USLHT Mangrove was a lighthouse tender in commission in the fleet of the United States Lighthouse Board from December 1897 to April 1898 and from August 1898 to 1910, in the United States Lighthouse Service from 1910 to 1917 and from 1919 to 1939, and in the United States Coast Guard (as USCGC Mangrove) from 1939 to 1941 and in 1946. She also saw commissioned service in the United States Navy as USS Mangrove on three occasions, operating as an armed supply ship from April to August 1898 during the Spanish–American War, during which she fought the last battle of that war; as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919 during and in the aftermath of World War I; and as a buoy tender from 1941 to 1946 during and in the aftermath of World War II.
Construction and commissioning
Mangrove was constructed by Crescent Shipyard in Elizabethport, New Jersey, for the United States Lighthouse Board and was completed in 1897. She was commissioned into service in the Lighthouse Board's fleet as USLHT Mangrove on 1 December 1897.
Service history
1897–1898
Upon commissioning, Mangrove was assigned to the Seventh Lighthouse District, with her home port at Key West, Florida.
Spanish–American War
After – a United States Navy second-class battleship – exploded and sank while at anchor in the harbor at Havana, Cuba, on the evening of 15 February 1898, Mangrove transported wounded survivors of the disaster to Key West. In March 1898, while anchored in Havana Harbor, she served as a site for the U.S. Navy court of inquiry into the loss of Maine. She later made a voyage in which she carried guns salvaged from Maine′s wreck and civilians evacuating Cuba to the United States as the Spanish–American War broke out in April 1898.
On 10 April 1898, shortly before the war broke out, Mangrove was transferred to the U.S. Navy for war service. Armed with two quick-firing guns, she was commissioned into the U.S. Navy as USS Mangrove. She operated as an armed supply ship during the war.
Action off Caibarién
Under orders to support a Cuban military expedition aboard the schooners Dellie and Ellen F. Adams at Cayo Francés in the Bay of Buena Vista on the north-central coast of Cuba, Mangrove arrived at Cayo Francés on 12 August 1898 to find no sign of the schooners or the expedition. She found Dellie on the morning of 13 August, and a party from Dellie informed Mangroves crew that Ellen F. Adams had disembarked her part of the expedition on 12 August and that Dellie planned to disembark hers on the morning of 14 August. Mangroves commanding officer informed the party from Dellie that Mangrove would remain at Cayo Francés to ensure that Spanish Navy gunboats at nearby Caibarién did not interfere with Dellie′s disembarkation of her part of the expedition. Mangrove made an attempt to reach Caibarién on the afternoon of 13 August, but returned to Cayo Francés due to unfavorable tides. Near sundown on 13 August, she observed one of the Spanish gunboats underway near the harbor at Caibarién.