Sequoia I

Sequoia I

(Str.: t. 677; 1. 174'; b. 30')

The first Sequoia, a United States Lighthouse Service ship built in 1908 at Camden, N.J., was acquired by the Navy when the Lighthouse Service was taken over under the terms of the National Naval Volunteers section of the Naval Preparedness Act approved on 29 August 1916 and issued on 16 April 1917. Taken over with her crew, Sequoia was commissioned on 5 December 1917, Lt. Mark Anderson, USNRF, in command, and retained in the 12th Naval District to continue her previous duty of tending lighthouses in that area. Net and buoy tending and coast patrol were assigned to her as additional duties, but throughout World War I, Sequoia's primary responsibility remained that of a lighthouse tender. She was returned to the Lighthouse Service on 1 July 1919.