ice and towed her to Annapolis.
In 1921 refloated the powerboat Maggie C. which had grounded on Bodkin Point Shoal, Maryland.
Accidents Jessamine sailed in an age when the best navigation instruments were a sextant and lead-line. There were no electric lights aboard when she was launched, to say nothing of radar and GPS. Fog, rain, and darkness brought many ships of the day into collision with each other, and aground on unseen shores. While Jessamine frequently assisted others in these situations, she had her own accidents.
On 3 May 1883 the steam tug Samson lost steering control and ran into Jessamine's port bow, penetrating 15 feet into the tender. Jessamine was run up on shore to prevent her sinking, and temporary repairs were made. She sailed from Washington, D.C., where the accident took place, to Baltimore for permanent repairs at W. E. Woodall & Co.'s shipyard. Samson's captain had his license temporarily revoked and the U.S. government sued Samson's owner for $1,800 in damages.
The British steamship Thornhill collided with Jessamine off Fort Norfolk on 10 July 1885. Damage was slight.
Jessamine was dredging for oysters near the mouth of the West River in March 1885, and since there were a dozen open barrels on deck it appeared she was catching them for sale. Regrettably, the ship had no license for such a harvest, and her captain was ordered to appear before the Maryland State Fishery Force in Annapolis.
Jessamine was aground on Green Island for a week in March 1866 with a load of lumber on board for lights on the Roanoke River.
The wires which mechanically connected the telegraph from the bridge to the engine room aboard Jessamine stuck in position on 23 December 1898 as the ship was approaching a coal dock in Baltimore. In consequence, she did not slow, and ran into the stern of the schooner Harriet C. Kerlin which was already tied to the dock. The schooner was towed off for repairs, while Jessamine, with her iron hull intact, continued with her work.