USS Wachusetts (SP-548)
USS "Wachusetts" (SP-548) was an armed motorboat that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919. She was renamed SP-548 during her period of service. In 1919 she was transferred to the United States Bureau of Fisheries and renamed USFS "Fulmar", and operated as a fisheries science research vessel on the Great Lakes until 1933 or 1934, when she was transferred to the Ohio Division of Conservation. Construction and early history. "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 Neisco diesel engine and carried of fuel. She soon was renamed "Wachusetts". U.S. Navy service. 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. 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. The name "Wachusetts" apparently was dropped somewhat later to avoid confusion with , 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. U.S. Bureau of Fisheries service. By authority of an Executive Order of 24 May 1919, the U.S. Navy transferred three former section patrol boats – "SP-548", , and – 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 . "Phalarope" then towed "Cobra", renamed USFS "Petrel", and "Calypso", renamed USFS "Merganser", to Norfolk, Virginia, for transport to the Pacific Northwest aboard the  collier , but "SP-548", renamed USFS "Fulmar", remained at the BOF's Woods Hole station for later shipment. 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. During July, September, and October 1921, "Phalarope"′s crew modified "Fulmar" at Woods Hole for use as a fisheries science research vessel, including installation of a deckhouse from bow to pilothouse; and supported her transfer to Charlevoix. 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. She conducted the first experimental fishing survey in Lake Michigan from 1930 through 1932 using linen gill nets. During fiscal year 1934 (which ran from July 1, 1933 to June 30, 1934) the BOF turned "Fulmar" over to the State of Ohio. Ohio Division of Conservation. 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. Her later history is unavailable.