From: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol.V - p 289

Phlox

A genus of American annual or perennial herbs with red, purple, white, or variegated flowers.

Phlox, built in 1926 by Defoe Boat Works, Bay City, Mich. as a lighthouse and buoy tender, commissioned in the U.S. Lighthouse Service 1 June and assumed station at New York City. Until the beginning of World War II she also serviced navigational aids out of Fernandina, Fla. and Marquette, Mich. She was acquired from the Lighthouse Service in 1939 when that service became part of the Coast Guard.

Executive Order 8929 of 1 November 1941 transferred the Coast Guard to the Navy. Phlox was assigned to Alpena, Mich., and she continued service as a buoy tender in the area of Thunder Bay, Lake Huron. She returned to the Treasury Department 1 January 1940 and provided navigational aid services out of Boston, Mass. and Bristol, R.I. until she decommissioned 26 August 1947. Sold in 1949, she was converted to commercial use, renamed Salvor, and operated out of Miami, Fla. under the management of Parde Island Seafoods, Inc., of Brownsville, Tex. In 1957 she came under the ownership of Vapor Honing Marine Services of Houston, Tex. and continued to operate out of Houston.