Engine Room From Coast Guard Buoy Tender <I>Oak</I>
date: label: date made
content: 1921
notes: label: Description
content: This engine room is from the U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender <I>Oak</I>. The <I>Oak</I> was built for the U.S. Light House Bureau in 1921 by Consolidated Shipbuilding Corporation of Bronx, New York, and measured 160 feet long and 875 tons displacement. It was transferred to the U. S. Coast Guard in 1939, when that agency succeeded the Light House Bureau.
label: Description
content: Buoy tenders are known as the “Black Fleet” within the Coast Guard. Their hulls are painted black to hide the unavoidable scrapes and bumps from hauling buoys and channel markers. The spacious deck in the forward part of the ship was designed to carry buoys, concrete sinkers or anchors for buoys, mooring chain to attach the buoy to the concrete sinker, and other heavy material. The deck also provides work space for repair and maintenance of buoys.
label: Description
content: The engine that powered the <I>Oak</I> is a 750-horsepower, triple expansion, three-cylinder steam engine, capable of moving the vessel at a maximum speed of nine knots with a cruising range of 1,300 nautical miles. It drove a single propeller approximately 8 feet 6 inches in diameter. The engine is 18 feet in length, 6 feet wide, and 16 feet high, and weighs approximately 25 tons. It is representative of engines used in small, coastal vessels from approximately 1890 to 1930.
label: Description
content: For more than 40 years, in all kinds of weather, the <I>Oak</I>, its four officers and 23-man crew were responsible for setting, inspecting, repairing, and replacing hundreds of buoys, like the one in <I>On The Water</I>, that marked channels and shoals in and around New York Harbor, one of the world’s most important ports. In 1963, the <I>Oak</I> was transferred from the U. S. Coast Guard to the Smithsonian. The engine and radio room were removed from the <I>Oak</I> in 1971 and installed in the Museum in 1974.
topic: label: Subject
content: Fishing
label: related event
content: The Emergence of Modern America
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
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content: Communications
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content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
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content: America on the Move
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content: Transportation
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content: Measuring & Mapping
label: Exhibition
content: America On The Move
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: National Museum of American History. On the Water exhibition website
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Transportation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.0518.01
label: accession number
content: 1979.0518
label: catalog number
content: 1979.0518.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: engine, Oak
label: Object Name
content: engine room, US Coast Guard Buoy Tender "Oak"
label: Other Terms
content: engine, Oak; Maritime; Steam
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)