page_title: USCGC Buttonwood (WLB-306)
section_title: Construction and characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: USCGC Buttonwood (WLB-306) / Construction and characteristics
caption_attribution_description: English: USCG Buttonwood buoy deck. Photographed at Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay.
context_page_description: USCGC Buttonwood was a Mesquite-class sea-going buoy tender operated by the United States Coast Guard. She served in World War II as well as a variety of domestic missions. After decommissioning she was acquired by the Dominican Republic Navy and renamed Almirante Didiez Burgos. She is still active as the flagship of the Dominican Navy.
context_section_description: Buttonwood was built by the Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Company of Duluth, Minnesota.  Her original cost was $880,018.  Her keel was laid down on October 5, 1942, and she was launched on May 20, 1943.  She was christened by Duluth's war loan campaign queen Mary Elizabeth Peterson.  She was commissioned in Duluth on September 24, 1943.
  Her hull was constructed of welded steel plates, framed with steel I-beams.  As originally built, Buttonwood was 180 feet (55 m) long, with a beam of 37 feet (11 m), and a draft of 12 feet (3.7 m).  Her displacement was 935 tons.  While her overall dimensions remained the same over her career, the addition of new equipment raised her displacement to 1,025 tons by the end of her Coast Guard service.
  Buttonwood had a single propeller driven by a diesel-electric propulsion system.  Two Cooper-Bessemer GND-8 4-cycle 8-cylinder Diesel engines produced 600 horsepower each.  They provided power to two Westinghouse generators.  The electricity from the generators ran an electric motor which turned the propeller.  
  She had a single cargo boom which could lift 20 tons onto her buoy deck.
  The ship's fuel tanks had a capacity of approximately 28,875 US gallons (109,300 L). Buttonwood's unrefueled range was 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km) at 13 knots, 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km) at 12 knots, and 17,000 nautical miles (31,000 km) at 8.3 knots.  Her potable water tanks had a capacity of 30,499 US gallons (115,450 L).  Considering dry storage capacity and other factors, her at-sea endurance was 21 days.
  Her wartime complement was 6 officers and 74 enlisted men.  By 1964 this was reduced to 5 officers, 2 warrant officers, and 47 enlisted personnel.
  Ironwood was armed with a 3"/50 caliber gun mounted behind the pilot house.  She also had two 20mm guns, one mounted on top of the wheelhouse and one on the aft deck. Two racks of depth charges were also mounted on the aft deck.  All of her on-deck armament was removed by 1966, leaving only small arms for law enforcement actions.
  At the time of construction, Buttonwood was designated WAGL, an auxiliary vessel, lighthouse tender.  The designation was system was changed in 1965, and Buttonwood was redsignated WLB, an oceangoing buoy tender.  Her namesake was the American sycamore, Platanus occidentalis, often referred to as buttonwood because its fine-grained wood was used to make buttons that resisted cracking.
caption: USCGC Buttonwood buoy deck
exif: {}