USCGC Lilac (WAGL/WLM-227) is a historic 173-foot lighthouse tender that holds a unique place in maritime history as America's only surviving steam-powered buoy tender. Launched in 1933 at the Pusey & Jones Shipyard in Wilmington, Delaware, she was originally built for the United States Lighthouse Service to maintain aids to navigation, repair buoys, and ferry vital supplies to isolated lighthouse keepers and their families. Lilac was absorbed into the United States Coast Guard in 1939 when the Lighthouse Service was dissolved. She spent her entire 39-year operational career patrolling the treacherous, ice-prone waters of the Delaware River and Delaware Bay. During World War II, she was temporarily armed with depth charges and fitted with anti-mine equipment to safeguard the coastline, later returning to her tireless peacetime duties until her decommissioning in 1972 as the Coast Guard's very last operational steamship.
Following her retirement, Lilac spent several decades under various owners, including a stint as a stationary training vessel for a seamanship school, before being rescued by the non-profit Lilac Preservation Project in 2003. Added to the National Register of Historic Places, the beautifully preserved vessel found a permanent home on the Manhattan waterfront at Hudson River Park's Pier 25. Today, Lilac operates as a free public museum ship and cultural venue. Her remarkably intact dual triple-expansion steam engines, wood-lined crew quarters, and classic brass bridge fittings serve as a living artifact of pre-modern maritime technology, with ongoing restoration efforts focused on eventually returning this rare industrial treasure to operational steam power.
