USS Wachusetts (SP-548)

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.

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]

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]

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.

• SP-548, ex-Wachusetts (SP 548) NavSource Online: Civilian Vessel Photo Archive
• U.S. Bureau of Fisheries R/V Fulmar on a scientific cruise (ca. 1931)