USCGC Lilac (WAGL/WLM-227) is a former Coast Guard buoy tender which is now a museum ship located in New York City.

Lilac is America's only surviving steam-powered buoy tender, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[1] Lilac was built in 1933 at the Pusey and Jones Shipyard in Wilmington, Delaware for the United States Lighthouse Service.

Her primary missions with both agencies included maintaining lighthouses, buoys, and other aids to navigation, and search and rescue.

She passed through several private owners after her government service, until 2004 when she came into the possession of the Lilac Preservation Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to maintaining the historic ship.

The second lowest bidder was Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, which had already successfully launched USLHT Violet, the lead vessel in the class.

[8] Still reluctant to award the contract to the low bidder, the Secretary of Commerce sought an opinion from the Comptroller General as to whether Hampton Roads Shipbuilding was qualified to bid on the project.

[9] By the end of August 1931 Hampton Roads Shipbuilding had extended its slipway, purchased new equipment, and laid the keel.

[10] On 19 September 1931, the wooden Pennsylvania Railroad pier, and the company's offices, machine shops, warehouses, and other facilities that were built on it were destroyed in a fire.

[16] It seems likely that the Lighthouse Service's confidence in Pusey and Jones was enhanced by its decision the previous month to award it the contract for USLHT Arbutus, a near-sistership.

[17] The new contract was for $214,500[12] plus the materials that had already been purchased for the ship by the Lighthouse Service, including steel plating, bolts, rivets, and her boilers[12] and engines.

Pusey and Jones began building the ship from the keel up and made no use of the partially completed hull at Hampton Roads Shipbuilding.

Lilac was assigned to the 4th Lighthouse District, which included the coast of Delaware, and adjoining portions of the New Jersey, and Virginia shores.

This included repairing and replacing buoys damaged and sunk by weather, ice,[25] and impacts from passing ships.

As the United States approached its entry into World War II, it held approximately 70 Italian, German, and Danish vessels, and their crews in its ports.

Naval Intelligence learned that Italian authorities had instructed the crews to sabotage the Italian-flagged ships so they could not be used by the Americans if they were seized.

[30][31][32] On 1 November 1941 President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8929 transferring the U.S. Coast Guard from Treasury Department to United States Navy control.

Lilac and similar buoy tenders were equipped to play a role in coastal defense, in addition to maintaining their aids to navigation.

A 3"/50 gun was installed on her forecastle, a pair of 20mm/80 Oerlikon cannon aft of her wheelhouse, and two depth charge tracks on her stern.

[36][37] In 1948 the Edgemoor Depot was closed and Lilac and USCGC Zinnia, which were based there, relocated to the Coast Guard facility across the Delaware River in Gloucester City, New Jersey.

[38] In 1965 the Coast Guard reorganized its vessel classification system and Lilac received the new pennant number WLM-227, designating her a coastal buoy tender.

Shortly after midnight on 15 May 1952 the tanker F. L. Hayes, loaded with 640,000 U.S. gallons (2,400,000 L) of high-octane gasoline, collided with the freighter Barbara Lykes in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal about 17 miles south of Wilmington.

Less than a week later, during the early morning hours of 22 May 1952, the tanker Atlantic Dealer hit the tug Pateo which was towing two barges.

[44] In addition to keeping curious boaters out of the danger area, Lilac stood by to tow one of the vessels should it drift into the shipping lanes.

[45] The tanker Pan Georgia was preparing to leave the Wilmington Marine Terminal after discharging her cargo of gasoline just before midnight on 23 July 1953.

[47][21] High seas threatened to sink a yacht near the Miah Maull Shoal Light on 12 July 1955 when her captain radioed a distress call.

Lilac responded, taking aboard four people from the yacht and placing pumps on the vessel which kept it afloat while she was towed to port.

[49] In another tanker mishap, Lilac went to the assistance of President Dutra, a 30,000-ton Brazilian-flagged ship that went aground near Wilmington in February, 1961.

Lilac was moved to the Falling Creek Marina on the James River in Richmond, Virginia where she served as office space for the marine salvage business.

She is now a museum ship, docked at Hudson River Park Pier 25, near North Moore Street in Manhattan.