USLHT Geranium, a 224-ton side-wheel steamer, was built at Newburgh, New York, in 1863 as the civilian vessel John A. Dix. She was purchased by the Navy in September 1863 and commissioned in mid-October as USS Geranium for service as a tug. Assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, she was used as a picket boat, dispatch vessel and transport in the coastal waters of northern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Among her activities during this time were participation in an expedition on the Stono and North Edisto Rivers, S.C., in July 1864 and in the amphibious landing at Bull's Bay, S.C., in February 1865. Geranium left South Carolina in June 1865 and was decommissioned at Washington, D.C., in July. She was sold to the Treasury Department in October 1865 and became a light house tender with no change in name. After over four decades of service supporting the Nation's aids to navigation USLHT Geranium was sold in 1910.
This page features our only view of the U.S. Light House Tender Geranium (1865-1910), which served as USS Geranium in 1863-1865.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 23 July 2003