From: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol.I, Part A - p 518

Azalea

Any of a large group of shrubs cultivated for their bountiful b1ossoms of widely varied colors.

(Lht: t. 500; 1. 145'; b. 25'; cpl. 22)

The lighthouse tender Azalea was built at New York City in 1891 for the United States Lighthouse Service. Transferred to the Navy on 16 April 1917, she was commissioned on 9 May and assigned to the 1st Naval District for which she salvaged navigational aids, adjusted buoys. and tended nets through the Armistice and into 1919. Following the return of peace the tender returned to the Lighthouse Service in accordance with an Executive Order dated 1 July 1919.