Salvia, 1944
WAGL-400; WLB-400
Call Sign: NODS
Nicknames: "Black Ghost of the Gulf Coast"; "Saliva"
Salvia is a genus of plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae.
Builder: Zenith Dredge Corporation, Duluth, MN
Builder's Number: bn CG-169
Cost: $923,995
Length: 180' oa
Beam: 37' mb
Draft: 12' max (1945); 14' 7" (1966)
Displacement: 935 fl (1945); 1,026 fl (1966); 700 light (1966)
Keel Laid: 24 June 1943
Launched: 19 September 1943
Commissioned: 19 February 1944
Decommissioned: 4 October 1991
Status: Salvage operations training vessel for US Navy at Little Creek (VA) Naval Station.
Propulsion: 1 electric motor connected to 2 Westinghouse generators driven by 2 Cooper-Bessemer-type GND-8, 4-cycle diesels; single screw
Top speed: 13.0 kts sustained (1945); 11.9 kts sustained (1966)
Economic speed: 8.3 kts (1945); 8.5 kts (1966)
Complement: 6 Officers, 74 men (1945); 4 officers, 2 warrants, 47 men (1966)
Electronics:
Radar: SL1 (1945)
Sonar: QCU (1945)
Armament: 1-3"/50 (single), 2-20mm/80 (single), 2 depth charge tracks, 2 Mousetraps, 4 Y-guns (1945); None (1966)
Cutter History:
World
War II
During March and April 1944 USCGC Salvia was used on the Great Lakes for general ATON duty and icebreaking. From May 1944 until the end of the war, Salvia was assigned to the 5th Coast Guard District, stationed at Portsmouth, VA, and used for general ATON duty.
Postwar
From
1 November 1945 until its decommissioning, USCGC Salvia
was homeported at Mobile, AL and used for general ATON duty. From 20-23
April 1951 Salvia assisted
following the collision between the tankers Esso Suez
and Esso
Greensboro. From 27-30 April 1951 Salvia
was disabled in Calasieu Pass and was towed to Mobile by USCGC Tampa. From
59 April 1953 Salvia
searched for the wreck of National Flight 47 off Mobile Point. From 30
October-2 November 1958 Salvia
assisted USS Instill and from 17-18 November 1959 the cutter
searched for National Flight 967. On 9 February 1964 Salvia
collided with the dredge Duplex in Mobile Channel. In late August
1965 Salvia provided
men and equipment to fight a fire on the Liberian MV Arctic Reefer off
Choctaw' Point, Mobile, AL. From 7-8 December 1968 Salvia
searched for survivors from the lost USCGC White Alder.
USCGC Salvia under construction on 17 August 1943
USCGC Salvia Launching Party- 15 September 1943
USCGC Salvia Launching- 15 September 1943
USCGC Salvia- 1948
USCGC Salvia- no date
Crew of USCGC Salvia- 1986.
Sources:
Cutter File, Coast Guard Historian's Office.
HABS/HAER, National Park Service, US Department of the Interior. US Coast Guard 180-Foot Buoy Tenders. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2003.
Robert Scheina. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1981.
Robert Scheina. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft, 1946-1990. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1990.
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