She spent forty years in government service, homeported in Baltimore, Maryland as part of the 5th Lighthouse District.

Her primary mission was to build and maintain lighthouses in Chesapeake Bay and nearby waterways in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

When competition from trucks on improved roads and bridges rendered her service uneconomic in 1957, she was repurposed to carry bananas from Mexico to Brownsville, Texas.

"[1] The Baltimore ship-building firm of Malster & Reaney secured the contract and began work on Jessamine and her sistership USLHT Holly in 1880.

[9] Jessamine had one mast forward which served both as a derrick to enable her construction work, and to fly a foresail and staysail.

[10] Evidently, the trial went well, as General Orville E. Babcock, Engineer for the 5th Lighthouse District,[11] accepted her from her builders within the week.

[4] During her forty years of government service, her primary responsibility was building and maintaining lighthouses and other aids to navigation in Chesapeake Bay, the rivers that flowed into it, and the northern coast and sounds of North Carolina.

[19] Little changed in her day-to-day responsibilities, however, and at the conclusion of the war, Jessamine and the rest of the Lighthouse Service was returned to the Commerce Department on 1 July 1919.

She made borings at the site of Ragged Point and Pungoteague Creek light-station, Virginia, to determine the character of the foundation.

[21]While the Engineers of the 5th Lighthouse District changed with the regularity of Army careers, Jessamine's captain from her launch in 1881 through his death in April 1901 was John E.

In November and December 1881, shortly after her commissioning, Jessamine hauled a new tower to replace the Sharp's Island Light which had been destroyed by ice in the previous winter.

[34] Exposed to corrosive saltwater, and buffeted by wind, wave, and ice, lighthouses required periodic maintenance.

The passenger steamer Wakefield suffered an explosion in her steam plant on 30 October 1892 while ascending the Potomac River.

She received a letter of commendation for her assistance to the schooner Otis Hubbard, which was caught in ice off Fort Carroll, Maryland on 16 December 1917.

On 3 May 1883 the steam tug Samson lost steering control and ran into Jessamine's port bow, penetrating 15 feet into the tender.

[65] Jessamine was dredging for oysters near the mouth of the West River in March 1885, and since there were a dozen open barrels on deck it appeared she was catching them for sale.

Regrettably, the ship had no license for such a harvest, and her captain was ordered to appear before the Maryland State Fishery Force in Annapolis.

[66] Jessamine was aground on Green Island for a week in March 1866 with a load of lumber on board for lights on the Roanoke River.

[67] The wires which mechanically connected the telegraph from the bridge to the engine room aboard Jessamine stuck in position on 23 December 1898 as the ship was approaching a coal dock in Baltimore.

The steamer's bow struck Jessamine on her starboard side, aft of the wheelhouse, and badly damaged the tender.

"[70] While her heavy schedule of work and maintenance suggests that this was an exaggeration, there were indeed a number of events during her government service when she was used for what seemed the pleasure of high officials.

[70] Spencer Fullerton Baird, who at the time was Secretary of The Smithsonian Institution, authorized General Babcock to spend $100 to recover a sperm whale specimen from a carcass that washed ashore near Jupiter Inlet, Florida.

Jessamine participated in both laying and later removing these mines after the defeat of the Spanish Navy in Cuba made invasion unlikely.

[86] With mechanical problems growing more frequent and costly, the Commissioner of Lighthouses began taking bids to replace Jessamine, which he described as, "worn out in service," as early as 1916.

She was refit for her new service at the Rohde Shipyard, and began sailing as a passenger ferry between Baltimore, Love Point, and Queenstown on 7 May 1922.

In 1924 Queenstown was sold to the company's owner, Alphonso ("Al") Wootten, to replace the lost vessel and her name was changed to Victor Lynn.

[96] Victor Lynn carried a variety of cargos in her new role as a freighter, including fresh strawberries,[97] canned goods,[98] sweet potatoes, and drums of oil.

[103] While on her way to Salisbury on 24 March 1934, about a mile south of the harbor, Victor Lynn ran hard aground on the east side of the river.

[111] World War II brought about a shipping shortage in the Caribbean and freight rates rose significantly.

[113] Victor Lynn was under contract with Kent Fruit Importing Co. to haul bananas, this time between Coatzacoalcos, Mexico and Brownsville, Texas.