United States ATR Class Rescue Ocean Tugs 2nd

Transcription

Directory of TUGS
OF THE RESCUE OCEAN TUGS - ATR
(source: Navsource, composed Hans van der Ster. Also thanks to Jaap Bijl )
ATR102
ATR-1 Class Rescue Tug:
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Planned and approved as Fleet Tug AT-175
Reclassified Rescue Tug ATR-102
Laid Down, 9 December 1943 at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX. (yn342)
Launched, 29 January 1944
Reclassified Auxiliary Fleet Tug ATA-175, 13 April 1944
Commissioned, USS ATA-175, 3 August 1944
Decommissioned, 8 November 1946, at Astoria, OR.
Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Columbia River Group at Astoria
Named Sonoma (ATA-175), 16 July 1948
Custody transferred to the Maritime Administration
Laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Olympia, WA.
Struck from the Naval Register, 1 September 1962
Reacquired by the Navy, 18 June 1971 for tow to Suisun Bay, Benecia, CA.
Struck from the Naval Register, turned over to the Maritime Administration and laid up in the National Defense
Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay
Commercial History
Acquired by Erato Shipping & Trading Corp. S.A., Panama, 13 April 1976, (John S.Latsis, Piraeus)
renamed Deka Epta
Owner name change to Maritime & Commercial Co. Argonaftis S.A., Panama, 1977
Sold for scrapping in 1989
Final Disposition, scrapped in 1989 unknown
Specifications :
Displacement 835 t.(fl)
Length 143' x Beam 33' 10" x Draft 13' 2"
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Armament one 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount
Propulsion diesel-electric single propeller
Sonoma
A creek, a county, and a town in California, named for one of the chiefs of Indians of the region who were
converted to Christianity by Franciscan friars of the Mission, San Francisco Solano.
The third Sonoma, an auxiliary ocean tug, was laid down on 9 December 1943 by the Levingston Shipbuilding Co.,
Orange, Tex., as the rescue tug, ATR-102; launched on 29 January 1944; reclassified an auxiliary ocean tug, ATA175, on 13 April 1944; and commissioned on 3 August 1944.
Following shakedown training in August, ATA-175 joined the Service Force, Atlantic Fleet in September. However, by
1 October, she was in the South Pacific atBora Bora in the Society Islands. After almost a month of in-port
operations, the tug departed Bora Bora on 29 October; stopped at Guadalcanal from 16 to 20 November; and
arrived in Seeadler Harbor, Manus, on the 26th. For the remainder of 1944, ATA-175 operated in the vicinity
of New Guinea and the Admiralty Islands, making two visits to Milne Bay, New Guinea, and one to Cairns,
Australia.
On 31 December, she stood out of Milne Bay for Hollandia, New Guinea, where she arrived on 7 January 1945. For
the next seven months, she operated from Hollandia towing barges and other craft to various American bases
in the western and southern Pacific. She made four voyages to Leyte in the Philippines and one each to Mackay,
Australia, and Manus. On her first voyage to Leyte in late January and early February, the tug also visited
Lingayen Gulf and Subic Bay. In June and July, she participated in post-landing operations at Morotai by towing
** J.v.d.Ster – Marcol Production **
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three LST's clear of the beach. She returned to Hollandia on 16 July and commenced 10 days overhaul at the
Destroyer Repair Base. On the 29th, she set out on the fourth voyage from Hollandia to Leyte.
For the rest of 1945, ATA-175 conducted operations in the Philippines. From 24 to 28 August, she assisted SS
Alice N. Rice in clearing Kinabakagan Reef and damaged her rudder in the process. After repairs at Subic Bay,
she resumed towing operations between the islands of the Philippine Archipelago. On 25 and 26 October, the tug
participated in the salvage of SS Ralph W. Emerson which had run aground on a mud shoal in Davao Gulf off
Mindanao. During her assignment in the Philippines, she also visited Samar Island and the city of Manila.
In January 1946, ATA-175 returned to the United States for inactivation. On 7 June, she joined the 19th Fleet at
Columbia River, Wash.; and, on 8 November, she was placed out of commission. On 16 July 1948, ATA-175 was
named Sonoma. In August 1960, custody of Sonoma was transferred to the Maritime Administration. She was
laid up at Olympia, Wash., and her name was struck from the Navy list on 1 September 1962. On 18 June 1971,
she was reacquired by the Navy for tow to Suisan Bay, Calif., where she was returned to the custody of the
Maritime Administration. As of 30 June 1974, Sonoma was still laid up with the National Defense Reserve
Fleet at Suisun Bay.
ATR103
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Planned and approved as Fleet Tug AT-176
Laid down, 30 January 1944 as Rescue Ocean Tug (ATR-103), at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX
(yn343)
Launched, 1 March 1944
Reclassified Auxiliary Fleet Tug (ATA-176), 15 May 1944
Commissioned, USS ATA-176, 19 August 1944, LTjg Ralph T. Crane, USNR, in command
Decommissioned, 30 June 1947, at Naval Supply Depot, Oakland, CA.
Assigned to the Naval Transportation Service (NTS) and placed in service as ATA-176
Named, Tonkawa (ATA-176), 16 July 1948
Assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) and placed in service as USNS Tonkawa (TAKA-176) circa 1949-50
Placed out of service, 8 May 1956
Struck from the Naval Register, 1 August 1961
Transferred to Taiwan in 5 April 1962 under the Security Assistance Program (SAP), renamed ROCS TaShueh 347(ATA-547)
Final Disposition, fate unknown
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Tonkawa
An Indian tribe which lived in central Texas during most of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Tonkawa were war
wanderers who lived chiefly on game—mostly buffalo. In 1859, they were placed on a reservation at the Washita
River. In 1862, nearly half of the 300 remaining members were massacred by the Delaware, Shawnee, and Caddo
warriors for allegedly aiding the Confederacy. Refugees fled to Fort Griffin, Tex. In 1884, the survivors were moved
to a small reservation near Ponca City, Okla.
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ATA-176 underway in San Francisco Bay, returning, 1 June 1946 from the South Pacific (photo Albert Rousseau)
The first Tonkawa (ATA-176) was laid down as ATR-103 on 30 January 1944 at Orange, Tex., by the Levingston
Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 1 March 1944; sponsored by Mrs. R. F. Parker; redesignated ATA-176 on 15 May
1944; and commissioned on 19 August 1944, Lt. (jg.) Ralph T. Crane, USNR, in command.
After a brief shakedown cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, the auxiliary ocean tug stood out of Galveston on 22
September bound, via Miami, for the Canal Zone. She arrived at Colon on 4 October and departed Balboa on the 20th
for the South Pacific. ATA-176 called at Borabora and Manus before anchoring in Milne Bay, New Guinea, on 20
December. Assigned to the Service Force, Pacific Fleet, the tug got underway on 30 December 1944 for Hollandia and
arrived on 5 January 1945. She took Etamin' (IX-173) in tow and sortied with a convoy for the Philippines on the
10th. She arrived at San Pedro Bay on the 22d and returned to Humboldt Bay on 12 February. During the next eight
months, ATA-176 operated between ports in New Guinea, Emirau, Morotai, Borneo, and various Philippine islands.
On 20 October 1945, the auxiliary tug stood out of Manila to search for an Army barge that had been reported adrift
to the northwest. She found the barge on the 26th and towed it to Okinawa. ATA-176 then returned to Manila Bay on
5 November 1945. After operations in the Philippines, she called at Guam in April 1946 and left Apra Harbor on 2
May towing AFD-3 to Midway. She delivered her charge there on the 15th and headed for the United States.
The tug arrived at San Francisco on 1 June and remained at the Naval Supply Depot, Oakland, with a crew
supplied by the 12th Naval District until 30 June 1947. On that day, ATA-176 was decommissioned and placed "in
service," manned by a civilian crew. On 16 July 1948, the ship was named Tonkawa.
Towkawa served in the 12th Naval District until 8 May 1956 when she was placed out of service, in reserve.
Tonkawa was struck from the Navy list on 1 August 196
ATR104
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Laid down, (date unknown) as Rescue Ocean Tug ATR-104, at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX.
(yn344)
Launched, 5 June 1944
Commissioned, USS ATA-177 (date unknown)
Sunk at Okinawa by "Typhoon Louise", 9 October 1945
Refloated, 12 December 1945
Decommissioned (date unknown)
Struck from the Naval Register (date unknown)
Transferred to Chile, 29 September 1947, named Lientur (PP-3) (PP 60)???
Decommissioned by the Chilean Navy in 1984
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ATA-177 at anchor, date and place unknown (photo Patricio Villalobos)
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
ATR105
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Laid down as a Rescue Ocean Tug (ATR-105), 10 May 1944 at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX
(yn345)
Commissioned, USS ATA-178, 15 September 1944
Decommissioned, 23 December 1947
Laid up in the Reserve Fleet
Renamed, Tunica (ATA-178), 16 July 1948
Final disposition, sunk as a target, 29 January 1999.
Specifications
Displacement 610 t.(lt) 860 t.(fl)
Length 143' x Beam 34' x Draft 15'
Speed 13kts
Complement 7 Officers, 42 Enlisted
Armament one single 3"/50 gun mount, two twin 40mm gun mounts
Propulsion , diesel-electric engines, single screw.
ATR106
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Originally projected as Rescue Ocean Tug ATR-106
Reclassified Auxiliary Fleet Tug, ATA-179, 15 May 1944
Laid down, 22 May 1944, at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX. (yn346)
Commissioned, USS ATA-179, 22 September 1944
Decommissioned, 10 October 1947, at Orange, TX.
Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Texas Group, Orange
Named, USS Allegheny (ATA-179), 16 July 1948
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Recommissioned, 25 July 1949
Decommissioned, and Struck from the Naval Register, 14 December 1968.
School Ship and Commercial Service
Transferred in 1969 to Northwestern Michigan College (Great Lakes Maritime Academy), Traverse City, MI.
for use as a training vessel
Sank at her berth at Northwestern Michigan College, 9 April 1970, raised shortly thereafter
Sold in 1972 to Great Lakes Maritime Academy, renamed Allegheny
Capsized sank at her berth at Traverse City, MI, 28 January 1978, in high winds and heavy snows
Sold in 1978 to Keith E. Malcolm of St. Clair, MI., renamed Tug Malcolm
Sold in 1999 to Beyel Cocoa Prt Carnaveral, Renamed Matthew Beyel
Specifications:
Speed 13 kts.
Propulsion diesel-electric engines, single propeller
Allegheny
A river which rises in Potter County, Pa., and flows northwestward into southwestern New York before turning south to
reenter Pennsylvania in Warren County. The stream then meanders southward through western Pennsylvania
until joining the Monongahela at Pittsburgh to form the Ohio. The word Allegheny is derived from the Delaware
Indian name for the Allegheny and the Ohio Rivers.
The unnamed single-screw ocean-going tug ATA-179 (originally projected as the rescue tug, ATR-106) was laid down
on 22 May 1944 at Orange, Tex., by the Levingston Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 30 June 1944; and commissioned
on 22 September 1944, Lt. (jg.) Thomas C. McLaren, USNR, in command.
After fitting out, ATA-179 conducted shakedown training out of Galveston, Tex., before undergoing post-shakedown
availability at that port until 24 October. Two days later, the tug departed Galveston for Tampa, Fla., with a covered
lighter, YF-614, in tow, and reached her destination on the 28th. Taking the barracks ship APL-19 in tow, the tug
sailed for the Panama Canal Zone on 4 November 1944, reaching her destination with her two tows on the 13th.
Transiting the Panama Canal three days later, she sailed for Bora Bora, in the Society Islands, on 30 November 1944,
and reached her destination on 22 December. On the day after Christmas, ATA-179 got underway for Finschhafen,
new Guinea, towing YF-614. She then towed the lighter to Hollandia, new Guinea, arriving on 12 January 1945, before
proceeding on to Leyte with APL-19 and YF-614 in tow, arriving there on 4 February 1945.
Assigned to Service Squadron Three, Service Force, Seventh Fleet, ATA-179 cleared Leyte on 18 February 1945 for
the Carolines and reached Ulithi the following day. There, she took two floating workshops, YRD(H)-6 and YRD(M)-6,
in tow and departed Ulithi on 24 February for the Philippines. Proceeding via Kossol Roads, in the Palaus, ATA-179
arrived at Leyte on 12 March 1945 and delivered her tows. Departing San Pedro Bay on 24 March, the tug reached
Cebu on the 26th and picked up LCT-1296, towing her to Leyte.
Proceeding thence to Hollandia, New Guinea, having left the tank craft at Leyte, ATA-179 picked up the tow of a
dredge and four pontoon barges on 18 April and delivered them to Leyte on 1 May 1945. Returning to Hollandia, the
tug then picked up four ammunition barges and towed them to Leyte as well, reaching the Philippines on 7 June. ATA179 proceeded thence to Espiritu Santo, in the New Hebrides, reaching that port on 26 June 1945. On 7 July, the tug
cleared the New Hebrides with Section B of the advanced base sectional dock, ABSD-1, and the open lighter YC-324,
and headed for the Philippines. Proceeding via Hollandia, the tug and her two charges reached their destination on 2
August 1945.
Departing Leyte on 7 August, ATA-179 sailed for the Padaido Islands, and there took David B. Henderson in tow on
12 August. She proceeded thence to Biak, New Guinea, and arrived on the following day. During the week that
followed, ATA-179 towed a 400-ton pontoon drydock to Morotai and the covered lighter YF-621, to Leyte. proceeding
thence to Morotai, the tug towed a 400-ton floating drydock and the motor minesweeper YM-47 to Samar, and the
100-ton pontoon drydock from there to Subic Bay. For the balance of October 1945, the tug operated in the Philippine
Islands, between Samar and Leyte. She towed seven pontoon barges from Samar to Subic Bay (24 to 28 October)
and spent the remainder of 1945 and the first few months of the following year, 1946, based at Leyte.
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ATA-179 departed Leyte on 30 March 1946. She reached Manus, in the Admiralties, on 6 April and departed there
eight days later with a section of ABSD-4 in tow. Touching briefly at Eniwetok and Johnston Island en route, the tug
reached Pearl Harbor on 24 May and proceeded thence to the west coast of the United States soon thereafter, towing
AFD-2 to San Pedro. She then took LCS-66 to San Diego and arrived there on 12 September. Moving to San Pedro
the same day, ATA-179 took APL-43 in tow and sailed for the Canal Zone on 12 October. She reached her destination
on the 18th, and departed 11 days later, bound for Jacksonville with APL-43 and APL-34 in her wake, to deliver her
tows to the Florida group of the reserve fleet. With new orders to deliver the barracks ships elsewhere, however, for
preservation work, ATA-179 proceeded to Charleston, S.C., which she reached on 8 November 1946.
Over the next several months, ATA-179 participated in the demobilization process of many fleet units assigned
temporarily to the Commandant, 8th Naval District, and performed tug and tow operations on the Gulf and Florida
coasts, ranging from Key West and Mayport to New Orleans, Mobile, and Galveston until she herself was inactivated
and placed out of commission, in reserve, at Orange, Tex., on 10 October 1947. On 16 July 1948, she was named
Allegheny (ATA-179).
She was recommissioned on 25 July 1949. Allegheny then sailed for the Norfolk naval Shipyard, arriving on 8 August.
She remained there until 26 September, when she sailed for New York. Departing New York on 1 October, Allegheny
sailed for the Mediterranean, in company with Stallion (ATA-193) and the survey ship Maury(AGS-16), reaching
Gibraltar on 13 October. Pushing on across the Mediterranean, the survey group put in at Naples, Italy, on the 19th,
and at Argostolion, Greece, on the 21st. Sailing for Port Said, Egypt, that same day, the ships reached the northern
terminus of the Suez Canal on 24 October and transited that waterway on the 25th, reaching Aden on the 30th.
Allegheny (ATA-179), underway date and place unknown (photo Keeth Kloepfer)
Allegheny commenced her hydrographic work in that region soon thereafter. Over the next several weeks, she
supported Maury as that ship operated in the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman, and the Persian Gulf
conducting surveys of the uncharted waters of the Arabian coast. She touched at ports in Saudi Arabia; Kuwait;
Bahrain; and Pakistan. The survey ships transited the Suez Canal on 4 May. Allegheny rounded out the deployment
with visits to Algiers and Gibraltar before she sailed for the United States, reaching Norfolk on 27 May. She moved to
New York soon thereafter and underwent post-deployment availability at the New York Naval Shipyard from 3 June to
8 September.
Allegheny conducted survey operations at Newport, R.I., following her overhaul at New York from 9 to 29 September.
She then returned to the naval shipyard following that work, to prepare for another deployment to the Persian Gulf,
and sailed for the Mediterranean on 6 October. Reaching Gibraltar on 19 October, Allegheny visited Golfe Juan from
22 to 25 October and touched briefly at Port Said from 30 to 31 October before transiting the Suez Canal and
proceeding down the Read Sea. Reaching Bahrain on 11 November, she remained there until the 13th, when she got
underway for Ras Tanura, making port there later the same day. She spent the remainder of the year 1950 and the
first three and one-half months of 1951 operating from that Saudi oil port, ultimately sailing for Suez on 189 April 1951.
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She wound up the deployment with calls at Port Said, Naples, Algiers, and Gibraltar before she got underway to return
to the United States on 18 May.
Arriving at the New York Naval Shipyard on the last day of May 1951, Allegheny remained there through the summer
and into September, leaving New York on 17 September for Hampton Roads. Reaching Norfolk the net day, she did
not get underway again until 10 October, when she sailed for her third deployment to the Mediterranean and Middle
Eastern waters. She visited Athens from 30 October to 2 November, and operated briefly in the Mediterranean before
transiting the Suez Canal on 5 November. A port call at Aden on 10 November preceded her arrival at Bahrain on the
17th. As in the previous deployment, she conducted survey work in the Bahrain-Ras Tanura area into the following
spring, winding up her work at the latter port on 12 April. Transiting the Suez Canal on 24 and 25 April 1952,
Allegheny visited Naples and Monaco en route home, ultimately reaching Norfolk on 29 May 1952.
Shifting soon thereafter to the New York Naval Shipyard where she arrived on 14 June, Allegheny underwent a major
conversion for her new role as research vessel. During the summer of 1952, all armament and towing accessories
were removed and her towing winch rotated 90° and modified to perform the functions of a heavy trawling winch.
Various hydrographic and bathythermograph winches and booms were installed, as was sonar, dead reckoning, and
various electronic equipment. Shipboard spaces were converted to a machine ship, motor generator, and
photographic laboratory. A new deckhouse was constructed aft to house underwater sound and electronic equipment.
Assigned to the Commandant, 3d Naval District, for duty and based at the Naval Supply Center, Bayonne, N.J.,
Allegheny spent the next 17 years engaged in hydrographic and research functions through the Office of Naval
Research, with various research teams from the Hudson laboratories, Bell Telephone Co., Woods Hole Institute, and
Columbia University embarked as the mission required. Generally, her operations consisted of spending months from
January through April in the Bermuda-Caribbean area, and the rest of the year in the Long Island-Hudson Canyon
region, off New York, and occasionally involved in operations off Cape Hatteras. Ports of call included St. Thomas,
Virgin Islands; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Willemstadt, Curaçao; Miami and Port Everglades, Fla.; and Bermuda. In the
spring of 1963 she was assigned to Task Group 89.7 from 24 April to 15 May, an operational commitment occasioned
by the disappearance of the nuclear submarine Thresher (SSN-593).
Highlighting the latter part of her long tour of research support work was a towing operation--something she had not
been configured for in many, many years. Underway from Bayonne on 31 January 1967, Allegheny sailed for
Bermuda, arriving on 3 February. No longer possessing a towing engine or fittings, the research vessel had to jury-rig
a towing arrangement to the "Monster Buoy" (General Dynamics Buoy "Bravo"). Setting out for the west coast of the
United States on 11 February, Allegheny and the "Monster Buoy" headed for the Pacific. Touching briefly at
Guantanamo Bay for provisions from 17 to 19 February, Allegheny and her charge transited the Panama Canal on 23
February, and set out for Acapulco on the 25th. En route, the tug and her tow ran into 40-knot winds and 15-foot seas
in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, but reached their destination on 4 March. Underway on the 7th, Allegheny delivered her
tow one week later, on the 14th, having successfully completed a 32-day, 4,642-mile journey. Retracing her course,
the tug returned to Bermuda on 16 April, via Acapulco, the Panama Canal, and Kingston, Jamaica.
Allegheny conducted oceanographic research missions off Bermuda with USNS Mission Capistrano (T-AO-112) from
22 April to 5 May before sailing for Bayonne. Further oceanographic work--off Port Everglades, Fla.--began in June,
followed by a visit on 4 July to Washington, D.C. That September, the ship was reassigned from Commandant, 3d
Naval District, to Service Squadron 8 on 1 July 1969, and conducted coring operations on the Continental Shelf, off
the New York-New Jersey coast from 5 to 11 September. From 18 to 28 September, Allegheny conducted operations
with Bang (SS-365) in the Gulf of Maine and Boston area and, from 9 to 20 November, with Cutlass (SS-478), in the
Virginia Capes area, each time under the auspices of Commander, Operational Development Force.
Ultimately declared excess to the needs of the Navy, Allegheny was decommissioned and struck from the Naval
Vessel Register on 14 December 1968. Towed to Philadelphia and the Inactive Ship Facility there, the ship was
turned over to Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, Mich.; for use as a training ship to prepare young men
for merchant service on the Great Lakes. Berthed at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, the ship served as a training
vessel and floating laboratory for a little under a decade. On 27 January 1978, "burdened by frozen spray flung on her
superstructure by strong north winds," the ship rolled over at her Maritime Academy dock.
ATR107
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Planned and authorized as Rescue Ocean Tug (ATR-107)
Reclassified Auxiliary Fleet Tug (ATA-180),15 May 1944
Laid down (date unknown) at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX. (yn347)
Launched in 1944
Commissioned, USS ATA-180 in 1944
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Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet
Struck from the Naval Register in 1948 and sold to Scripps Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA., named
R/V Horizon
Final Disposition, scrapped, date unknown
ATA-180 departing Mare Island after overhaul period, 15 March 1946 (photo Darryl L. Baker)
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Armament one single 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount two single 20mm AA gun mounts
ATR108
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Laid down, 15 June 1944, at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX. (yn348)
Launched, 27 July 1944
Commissioned, USS ATA-181, 7 October 1944, Lt. C. M. Lacour in command
Named USS Accokeek (ATA-181), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned, 29 June 1972
Laid up at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center, Panama City, FL, (NAVDIVESALTRACEN),
maintenance category X
Struck from the Naval Register, 31 March 1986
Sold 29 July 1972 to ISMF, Norfolk
Final Disposition, sunk as a target or destroyed by test, 09 July 2000 near Panama City
Accokeek earned one battle star as ATA-181 during World War II
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Accokeek (ATA-181) underway in the Delaware River near the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, 18 July 1966
(photo Bruno T. Wojciechowski)
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Propulsion diesel-electric engines, single screw
ex Accokeek (ATA-181) being sunk as a reef project/diving site, date and place unknown. (photo Dan Grizzard)
Accokeek
An Indian tribe—long extinct—which lived in an area of Maryland now the site of Prince Georges County.
The auxiliary ocean tug ATA-181 was laid down on 15 June 1944 at Orange, Tex., by the Levingston Shipbuilding Co.;
launched on 27 July 1944; and commissioned on 7 October 1944, Lt. C. M. Lacour in command.
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After shakedown, she sailed for the Pacific, transiting the Panama Canal early in January 1945 and stopping in Hawaii in
March. Resuming her voyage west, the tug arrived at Guam on 25 March, a week before the assault on Okinawa. For the
rest of the war, ATA-181 aided warships damaged in that campaign, towing them from combat into Kerama Retto and
thence to bases in the Marianas and in the Western Carolines.
She stayed in the Far East after the war providing towing and salvage support for the American occupation forces. On 15
October, a severe typhoon struck the anchorage at Okinawa and drove ATA-181 aground; but the tug escaped heavy
damage and soon returned to duty. Her Far Eastern assignment ended early in the summer of 1946, and she began
the long voyage to the east coast of the United States. Steaming via Pearl Harbor, San Francisco, and the Panama
Canal, ATA-181 reached Philadelphia on 20 November.
Over the next 26 years, she carried out a variety of missions for the Atlantic Fleet. On 16 July 1948, she became
Accokeek. While she operated most often along the eastern seaboard and in the West Indies, her work also took her to
such widely separated locations as Labrador, Ascencion Island, and even inland to Lake Michigan. Philadelphia served as
her home port through most of her postwar career, but that changed on 30 June 1969 when Accokeek was reassigned
to Little Creek, Va. The tug operated from that base for the remaining three years of her Navy service. Decommissioned
at Norfolk on 29 June 1972, Accokeek was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 19 September 1972 for layup in
its National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF). At the end of 1987, Accokeek still appeared on the Navy list and remained at
the NDRF facility at James River, Va.
As ATA-181, Accokeek earned one battle star in World War II.
ATR109
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Laid down, 30 June 1944, at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX. (yn349)
Launched, 5 August 1944
Commissioned, USS ATA-182, 16 October 1944
Decommissioned, 26 November 1946, at Portland, OR.
Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Columbia River Group
Named USS Unadilla (ATA-182), 16 July 1948
Recommissioned, 3 May 1951, at Astoria, OR.
Decommissioned at Astoria, OR., 22 July 1955
Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at Portland, OR.
Transferred to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, at
Olympia, WA.
Towed to the MARAD National Defense Reserve Fleet, at Suisun Bay, Benecia, CA. in 1971
Commercial History
Acquired for commercial service by Erato Shipping & Trading Corp. S.A., Panama, 13 April 1976,
(John S.Latsis, Piraeus) renamed Deka Okto
Owner name change to Maritime & Commercial Co. Argonaftis S.A., Panama in 1977
Arrived in tow at Aliaga for demolition by Seltas A.S., 12 February 1996
Final Disposition, scrapped in 1996
Unadilla received two battle stars for her Korean War service
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 46
Unadilla
A river which rises in Columbia County, N.Y., and meanders southwesterly before emptying into the Sus-quehanna
River. Unadilla is an Iroquoian Indian noun meaning "place-of-meeting
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Although originally projected as steel-hulled, seagoing, rescue tug ATR-109, the third Unadilla was re-classified an
auxiliary ocean tug and redesignated ATA-182 on 15 May 1944; laid down on 30 June 1944 at Orange, Tex., by the
Levingston Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 5 August 1944; and commissioned on 16 October 1944.
Following shakedown training out of Norfolk, Va., ATA-182 transited the Panama Canal and then supported fleet
operations in the Pacific through the cessation of hostilities with Japan and into 1946. During this period, she
operated at Ulithi, Eniwetok, and Leyte, primarily towing floating drydocks. Returning to the west coast late in 1946,
ATA-182 was decommissioned on 26 November 1946 at Portland, Oreg., and placed in reserve there.
After being named Unadilla on 16 June 1948J she retained her hull number designation ATA-182. The ship was
recommissioned at Astoria, Oreg., on 3 May 1951. She moved south and conducted refresher training out of San
Diego, Calif., into the winter. Proceeding to Seattle, Wash., on 3 January 1952, she arrived there on the 8th and
picked up three YFN's for towing to the Hawaiian Islands. Departing on 11 January, Unadilla and her three
unwieldy charges labored through heavy seas in a 17-day passage to Pearl Harbor. During the voyage, one YFN
broke loose but was soon recovered.
Deploying to the Western Pacific (WestPac), Unadilla proceeded via Guam to Japan and arrived at Sasebo on 17
March. The tug towed targets until late August for fleet units conducting underway training exercises off the southern
coast of Honshu. During this deployment, the ocean-going tug was twice employed in Korean waters: on the first
occasion, she put into Cheju Do to escort a damaged LST back to Sasebo; and, on the second, Unadilla carried a
medical unit to Ullong Do to combat a typhus epidemic. The medical mission resulted in the ship's receiving the Korean
Presidential Unit Citation.
Departing WestPac on 21 August, Unadilla arrived at San Diego on 6 September, via Parl Harbor. The ship towed
targets off the coast of southern California through February 1953; towed YFR-888 from Panama to Long Beach from
3 to 16 March; and deployed to WestPac again in the late summer of that vear. She arrived at Sasebo on 5
September, via Pearl Harbor and Midway.
Unadilla spent her second WestPac deployment much like the first, towing targets for exercising units of the 7th Fleet
off the southern coast of Japan from September 1953 to March 1954. Escorting Gypsy (ARSD-i) from Kwajalein to
Pearl Harbor while en route to the west coast, the tug arrived at San Diego on 29 April. She conducted local
operations from May to August, towing targets for the Fleet Training Group at ban Diego. Following a regular
yard overhaul and an inspection period, Unadilla resumed these operations in January 1955.
Unadilla subsequently sailed for the Pacific Northwest and arrived at Astoria, Oreg., on 29 April 1955. Placed in
reserve on that date, the ocean-going tug prepared for deactivation. Decommissioned and placed in reserve on 22
July, she lay in reserve at Portland until struck from the Navy list on 1 September 1961. Shifted to the Maritime
Administration (MARAD) lay-up facility at Olympia, Wash., the erstwhile ocean-going tug was towed to the MARAD
facility at Suisun Bay, Calif., in 1971. She was disposed of sometime between 1972 and 1975.
Unadilla received two battle stars for her Korean War service.
11
ATA-182 underway while towing a target sled, date and place unknown. (photo Jerry Matysek)
ATR110
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•
Laid down, 14 July 1944, at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX. (yn350)
Commissioned, USS ATA-183, 26 October 1944, LT. Richard S. Lowry in command
Named USS Nottoway (ATA-183), 16 July 1948
Transferred to the Maritime Administration in 1961 for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Mobile,
AL.
Struck from the Naval Register 1 September 1962
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Armament one single 3"/50 gun mount two twin 40mm AA gun mounts
12
ATA-183 moored pierside in the Panama Canal Zone, circa September 1945 (photo Bill Rackett)
Nottoway
A river in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina.
Nottoway (ATA–183) originally designated ATR–110, was laid down 14 July 1944 at Levingston Shipbuilding Co.,
Orange, Tex.; launched 16 August 1944; and commissioned 26 October 1944, Lt. Richard S. Lowry in command.
Concluding shakedown a month after commissioning, ATA–183 reported to Commander, Panama Sea Frontier, 14
December 1944. Based at Coco Solo, Canal Zone, the ocean tug assisted a variety of vessels transiting the Canal
and towed ships to Charleston, S.C., and Aruba, Netherlands West Indies.
This necessary duty continued until early 1946 when the craft steamed back to Orange, Tex. for inactivation and
decommissioned 22 October. In July 1948, while assigned to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, ATA–183 was named
Nottoway. In 1961 this tug was transferred to the Maritime Administration and placed in the National Defense Reserve
Fleet. She remains berthed at Mobile, Ala. into 1970.
ATR111
NUNC
13
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Laid down, 27 July 1944, as Rescue Ocean Tug (ATR-111), at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX.
(yn351)
Commissioned USS ATA-184, 6 November 1944, LTjg W. E. Hummel in command
Decommissioned, 24 June 1946, at Astoria, OR.
Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Columbia River Group, Astoria
Named Kalmia (ATA-184), 16 July 1948
Placed in service, 1 April 1952
Commissioned, USS Kalmia (ATA-184), 5 May 1952
Decommissioned and leased to Columbia, 1 July1971, renamed ARC Bahia Utria
Struck from the Naval Register, 31 October 1977
Final Disposition, sold outright under the Security Assistance Program, 31 October 1977 to Colombia, fate
unknown
Specifications :
Displacement 534 t.
Length 143' x Beam 33' x Draft 11 fwd 13' 6" aft
Speed 12.8 kts.
Armament two twin 20mm gun mounts
Propulsion two 12-278A GM diesel engines, 1500hp, single screw
Kalmia
A genus of North American shrubs of the heath family with evergreen leaves and umbellate clusters of rose, purple, or
white flowers.
The third Kalmia (AT-184) was laid down as ATR-111 on 27 July 1944; redesignated ATA-184 15 May 1944;
launched 29 August by Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, Tex.; and commissioned 6 November as ATA-184, Lt.
(j.g.) W. E. Hummel in command.
Following shakedown, ATA-184 departed New Orleans, I/a., 10 December for the Southwest Pacific with APL-9 in
tow. Transiting the Panama Canal 27 December, she added ATR-64 to her towlines 2 January 1945, sailed via
the Galapagos and Society Islands, and arrived Florida Island, Solomons, 16 February to deliver ATR-64 for duty.
The next day, as a unit of Service Squadron 3, ATA-184 sailed for Manus Island, Admiralties, arriving the 22d with
APL-9. After towing and salvage duty at Manus and Hollandia, New Guinea, she steamed for the Philippines 27
March with YRDH-3 and YRDM-3 in tandem tow. Arriving Subic Bay, Luzon, 14 April, she commenced towing and
salvage operations throughout the Philippines that ranged from northern Luzon to southern Palawan and Mindanao.
Following a towing run to Brunei Bay, Borneo, ATA-184 cleared Guiuan Roadstead, Samar, 22 June and returned
to Manus the 29th.
ATA-184 proceeded to Russell Islands, Solomons, 4 July. While the tug was operating off Hui Island 12 July, a large
quantity, estimated between 9 and 26 tons, of deteriorated and condemned dynamite exploded on the island causing
minor damage to the tug. She departed the Russells 17 July for Guiuan, Samar, with five pontoon barges in tow.
Arriving 6 August, she resumed towing duty in Leyte Gulf until she sailed 18 August for Manus Island to tow two
pontoon drydocks to Luzon. ATA-184 reached Subic Bay 11 September and commenced towing runs between Subic
Bay and Guiuan. From 2 to 7 October she operated in the typhoon area northeast of Luzon and recovered harbor
tugs YTB-377 and YF-512 adrift at sea. During November and December she operated out of San Fernando, Luzon,
on typhoon salvage and rescue patrols off northern Luzon, rescuing four men 26 December from a drifting Army
barge.
ATA-184 continued towing and salvage operations off western Luzon until she departed Subic Bay 30 April 1946 with
APL-19 in tow. Steaming via Guam and Bikini Atoll, she arrived Pearl Harbor 7 June and continued 11 June with
APL-21 in tow for the West Coast. Arriving Astoria, Oreg., 23 June, ATA-184 decommissioned 24 June and entered
the Columbia River Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet. On 16 July 1948 she was named Kalmia (ATA-184). Placed in
service 1 April 1952, she departed Astoria 24 April for San Diego, where she recommissioned 5 May, Lt. T. P. Dorr
in command.
14
Kalmia (ATA-184) underway, probably soon after recommissioning in 1952 (US Navy photo)
Attached to the 11th Naval District since recommissioning, Kalmia has operated out of San Diego, providing valuable
service for the Underway Training Command during training and readiness operations of the Navy's combat ships.
As an integral link in training the Navy's fighting ships, especially destroyers, in gunnery, she has towed target sleds in
the Southern California Operating Area. Equipped with a hydraulic launching catapult on her bow, she serves as
one of the smallest "aircraft carriers" in the Navy by launching, controlling, and retrieving drone target aircraft
during antiaircraft and aerial gunnery exercises. She also tows and services bomb targets and retrieves practice
torpedoes and mines. When not at sea, she provides a variety of important services in San Diego and Long Beach
harbors, towing ships in reserve to and from overhaul, assisting disabled or grounded ships, and moving a
multitude of yard craft and a vast quantity of varied equipment. A floating workhorse, Kalmia continues to provide
essential service to the 11th Naval District and the Pacific Fleet through 1967.
ATR112
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Originally designated as Rescue Ocean Tug ATR-112
Redesignated Auxiliary Fleet Tug ATA-185, 15 May 1944
Launched, 11 September 1944
Commissioned, USS ATA-185, 16 November 1944
Named, USS Koka (ATA-185), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register in 1971
Final Disposition, sold for commercial service to Samoan American Tug Co. in 1971
19xx sold to Guam Marine Department and renamed Taliga
1984 for sale in Seattle area
Koka as ATA-185 received one battle star for World War II service
Specifications :
Displacement 534 t.
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 48
Armament one single 3"/50 gun mount, two 20mm gun mounts
15
Koka
Originally designated as ATR-112, she was redesignated as ATA-185 on 15 May 1944; launched 11 September
1944, by Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, Tex.; and commissioned on 16 November, Lt. (j.g.) Woodrow Sullivan
in command.
After shakedown in the Gulf of Mexico, ATA-185 departed Galveston 14 December for duty in the Pacific. She
reached Eniwetok, Marshalls, 26 February 1945; and for more than 5 months she operated out of Eniwetok; Guam
and Saipan, Marianas; Ulithi, Carolines; and Kerama, Ryukyus, while performing a variety of towing services. After a
month of target sled towing duty at Guam, ATA-185 departed 4 August for Okinawa, where she arrived 11 August with
two barges in tow. As a unit of SerRon 12, she performed tug and salvage operations in Buckner Bay until 3
November when she departed for the United States. Steaming via Eniwetok and Pearl Harbor, she arrived San
Francisco 1 February 1946 with YNG-30 and YNG-38 in tow.
Clearing San Francisco Bay 22 March, ATA-185 reached Pearl Harbor 13 April to prepare for participation in atomic
weapons tests in the Marshall Islands. Departing Pearl 11 May, she assisted in mooring target ships for Operation
"Crossroads" at Bikini Atoll. After the tests she recovered radiological instruments from various target ships, including
Nevada (BB-36), former German cruiser Prinz Eugen , and former Japanese battleship Nagato . Departing Bikini 5
September, she reached Pearl Harbor 20 September then underwent a 4-month overhaul.
Koka (ATA-185) underway, date and place unknown. (photo US Navy photo)
ATA-185 departed Pearl Harbor 20 January 1947, and arrived San Diego 3 February with LCI-1062 in tow. Assigned
to the 11th Naval District for coastal towing, she has operated out of San Diego since 1947. Renamed Koka (ATA185) on 16 July 1948, most of her towing assignments have carried her to Long Beach, Port Hueneme, San Pedro,
and San Francisco. Over the years she has traveled the Pacific coast from California to Alaska while towing barges
and district craft to Kodiak, Alaska; Seattle, Wash.; and Portland and Astoria, Oregon. Koka continues her coastal
towing out of San Diego for the 11th Naval District into 1967.
16
Koka as ATA-185 received one battle star for World War II service.
ATR113
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Laid down (date unknown) as the Ocean Rescue Tug ATR-113 at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX.
(yn353)
Reclassified as Auxiliary Fleet Tug ATA-186, 15 May 1944
Commissioned USS ATA-186, 24 November 1944
Named USS Cahokia (ATA-186), 16 July 1948
Struck from the Naval Register, 15 April 1976
Sold to Taiwan under the Security Assistance Program, 1 May 1976, renamed ROCS Ta Teng (ATA-367),
redesignated (ATA-550) date unknown
Final Disposition, discarded by Taiwan, date unknown
Specifications :
Displacement 534 t.
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Armament two twin 40mm gun mounts
Cahokia
An Indian tribe belonging to the Illinois Confederacy.
The second Cahokia (ATA-186) was laid down as ATR-113, reclassified ATA-186 on 15 May 1944, and launched 18
September 1944 by Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, Tex.; and commissioned 24 November 1944, Lieutenant J. T.
Dillon, USNR, in command. She was assigned the name Cahokia 16 July 1948.
Cahokia sailed from Galveston, Tex., 23 December 1944, for the Canal Zone, San Francisco, and then for Pearl
Harbor 4 March 1945, and assumed towing duty between Ulithi, Manus, Leyte, the Russell Islands, and Okinawa, until 8
September when she arrived in Tokyo Bay. She supported the occupation of Japan until 14 October, when she sailed
from Yokosuka for Okinawa, arriving 17 October. She had duty at Okinawa, with a brief period at Shanghai and Jinsen
until 22 April 1946. On 4 May Cahokia departed Sasebo for Manus and Pearl Harbor. After almost a month in Pearl,
she sailed for San Francisco, arriving 15 July for duty with the 12th Naval District.
Cahokia (ATA-186) steams alongside Hancock (CVA-19) as the carrier heads down San Francisco Bay towards her
homeport of NAS Alameda. Hancock was returning from a deployment to Vietnam. (US Navy photo)
Cahokia undertook a variety of assignments through 1950. In January 1951, she assisted in the sinking of
Independence (CVL-22) in an experimental underwater explosion test off San Francisco. Between 16 and 18 June
1954, she delivered water to Alcatraz Penitentiary when the prison's water system failed, and on 1 April 1955, she
17
assisted in quelling a serious fire in San Francisco's Ferry Building. Her duties since have included coastal towing duty,
search and rescue operations, target towing, and dumping atomic waste material for the U.S. Naval Radiological
Defense Laboratory at San Francisco .
ATR114
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Projected as Rescue Ocean Tug ATR-114
Laid down, 29 August 1944, as ATA-187, at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX. (yn354)
Commissioned, USS ATA-187, 7 December 1944. Lt. Thomas G. Lewis in command
Named USS Salish (ATA-187), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned, 10 February 1972
Struck from the Naval Register, 1 February 1975
Transferred (sold) to Argentina, 1 February 1975, under the Security Assistance Program, renamed ARA
Alferez Sobral (A9)
1982 damaged in Falkland War. Repaired
1984 stricken
Current Disposition in service in the Argentine Navy as of 2004
ATA-187 received one battle star for her World War II service
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Armament one single 3"/50 gun mount two twin 40mm AA gun mounts
Salish
An Indian tribe of Montana.
ATA-187 (ex-ATR-114) was laid down on 29 August 1944 by the Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, Tex.;
launched on 29 September 1944; and commissioned on 7 December 1944, Lt. Thomas G. Lewis in command.
Designated for duty with Service Division 101 in the Pacific, ATA-187 completed shakedown early in January 1945, and
departed New Orleans for Hawaii on the 18th with APL-10 in tow. She reached Pearl Harbor on 4 March;
exchanged the barracks ship for two lighters; and continued across the Pacific. At Guam, she changed tows
again and sailed for the Ryukyus pulling two floating derricks. On 22 April, she delivered her charges to the Hagushi
anchorage, Okinawa; then, retraced her route back to Guam, whence she made a second run, with a power
barge and a yard ferry, to Okinawa. She completed that run at Buckner Bay on 22 May; assisted in downing an
enemy bomber the next day; and, at the end of the month, departed for Ulithi and the Philippines. From the
former, she towed an oil barge and two lighters to the latter, arriving in San Pedro Bay, Leyte, on 27 June.
Then ordered east, the ocean-going, auxiliary tug cleared San Pedro Bay in mid-July and entered San Francisco Bay
on 17 August, two days after the cessation of hostilities in the Pacific. Overhaul took her into September; and, on the
12th, she resumed towing activities with a run from Astoria, Oreg., to Pearl Harbor. During October, she delivered
barracks ships to Eniwetok. In November, she commenced target towing services for surface and aviation units
training in Hawaiian waters. In April 1946, she completed a run between Hawaii and California; then returned to
Hawaii to prepare for Operation "Crossroads," the atomic bomb test series scheduled for the summer at Bikini.
In May, the ATA joined Joint Task Force I and moved into the Marshalls, where, into the fall, she provided towing
services. On 26 November 1946, the tug received final radiological clearance and headed for New Orleans, her new
home port.
On 20 January 1947, the ATA, named Salish on 16 July 1948, arrived at New Orleans, her base for the next 14
years. During that period, towing activities, for the active and reserve fleets, took her between gulf, east
coast, and Caribbean ports. Support operations saw her off the Texas coast for radio experiments run by the
University of Texas between July and September 1947; off the Virginia capes and in the British West Indies for
survey and cable laying operations from June to December 1956 and from October to December 1959; in the
Bahamas for mooring operations in May and June 1959; and in the Bermuda Islands for cable laying operations
from June to September 1960.
18
In July 1961, Salish was transferred to the east coast and, for the next ten years, was homeported at Mayport,
Fla. From there, she continued her diverse towing operations; but, was assigned, more frequently than before, to
support experimental projects, including the MONOB I and Flip projects, and to cable-laying and mooring
operations off the Florida coast, in the Bermuda area, and in the Caribbean.
Ready for rescue and assistance operations throughout her career, she was herself the recipient of aid in October
1963 when she was damaged by hurricane “Ginny” while towing a DE. Relieved of her tow by a Coast Guard tug,
she underwent repairs and, in November, resumed her services to the fleet. Two of her most notable salvage
missions came in April 1966 and in January 1971. During the first, she assisted fire-fighting and salvage
operations for MV Viking Princess which was located, on fire and drifting, in the Windward Passage. The second
involved the storm damaged Brazilian freighter, Amazonia, loaded with lye, malt, raw plastics, bulk newsprint,
and heavy mining equipment. For the latter operation, conducted off Bermuda, she was awarded the Meritorious Unit
Commendation.
In November 1971, Salish returned to Mayport from three weeks duty providing services to Fleet Training Group,
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and prepared for transfer to the Argentine Navy. She was decommissioned on 10
February 1972; transferred the same day; and recommissioned in the Argentine Navy as Alferez Sobral.
ATA-187 received one battle star for her World War II service.
Salish (ATA-187) passing under the Golden Gate Bridge as she returns to San Francisco from Operation "Cross Roads", Bikini
Atoll, October 1946. (photo David Stinson)
ATR115
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Laid down, 11 September 1944, as Rescue Ocean Tug (ATR-115) at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange,
TX. (yn355)
Launched, 12 October 1944
Commissioned USS ATA-188, 12 December 1944
Named, USS Penobscot (ATA-188), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned in 1971
Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet
Sold in 19?? To American Offshore Inc. – St.Louis (Source: Tugs of the World 1994/1995 page 20), Renamed
American Patriot, Callsign WTE8457
Final Disposition, sold for scrapping by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS), 1 December
1975 ???
Specifications :
Displacement 534 t.
Speed 13 kts.
19
Complement 45
Penobscot
An Indian tribe of Algonquian stock, inhabitants of eastern Maine.
The third Penobscot (ATA–188), an auxiliary ocean tug, was laid down as ATR–115 by Levingston Shipbuilding Co.,
Orange, Tex. 11 September 1944; launched 12 October; and placed in service 12 December.
Following shakedown Penobscot was designated for duty in the Far East. Assigned homeyard at Pearl Harbor, she
provided extensive advanced base towing services and called at numerous islands as events in the march towards
victory in the Pacific reached a crescendo. With the end of hostilities, the ocean tug operated for a short time out of
Chinese ports.
Penobscot (ATA-188) underway, date and place unknown (photo Harry Jaeger)
In April 1946 Penobscot returned to home waters and was assigned to the 3rd Naval District. From this point she
commenced a lengthy career of east coast towing operations. As a 3rd Naval District ship homeported at New York
and berthed at the Naval Supply Center, Bayonne, N.J., she spends an average of half of each year away from home
port, ranging from Maine to the Caribbean Islands.
20
In addition to towing assignments, Penobscot conducts torpedo and mine recovery operations, and provides a wide
range of services to ships of the Fleet. One demonstration of her operational flexibility occurred in May 1967 when she
assisted USNS Mission Capistrano in oceanographic research off Bermuda.
In July 1967 she shifted from the 3rd Naval District List to the Service Force, Atlantic Fleet. After overhaul at Coastal
Shipyard and Drydock Co., Staten Island, N.Y., that autumn, Penobscot resumed her multifarious tasks, nearly every
aspect of which involves the rendering of service to the Fleet. Into 1970 she remains active with the Service Force,
Atlantic Fleet.
ATR116
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Projected as ATR-116
Laid down, as ATA-189, 18 September 1944, at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX. (yn356)
Launched 19 October 1944
Commissioned USS Raindeer (ATA-189), 20 December 1944
Decommissioned, 29 August 1947, at Orange TX.
Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Texas Group; Orange until 21 November 1948, Galveston until June
1958
Towed to Green Cove Springs FL. for lay up 25 June 1958.
Transferred to the Maritime Administration in March 1961, for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet,
James River, Fort Eustus, VA.
1974 sold to Arctic Sea Food Corporation
Final Disposition, fate unknown..
Specifications :
Length 143'; Beam 33' 10": Draft 13' 2"
Speed 13kts
Complement 45
Armament one single 3"/50 gun mount, two 20mm gun mounts
Propulsion, diesel-electric engines, single screw.
Raindeer
The third Reindeer (ATA-189), originally projected as ATR-116, was laid down by the Levingston Shipbuilding Co.,
Orange, Tex., 18 September 1944; launched 19 October 1944; and commissioned 20 December 1944.
Following shakedown in the Gulf of Mexico, Reindeer transited the Panama Canal, 30 January 1945, and arrived at
Pearl Harbor 11 March. She then undertook towing operations to Eniwetok, Guam, Ulithi, Leyte, Guadalcanal,
Hollandia, and back to Leyte where she was at war's end. Shifting to Okinawa in mid-September, she operated there
until December, then moved on to Guam for operations until April 1946. She returned to Pearl Harbor 30 May via
Manus and Kwajalein.
Operating out of San Diego and San Pedro from July through September, she transited the Panama Canal in October,
reached Norfolk 2 November, then steamed to Orange, Tex., arriving 19 November. She was employed by the 19th
Fleet for the next year and a half on towing assignments along the Gulf Coast from Galveston, Tex., to Mayport, Fla.,
and up to Charleston (in February 1947). Inactivation followed and she decommissioned at Orange, Tex., 29 August
1947. A unit of the "mothball" fleet, she was berthed at Orange until moved to Galveston, 21 November 1948, and
finally to Green Cove Springs, Fla., 25 June 1958. She remained berthed at Green Cove Springs until transferred to
the Maritime Administration in March 1961, and berthed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at James River, Va.,
where she remained until 1970.
ATR117
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Planned and authorized as Rescue Ocean Tug ATR-117
Reclassified Auxiliary Fleet Tug ATA-190,15 May 1944
Laid down, 29 September 1944 at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX. (yn357)
Commissioned USS ATA-190, 1 January 1945, LTjg. Elmo D. Twiehaus in command
21
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Named USS Samoset (ATA-190), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned, 12 September 1969
Transferred to the Maritime Administration for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River, Fort
Eustis, VA.
Transferred, cash sale, to Haiti under the Security Assistance Program, 1 October 1978 Renamed Henri
Christophe (MM20)
Struck from the Naval Register, 1 July 1978
Samoset as ATA-190 earned one battle star for World War II service
Specifications :
Speed 12.5 kts.
Complement 45
Samoset
An Indian chief who deeded some 12,000 acres in present-day Maine to the English in July 1625. He died
after 1653 and was buried near Bristol, Maine.
ATA-190, originally projected as ATR-117, was laid down on 29 September 1944 by the Levingston Shipbuilding Co.,
Orange, Tex.; launched on 26 October 1944; and commissioned on 1 January 1945, Lt. (jg.) Elmo D. Twiehaus in
command.
Following shakedown, ATA-190, an auxiliary ocean tug, proceeded to Panama; thence, with YN-108 in tow,
continued on to Pearl Harbor. Arriving on 4 March, she departed 10 days later; and, on 9 April, she delivered
her tows, a YF and a barge, to Guam. Joining ServRon 10 there, she got underway again on the 20th; and, by the
end of the month, had delivered a pontoon barge to Kenmu Wan, Okinawa. On 3 May, she shifted to the Hagushi
anchorage. On the 5th, she proceeded to Kerama Retto. On the 6th, she sailed southeast; and, during the remaining
months of World War II, she took tows from the Carolines and the New Hebrides to the Philippines and, from the
latter, escorted a convoy of landing craft to Okinawa.
When the war ended in mid-August, the ATA was at San Pedro Bay, Philippines. In early September, she moved up to
Okinawa again, then proceeded to Japan, anchoring off Wakayama on the 8th. For the next month, she assisted
the minecraft sweeping the entrance to Kii Suido and participated in harbor clearance salvage operations in the
wake of a typhoon. In October, she shifted to Nagoya; again assisted in opening shipping lanes to peacetime traffic,
then commenced guide-and-pilot-vessel duties in that area.
In December, ATA-190 shifted to Yokosuka; assisted in rebuilding facilities there; and, in March 1946, she got
underway for the United States. Steaming via Okinawa, Peleliu, Subic Bay, and Pearl Harbor, she arrived in San
Francisco Bay on 29 July; transited the Panama Canal in mid-September; and moored at Norfolk on the 26th.
The ATA, assigned to the 10th Naval District, commenced towing operations out of Puerto Rico at the end of
October. For the next three years, she operated primarily in the Caribbean, with occasional tows to, and temporary
duty at, ports on the southeast coast of the United States. Named Samoset on 16 July 1948, she was assigned to
22
the 5th Naval District in November 1949 and arrived at her new homeport, Norfolk, in mid-December. From that time,
through the 1950's, and until August of 1969, she provided towing services for that district; for various commands of
the Atlantic Fleet; and in support of Office of Naval Research and Oceanographic Office projects.
On 12 August 1969, Samoset was ordered inactivated. A month later, on 12 September, she was decommissioned
at Norfolk; and, on 3 December 1970, she was transferred to the custody of the Maritime Administration and
berthed in the James River as a unit of the National Defense Reserve Fleet, where she remains as of 30 June
1974.
ATA-190 earned one battle star for World War II service
Samoset (ATA-190) underway from Naval Station Norfolk, circa 1963. (US Navy photo)
ATR118
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Laid down, (date unknown) as Rescue Ocean Tug ATR-118, at Levingston Shipbuilding Corp., Orange, TX.
(yn358)
Launched, (date unknown)
Delivered, 1 January 1945
During World War II ATA-191 was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater
Following World War II ATA-191 performed occupation duty in the Far East
ATA-191 was sunk at Okinawa during "Typhoon Louise," 9 October 1945
Refloated, 14 October 1945
Struck from the Naval Register, 1946
Final Disposition, disposed of in 1946, fate unknown
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
23
ATR119
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Planned as Rescue Ocean Tug (ATR-119)
Laid down as Auxiliary Fleet Tug ATA-192, 19 October 1944, at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX.
(yn359)
Launched, 15 November 1944
Commissioned, USS ATA-192, 23 January 1945, LTjg W. C. Heck in command
Named, USS Tillamook (ATA-192), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned, 1 July 1971
Transferred (leased) to the Republic of Korea under the provisions of the Military Assistance Program
Ex-Tillamook served the ROK Coast and Geodetic Survey until 1976
Returned to US Naval custody in 1976
Final Disposition, disposed of Navy sale, fate unknown
Tillamook earned nine campaign stars for Vietnam War service
1973: 'TAN YANG', Taiwan navy ???
Specifications :
Displacement 534 t.
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Armament one single 3"/50 gun mount, two single 20mm gun mounts
Tillamook
The third Tillamook (ATA-192) was laid down as ATA-192 on 19 October 1944 at Orange, Tex., by the Levingston
Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 15 November 1944; and commissioned on 23 January 1945, Lt. (jg-) W. C. Heck in
command.
After shakedown training in the Gulf of Mexico, ATA-192 departed Galveston, Tex., on 21 February, transited the
Panama Canal a week later and headed north. After visits to Acapulco, Mexico; San Diego, Calif.; and Portland,
Oreg., the tug arrived in Pearl Harbor on 28 April. On 10 May, ATA-192 sailed for duty in the western Pacific.
During the waning days of World War II, she towed ships between various anchorages in the western Pacific. She
visited Guam late in June and Okinawa in mid-July. From there, the tug moved south to Leyte in the Philippines,
where she remained from 20 to 30 July. Early in August, she headed eastward and proceeded via Ulithi and Pearl
Harbor to the west coast. The tug arrived in San Francisco on 1 September at the time of Japan's formal surrender
ceremony in Tokyo Bay, across the Pacific and the international date line.
After almost a month in port at San Francisco, ATA— 192 got underway for Pearl Harbor bound for the atomic
bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshalls. ATA-192 spent four months in the Marshalls during Operation
"Crossroads." She ferried personnel, helped fight fires caused by the tests and, on one occasion, towed the former
Japanese battleship Nagato, once Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's flagship as Commander in Chief, Combined Fleet.
During her stay in the Mar-shalls, the tug also was a frequent visitor to Kwaja-lein and Eniwetok Atolls. On 8
September 1946, she left Kwajalein lagoon to return to the United States. After a five-day stopover at Pearl Harbor,
she reached San Francisco on 12 October and began the procedure for her post-test radiological clearance.
On 15 November, she departed San Francisco and headed north. After stops at Bremerton and Seattle in
Washington, ATA-192 arrived at Kodiak, Alaska, on New Year's Day 1947 to begin an extended tour of duty in the
17th Naval District. In February, she underwent repairs at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard; and, early in March,
she returned to Alaskan waters. Over the next 10 years, she steamed between various ports in Alaska and along
the Aleutians chain. On 31 May 1948, she was named Tillamook. For the first half of her decade in Alaskan waters,
Tillamook operated out of Kodiak and, after 25 April 1952, out of Adak. In addition to the usual towing operations,
the ship also conducted search and rescue missions. On 27 May 1957, Tillamook was ordered out of commission, in
reserve. However, that order was rescinded on the following day, and she was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet for
duty with the Service Force, Pacific Fleet. From then until well into the fall of 1960, the tug was homeported at Pearl
Harbor and conducted towing operations for the Pacific Fleet Service Force.
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In November 1960, she was reassigned again, this time to Far Eastern waters guarded by the 7th Fleet. On 17
November, Tillamook reached Japan at her new home port, Yokosuka. During her first four years in the western
Pacific, she performed towing operations between such bases as Sasebo, Yokosuka, and Subic Bay. The highlight of
this period of duty was a visit to Sihanoukville, Cambodia, in April of 1962. Late in 1964, when the American
presence in Vietnam began to increase, Tillamook also began to visit the ports of that nation. However, her
missions in Vietnamese waters up to 1965 were brief port visits to deliver tows at such places as Danang.
During 1965, however, the tug began to participate in combat operations in the expanding conflict in Southeast Asia.
In February, she assisted the disabled Coast Guard cutter Chautauqua (WPG-41) into Yokosuka for repairs and
then returned to combat operations along the Vietnamese coast. In April, Tillamook joined the surveillance forces
attempting to interdict enemy infiltration and coastwise logistics operations. She assisted a South Vietnamese Navy
patrol boat, PC-04, in destroying enemy junks beached near Vung Ro. In August, she resumed operations towing
district and landing craft between various Far Eastern bases and did not return to Vietnamese waters until
December when she towed YFNB-2 and YR-71 from Subic Bay to Danang. Tillamook visited Vietnam again in
January of 1966 when she brought a barge into Camranh Bay.
Tillamook (ATA-192), underway, date and place unknown. (photo US Navy photo)
After another period of towing operations outside of the combat zone, the tug rejoined the American naval
forces in Vietnam in August of 1966. She provided gunfire support for forces operating on the Long Tau branch of the
Saigon River. In December, while attempting to retrieve a drifting barge, four of her crew became separated from
the ship. In the night, the barge drifted ashore, and Tillamook provided covering fire through the night to protect the
four sailors from nearby enemy troops. The following morning, a small landing craft rescued the men. Tillamook
returned to Subic Bay soon thereafter. While in Subic, the tug answered a call for a rescue mission with only the duty
section embarked. The call came in around 2200 one evening, and the tug got underway immediately to rendezvous
with SS Enid Victory which was unable to return to port because of a damaged engine. Tillamook brought the
merchantman safely back to Subic Bay. During 1967, Tillamook made three short visits to Vietnam—one to Vung
Tau in mid-March, another to Danang in late June, and the third to Vung Tau again early in December.
However, she spent most of the year occupied with routine operations in Japanese and Philippine waters. The year
1968 was much the same—though highlighted by a visit to Singapore in June and three short visits to Danang,
one each in the months of January, June, and September. In 1969 and 1970, Tillamook made only four brief stops
in Vietnam—at either Vung Tau or Danang. Her routine of tows between Japan and the Philippines was broken only
by an escort mission to Keelung, Taiwan, in mid-September of 1970.
The year 1971 was Tillamook's last as a commissioned Navy ship. In January and February, she operated in
Japanese waters out of Yokosuka. Early in March, she made another round-trip voyage to Keelung and returned to
Japan at Sasebo on the 19th. The following day, she began a voyage that took her to Pusan, Korea, and Buckner
Bay, Okinawa, before she returned to Yokosuka on the 28th. The tug remained in port in Yokosuka for the
brief duration of her Navy career. On 1 July 1971, Tillamook was decommissioned at Yokosuka and was leased to
the Republic of Korea (ROK) under the provisions of the Military Assistance Program. She served the ROK Coast
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and Geodetic Survey until 1976 when she was scheduled to be returned to the United States Navy for final
disposition. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 15 April 1976.
Tillamook earned two battle stars during the Vietnam War.
ATR120
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Reclassified Auxiliary Fleet Tug ATA-193, 15 May 1944
Laid down, 26 October 1944, at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX. (yn360)
Commissioned, USS ATA-193, 1 February 1945, LT. Allen Oliver in command
Decommissioned, 1 September 1946, at Orange, TX.
Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Orange, TX.
Named USS Stallion (ATA-193), 16 July 1948
Recommissioned, 19 July 1949
Decommissioned in October 1969, at Norfolk, VA.
Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Norfolk, Group
Custody transferred to the Maritime Commission in December 1970 for lay up in the National Defense
Reserve Fleet, James River, Fort Eustis, VA.
Transferred, in 1980 to the Dominican Republic under the Security Assistance Program and renamed
Enriquillo (RM-22)
Struck from the Naval Register, 10 June 1997
Current Disposition, active in the Dominican Republic Navy
1969: 'ENIRQUILLO RM 22', Dominican Republic Navy ????
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Stallion
The second Stallion was laid down on 26 October 1944 at Orange, Tex., by the Levingston Shipbuilding Co. as
ATA-193; launched on 24 November 1944; and commissioned on 1 February 1945, Lt. Allen Oliver in command.
The tug completed shakedown along the Gulf coast out of Galveston, Tex., between 11 February and 2 March. On
the following day, she towed Army barges to New Orleans and, after a five-day stay, got underway for the Panama
Canal. ATA-193 arrived in the Canal Zone on 17 March and departed on 3 April. She reached San Diego on 25 April
and Pearl Harbor on 17 May. On the 29th, she continued west and stopped at Eniwetok, Saipan, and Guam,
before reaching Okinawa on 11 July. The tug served at Okinawa with Service Squadron 10 until 29 July. She
headed via Saipan to Pearl Harbor and arrived on 24 August. Six days later, ATA-193 sailed west again, stopped
at Saipan and Okinawa, and returned to Pearl Harbor on 24 October.
She remained there until 1 March 1946; then got underway for San Diego where she arrived on the 20th. Eight
days later, ATA-193 sailed for Panama. She transited the canal between 14 and 17 June and continued on to
Jacksonville, Fla., then to New Orleans and Orange, Tex., arriving on 13 August 1946. She decommissioned
there on 1 September 1946. ATA-193 was named Stallion in July 1948 and remained inactive at Orange as a
unit of the 16th (Reserve) Fleet until 19 July 1949, when she was recpmmissioned, Lt. A. E. Belch in command. She
was assigned to the Commander, Hydrographic Survey, to operate in the Persian Gulf. After short visits to Norfolk
and New York, the tug got underway for the Mediterranean on 1 October 1949. Stallion spent 27 of the next 32
months operating in the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. In addition to Kuwait, Bahrein, and Aden, she
visited Port Said, Suez, and Karachi during her tour in the Middle East. Stallion returned to Norfolk on 29 May
1952.
For the next three years, the tug was administratively assigned to the 5th Naval District but was operationally
controlled by the Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL), White Oak, Md. She operated out of Fort Monroe, Va., and
Port Everglades, Fla., assisting NOL in ordnance evaluation tests. On 7 March 1955, Stallion was reassigned to the
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6th Naval District administratively, but remained under the operational control of NOL. She operated primarily out
of her new home port, Port Everglades, Fla., in conjunction with the Naval Ordnance Test Facility located nearby.
She participated in mine evaluation tests conducted in the Bahama Islands and along the coast of Florida,
particularly around Panama City and Fort Lauderdale.
Stallion (ATA-193) moored pierside, date and place unknown. (photo US Navy photo)
On 22 May 1959, Stallion came under the operational control of the 6th Naval District. Although she continued to
be associated with the projects of the Naval Ordnance Test Facility at Fort Lauderdale, her participation came to be
more on a single project basis with the tug concentrating more often on duty for the naval district. On 1 July 1967,
Stallion's homeport was changed to Charleston, S.C., and she spent increasingly greater portions of her time
engaged in ocean towing, off-shore salvage, and rescue salvage operations. On 1 October 1968, Stallion was placed in
reduced operational status at Charleston.
Stallion was decommissioned at Norfolk, Va., in October 1969 and joined the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. In
December of 1970, she was transferred to the custody of the Maritime Administration but remained under
Navy ownership. As of 30 June 1974, she was laid up with the National Defense Reserve Fleet at James
River, Va.
ATR121
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NIJB
Laid down, 7 November 1944, as Rescue Ocean Tug (ATR-121) at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX.
(yn361)
Launched, 4 December 1943
Commissioned USS ATA-194, 14 February 1944, LTjg. William J. Bryan in command
Named, USS Bagaduce (ATA-194), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned, 17 July 1953, at Seattle, WA.
Transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service and placed in service as USNS Bagaduce (T-ATA-194)
Placed out of service and transferred to the Maritime Administration (MARAD), for lay up in its National
Defense Reserve Flee at Olympia, WA., 25 August 1958
Transferred to the US Coast Guard and commissioned Medium Endurance Cutter USCGC Modoc (W-194),
15 April 1959 on loan
1 June 1969 U.S. Coast Guard Modoc (WMEC-194)
Decommissioned, 31 May 1979
Struck from the Coast Guard Vessel Register and sold (date unknown)
1980 sold to Marine Power & Equipment, Seattle
Present Disposition, renamed Modoc Pearl currently in use as a Bed and Breakfast at Gig Harbor, WA
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Specifications :
Displacement 835 t.
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Armament one single 3"/50 gun mount two single 20mm AA gun mounts
Bagaduce
A peninsula on the Atlantic coast in Hancock County, Maine. The word is a corruption of Abadusets, the name of a
tribe of Indians from that area, and of Abagadusset, the name of a tributary of Maine's Kennebec River.
The auxiliary ocean tug ATA-194 was laid down on 7 November 1944 at Orange, Texas, by the Levingston Ship
Building Co.; launched 4 December 1944; and commissioned at Orange on 14 February 1945, Lieutenant (j.g.)
William J. Bryan in command.
After shakedown training, ATA-194 sailed for the Pacific with equipment in tow. She transited the Panama Canal late
in March and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 29 April. After two berth shifting operations early in May, the tug got
underway on the 23d with barracks craft in tow, bound for the western Pacific. Steaming by way of Eniwetok, Guam,
and Saipan, ATA-194 arrived at Leyte, Philippines, on 9 July. The auxiliary tug operated in the central Pacific through
September, towing equipment between Kwajalein, Eniwetok and Guam.
ATA-194 arrived at Buckner Bay, Okinawa, on 14 October, just before a typhoon struck the anchorage on the 15th
and caused severe damage among the assembled ships. As a consequence, she spent the next month aiding
warships and support craft damaged in that storm. These salvage operations included retracting two LCIs from the
beach and a YMS from a reef. Assigned to the Philippine Sea Frontier, the tug remained in the Far East into the
following year. In the spring of 1946, she supported preparations for Operation Crossroads, a two-detonation
atmospheric nuclear test held that summer at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. She returned to the west coast in
late May and moored at Seattle, Wash., on 15 June.
Reassigned to the 17th Naval District, ATA-194 sailed for duty in Alaskan waters later that summer. Aside from an
overhaul at Puget Sound in the summer of 1947, the tug operated for the next six years out of the Alaskan ports of
Kodiak, Cold Bay, Adak, Anchorage, Attu and Dutch Harbor. She was named Bagaduce on 15 July 1948. Upon
arrival in Seattle on 2 July 1953, she was transferred to the 13th Naval District and ordered to prepare for assignment
to the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS).
Bagaduce was decommissioned on 17 July 1953 and transferred to MSTS on 31 August. Assigned to the northern
Pacific, she returned to the Kodiak area for another five years of towing duty. The tug was transferred to the Maritime
Administration, for lay up in its National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) at Olympia, Wash., on 25 August 1958. Her
name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register that same day and she was later transferred to the Coast Guard.
Modoc
The Modoc was originally laid down at the Levingston Shipbuilding Company of Orange, Texas, as the ATR-1 Class
Rescue Tug ATR-121. She was reclassified as an auxiliary fleet tug with the designation and hull number ATA-194 on
15 May 1943. She was launched on 4 December 1943 and was commissioned as USS ATA-194 on 15 February
1944. She then began service with the Navy in the Pacific in the waters around Guam during World War II. She was
transferred to the Military Sea Transport Service (MSTS) as USNS T-ATA-194 in 1946, where she was still "owned"
by the Navy but sailed with a civilian crew. She was given the name USS Bagaduce (T-ATA-194) on 16 December
1948. While based out of Kodiak, Alaska, she was dispatched to tow the disabled CGC Storis back to port.
Bagaduce was decommissioned and placed out of service sometime in 1952. She was tied up with the Reserve Fleet
in Olympia, Washington.
She was transferred to the Coast Guard and was commissioned under the command of LT Clarence J. Pare, Jr., as
USCGC Modoc on 20 April 1959. She then reported to her home port of Coos Bay, where she replaced the aging
125-foot cutter Bonham. Bonham's crew had cross-decked to Modoc and a rumor from the time was that her
commissioning had been ordered so quickly that there had not been sufficient time to paint over her entire Navy gray
hull and only the shore-side of Modoc was painted white. She was designated as WATA-194. From 1959 to 1969
she was stationed at Coos Bay, Oregon where she was used for coastal and off-shore search and rescue,
oceanography, and law enforcement duties, primarily fisheries enforcement. Her normal area of operations extended
from the California-Oregon border to Canada and she was also occasionally called upon to patrol the Gulf of Alaska.
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When not underway, Modoc was on continual alert and was capable of getting underway within two hours to proceed
to a vessel in distress. A unit history written by an anonymous crewman sometime in the mid-1970s noted:
ex Bagaduce (ATA-194) underway in commission as USCGC Modoc (WMEC-194), date and location unknown
(photo Ken Laesser)
"Designed and built from the keel up along the lines of a classic European oceangoing tug, the MODOC will literally
tow anything afloat. She is fully equipped to carry out major coastal and long-range search and rescue operations,
one of her two major mission areas. MODOC's other prime mission is law enforcement. This cutter, along with other
west coast cutters, patrols the waters off Oregon, Washington, and California, locating and identifying foreign fishing
vessels. In addition, the operations and catch of these vessels are monitored and the vessels frequently boarded.
Foreign vessels found in violation of our national fisheries laws within 12 miles would be brought into port and
prosecuted in federal court. As you read this, the MODOC is on fisheries patrol performing this duty."
Her boom and heavy towing gear was removed in August 1963. Also during that month her crew assisted in a special
guard detail at Tongue Point, Oregon, during a visit by President John F. Kennedy at the dedication of the first JobCorps center on the west coast. In January 1965 she assisted the Canadian tug La Force, for which the owner's of La
Force, the Vancouver Tug Boat Company, presented the cutter with a silver tea service. On 20 September 1967 she
escorted the disabled Danish M/V Marieskou following a collision with the Chitose Maru four miles north of Cape
Flattery. Modoc was reclassified as WMEC-194 in 1968. She and her sister Comanche were the smallest cutters
designated as WMEC. On 17 March 1968 she assisted the USS Chowanoc recover her tow of DE-373 25 miles west
of Coos Bay. On 30 April 1968 she assisted following collision between the Japanese M/V Suwaharu and the Liberian
M/V Mandoil II off Oregon. On 1 August 1968 she rescued the lone survivor from the F/V Rodoma.
From 1970 until 1976 she was stationed at Coos Bay, Oregon. A patrol summary dated 17 October 1970 gives some
insight into her routine patrols: "The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter MODOC (WMEC-194) with it's crew of 5 officers and 34
enlisted personnel returned to port today after completing Law Enforcement Patrol duties off the coast of Oregon and
Washington. The ship was underway for 120 hours and traveled 955 miles . . . Thirty-six different Soviet vessels were
detected operating between 14 and 20 miles off shore from Cape Araago to Grays Harbor . . . No violations of the
contiguous fishing zone or territorial waters were detected."
On 3 June 1972 an off-duty Modoc crewman, SA James Carignan, of Olympia, Washington, drowned while attempting
to save a 12-year-old girl who had been swept away from a beach by the surf. He was posthumously awarded the
Coast Guard Medal. In January of 1974 Modoc braved 100-knot winds to assist the stricken tug Sea Racer and her
tow, the former liberty ship Arlington. In November 10 1974 she retrieved the 40-foot high special environmental data
buoy EBO-2 from the Cobb Sea Mount. On 15 May 1975 she seized the Polish 278-foot fish factory trawler Kalmar 10
miles off Monterey, California, for fishing inside the 12-mile limit and escorted her to San Francisco. A news release
about the incident noted:
"The Polish fishing vessel KALMAR, seized by the Coast Guard 10 miles off the Monterey coast early this morning
was cited for fishing inside the 12-mile limit. Homeported in Swinouj'scie, Poland, the vessel carries a crew of
approximately 70 men. The KALMAR fished off the West Coast during the 1974 foreign fishing season. It was first
observed fishing off Califonia in 1975 off Half Moon Bay on January 14 by a Coast Guard Air Station aircraft patrol
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from San Francisco. In March 1975 she was observed conducting fishing operations in the vicinity of Coos Bay,
Oregon. During April and May of this year Coast Guard patrols observed the KALMAR fishing off Point Reyes, Half
Moon Bay and Santa Cruz."
In August of 1975 Modoc safely towed the disabled East German stern-trawling factory-ship Rudolph Leonhard to
Coos Bay. In November of that year, during a severe gale, she attempted to locate the hulk of the Korean fishing
vessel Kwang Myong No. 96 that had been abandoned by her crew after a fire. The Modoc was unable to locate the
hulk and turned back after heavy seas caused 45-degree rolls that led to injuries among some of the crew and caused
structural damage.
Modoc transferred back to Coos Bay in 1977 where she remained for the remainder of her Coast Guard career. In
August 1978 she towed the disabled 48-foot Canadian sailboat Naganek to Astoria after her operator reported that his
engine had failed and that his wife had been killed attempting to enter the engine room. The Coast Guard later ruled
her death to be an accident. Modoc departed on 28 October 1978 to undergo a renovation and refurbishment period
at the Lake Union drydocks near Seattle. While returning to her home port on 18 December 1978 Modoc narrowly
avoided a collision with the loaded 810-foot tanker Arco Sag River at the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Modoc was decommissioned on 31 May 1979 at Coast Guard Base Seattle and was placed on "Inactive, Out of
Commission, In Reserve" status. Her final commanding officer was LCDR C. G. Boyer, USCG. Her crew crossdecked to her replacement, the 180-foot tender Citrus. Modoc was later sold. As of 2004, she had been renamed
Modoc Pearl and was being used as a bed and breakfast inn at Gig Harbor, Washington.
ATR122
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Laid down as a Rescue Ocean Tug (ATR-122), (date unknown) at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, TX
(yn362)
Launched, 14 December 1944; Commissioned USS ATA-195, (date unknown)
Renamed, USS Tatnuk (ATA-195), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned, (date unknown)
Struck from the Naval Register, 1 October 1976
Final disposition, sold for scrapping, 1 June 1979 by Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service.
1979 sold to Marine Power & Equipment, Seattle, renamed Marine Constructor
???? sold to Island Tug & Barge – Seattle and renamed Island Warrior
Specifications :
Displacement 534 t.
Speed 13kts
Complement 45
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Tatnuk (ATA-195) underway, date and place unknown. (photo US Navy photo)
ATR123
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Laid down, 24 November 1944, at Levingston Ship Building Co., Orange, TX. (yn 363)
Commissioned, USS ATA-196, 6 March 1945, LTjg L. Phipps in command
Named, USS Mahopac (ATA-196), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned, (date unknown)
Sold to Taiwan under the Security Assistance Program (SAP), 1 May 1976, renamed Ta Peng (ATA-549)
Mahopac earned ten campaign stars for Vietnam War service
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
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Mahopac
Lake in New York, 50 miles south by east of New York City.
Originally planned as ATR-123, ATA-196 was laid down 24 November 1944 by the Levingston Ship Building Co.,
Orange, Tex.; launched 21 December 1944; and commissioned 6 March 1945, Lt. (jg.) L. Phipps in command.
Upon completion of shakedown and underway training, ATA-196 departed for the Pacific. From May through
November 1945 she participated in towing operations in the central and western Pacific. She then proceeded to the
north Pacific for towing and search air rescue duties with the Alaskan Sea frontier. While serving in that area, she was
named Mahopac 16 July 1948. The ocean going tug remained under the operational control of the commanding
officer, U.S. Naval Station. Kodiak Island, Alaska, until May 1957. On 13 May, Mahopac departed Kodiak for Astoria,
Oreg., for inactivation. En route she received new orders canceling inactivation and changing her homeport to
Yokosuka, Japan, effective 1 July 1957.
Mahopac departed San Francisco for the western Pacific 22 July 1957 with barges in tow. Transferring the barges at
Eniwetok atoll 28 August, she continued on to Yokosuka, arriving 7 September. She then performed towing and drone
operations for the Fleet Training Group. Through 1964, her duties took her as far as Subic Bay in the Philippines; her
1965 to 1969 assignments have extended her cruises to include periodic tours off the coast of Vietnam in support of
7th Fleet operations there.
Mahopac (ATA-196) underway, date and place unknown. (US Navy photo)
ATR124
NIJR
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Laid down, 4 December 1944, at Levingston Ship Building Co., Orange, TX. (yn364)
Launched, 6 February 1945
Commissioned USS ATA-197, 15 March 1945
Named USS Sunnadin (ATA-197), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register, 20 November 1969, at Pearl Harbor, HI.
Final Disposition, sold in February 1971 to Flynn-Learner, Honolulu, HI., fate unknown
Sold in 1971 to Luzon Stevedoring Company, Manila, renamed Kahuna,
Sold in 1981 to 1981 Safesea Shipping International Ltd., Panama Kahuna,
Sunnadin earned three campaign stars for Vietnam service
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
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Complement 45
Sunnadin
An Anglicized spelling of the Huron Indian town, Sunyendeand.
ATA-197 was laid down on 4 December 1944 at Orange, Tex., by the Levingston Shipbuilding Co.;
launched on 6 January 1945; and commissioned on 15 March 1945.
ATA-197 made her shakedown cruise from Galveston, Tex., in late March and early April. She reported for duty on
11 April, then was ordered to the Pacific. The tug transited the Panama Canal on 25 April and, two days short of a
month later, arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She departed Pearl Harbor on 1 June and voyaged through the
central Pacific to Eniwetok, Guam, Okinawa, and Saipan, towing various craft at and between those islands. On 10
August she cleared Saipan for Pearl Harbor, where she arrived two weeks later. On the 28th, she continued her
voyage to San Francisco, arriving there on 5 September. A month later, she headed back to Hawaii and entered
Pearl Harbor again on 15 October.
Sunnadin (ATA-197) underway at Pearl Harbor, HI., date unknown. (US Navy photo)
Soon after her return to Hawaii, ATA-197 was assigned to duty with the 14th Naval District, out of Pearl Harbor.
With the exception of a short tour of duty with the 11th Naval District out of San Diego in 1946, she spent the
next twenty years towing Navy ships between the bases in the 14th Naval District. On 16 July 1948. she was
named Sunnadin, the second Navy tug to bear that name. Though her duties were concentrated in the Hawaiian
Islands, Sunnadin periodically cruised to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. More often though, her ports of
call were Pearl Harbor, Palmyra Island, and Johnston Island.
On 13 October 1965, Sunnadin deployed to the western Pacific. There she participated in a hydrographic survey
operation conducted by the Naval Oceano-graphic Office in the South China Sea. During that survey she entered
the Vietnam combat zone, but saw no action. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 1 March 1966 and resumed normal
towing duties, making one tow to Guam in the Marianas in July. On 5 October 1966, the tug was reassigned from
the 14th Naval District to the Service Force, Pacific Fleet. Sunnadin served this organization for three years, still
operating from Pearl Harbor. In early 1968, she made a voyage to American Samoa and Canton Island. In the fall
of 1969, an Inspection and Survey Board determined that Sunnadin was unfit for further naval service and, on 20
November 1969, she was decommissioned at Pearl Harbor; and her name was struck from the Navy list. Her hulk was
sold to Flynn-Learner, of Honolulu, in February 1971.
Sunnadin (ATA-197) earned one battle star for service in Vietnam.
ATR125
Maricopa Class Auxiliary Fleet Tug
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Commissioned, 19 March 1945, LT. J. L. Bean in command
Named Keosanqua (ATA-198), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned, 25 May 1956, at San Diego, CA.
Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet
Struck from the Naval Register, 1 May 1961
Transferred to the Republic of Korea, under terms of the Security Assistance Program, 1 February 1962,
renamed ROKS Yong Mun (ATA-2) (later 31)
Final Disposition, discarded by South Korea, date unknown
Keosanqua received two battle stars for Korean War service
Specifications :
Displacement 534 t.
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 5 officers, 42 enlisted
Keosanqua
Originally designated as ATR-125, she was redesignated ATA-198 on 15 May 1944; launched 17 January 1945 by
Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, Tex.; and commissioned 19 March, Lt. J. L. Bean in command.
Departing Galveston 18 April, ATA-198 steamed via the Panama Canal and San Francisco for duty in the
Pacific. She reached Pearl Harbor 1 June, then continued 7 June via Eniwetok and Ulithi towing Pegasus (IX222) to the Philippines. Arriving Leyte Gulf 18 July, she departed the 21st and reached Pearl Harbor via
Kwajalein 7 August. From 9 August to 31 October she made two towing runs to San Francisco, and then resumed
harbor and barge towing duty out of Pearl Harbor. For more than 3 years she made periodic towing runs to Wake
Island; to various islands in the Hawaiian chain, including Maui and Midway; and to the West Coast.
Renamed Keosanqua 16 July 1948, she departed Pearl Harbor 7 December for Long Beach, where she arrived 22
December. Proceeding to San Diego 3 January 1949, she commenced target towing duty with the Fleet Sonar School
and provided harbor and coastal towing services between San Diego and Long Beach. On 19 June 1951, while the
United States fought to protect South Korea from Communist aggression, she departed San Diego for a 10-month
deployment in the western Pacific.
Ex-Keosanqua (ATA-198) moored pierside while in the service of the Republic of China as ROKS Yong Mun (ATA-2)
(photo Robert Hurst)
34
Operating primarily out of Sasebo, Japan, Keosanqua provided tug service along the coast of Korea from Makpo to
Inchon. Departing Sasebo 25 March, she steamed via Pearl Harbor to San Diego, arriving 19 April.
On two subsequent deployments (26 January-30 September 1953 and 7 February-2 October 1955) Keosanqua
served with the mighty 7th Fleet in the Far East, providing harbor tug and target towing services out of Sasebo and
Yokosuka. After returning from the western Pacific in 1955, she continued operations out of San Diego until 25 May
1956 when she decommissioned and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Her name was struck from the Navy List 1
May 1961. She was transferred to the Republic of Korea and commissioned ROKS Yong Mun (ATA-2) on 1
February 1962.
Keosanqua received three battle stars for Korean War service.
ATR126
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Laid down, 27 November 1943, as a Rescue Ocean Tug (ATR-126), at Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works,
Port Arthur TX.
Reclassified as an Auxiliary Ocean Tug and rename ATA 199, circa April 1944
Commissioned, 1944
Decommissioned, 1947
Custody assigned to the Maritime Commission, 1948, for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet
Renamed Undaunted (ATA-199), 16 July 1948
Struck from the Naval Register, January 1963
Transferred NOAA Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, 1963
July 1964 on loan to Bureau of Commercial Fisheries
Transferred to the US Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, NY; Renamed T/V Kings Pointer;
Sold in 1993 and renamed Krystal-K
Sold in 1998, for commercial service, to Pere Marquetta shipping Co. Ludington, renamed Undaunted, used
as pusher tug on the Great Lakes
Final Disposition, as of 2001 still in service.
Seen here as Undaunted . 18 July 1998 (photo by M. Hanley)
Specifications :
Displacement 534 t.
Speed 13kts
35
Complement 5 officers, 42 enlisted
ATR127
NIKH
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•
Laid down, (date unknown) as Rescue Ocean Tug ATR-127, at Gulfport Boiler & Welding, Port Arthur, TX.
Launched, (date unknown)
Struck from the Naval Register, 1946
Transferred to Chile, September 1947, named Leucoton (PP-61) as patrol vessel
15 August 1965 ran aground on a sandbank and lost
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
ATR128
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Laid down (date unknown) at Gulfport Boiler & Welding, Port Arthur, TX.
Launched (date unknown)
Delivered to the Navy, 22 November 1944
Named USS Challenge (ATA-201), 16 July 1948
Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 1 October 1976 by Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service
Sold in 1978 to Marine Power & Equipment, Seattle, renamed Marine Commander
Sold in 19xx to Alaska Oregon Offshore Marine, name unchanged
Sold in 2007 to West Africa, renamed Saje Commander.
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
ATR129
NILA
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Laid down, 24 August 1944, at Gulfport Boiler & Welding, Port Arthur, TX.
Commissioned, USS ATA-202, 8 December 1944
Named USS Wampanoag (ATA-202), 16 July 1948
Loaned to the US Coast Guard, 25 February 1959,
36
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Commission USCGC Comanche (WMEC-202)
Struck from the Naval Register and permanently transferred to the US Coast Guard, 1 June 1959
Decommissioned by the Coast Guard, 30 January 1980
Sold for commercial service (date and owner unknown)
Laid up at Tacoma, WA. in 2000
An attempt to acquire Comanche by the American Fleet Tug Museum was not successful in 2006
Donated to the Comanche 202 Foundation to serve as a non-profit historic and educational vessel in the
south Puget Sound area
Current status, moored at Olympia, WA. during restoration
Wampanoag was awarded one battle star for World War II service as ATA-202
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Wampanoag
An Indian tribe formerly occupying the territory extending from Narragansett Bay and the Pawtucket River, R.I., to
the Atlantic Ocean, including Nantucket Island and Martha's Vineyard, Mass. The name means "eastern people."
ATA-202 was laid down on 24 August 1944 at Port Arthur, Tex., by the Gulf port Boiler & Welding Works; launched on
10 October 1944; and commissioned on 8 December 1944.
The auxiliary ocean tug completed her shakedown training during the latter half of December 1944 and proceeded
via the Panama Canal to the Pacific. On 12 January 1945, she reported for duty with the Pacific Fleet and, by late
April, had joined Service Squadron (ServRon) 10 in support of the Okinawa campaign. Late in May, she moved to
Okinawa itself for a brief tour of duty and returned to her base at Ulithi in mid-June. It is reasonable to
assume that her round-trip voyage to the Ryukyus was for the purpose of towing battle-damaged ships back to
Ulithi for repair. She continued her duty with ServRon 10 through the end of the war, returned to the United States
in September, and began nine months of duty in the llth Naval District at San Diego. She was reassigned to
the Atlantic Reserve Fleet's Texas Group in March 1946 and actually reported to Orange, Tex., in July. Oh 27
February 1947, the tug was placed out of service there and berthed with the Texas Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
ATA-202 was named Wampanoag on 16 July 1948.
ATA-202 underway, date and place unknown (photo Bill Mozingo)
37
Wampanoag remained in reserve until 25 February 1959 at which time she was loaned to the Coast Guard. A little
over 10 years later, on 1 June 1969, she was transferred permanently to the Coast Guard, and her name was
struck from the Navy list. During her Coast Guard service, the ship has served under the name Comanche (WMEC202). As of 11 May 1979, she was stationed at Eureka, Calif.
Wampanoag (ATA-202) was awarded one battle star during World War II.
Comanche
The Comanche was the former Navy Sotoyomo-class auxiliary ocean tug USS Wampanoag (ATA-202). She was laid
down on 24 August 1944 at Port Arthur, Texas, by the Gulfport Boiler & Welding Works. She was launched on 10
October 1944 and commissioned on 8 December 1944.
The auxiliary ocean tug completed her shakedown training during the latter half of December 1944 and proceeded
via the Panama Canal to the Pacific. On 12 January 1945, she reported for duty with the Pacific Fleet and, by
late April, had joined Service Squadron (ServRon) 10 in support of the Okinawa campaign. Late in May, she
moved to Okinawa itself for a brief tour of duty and returned to her base at Ulithi in mid-June. It is
reasonable to assume that her round-trip voyage to the Ryukyus was for the purpose of towing battle-damaged
ships back to Ulithi for repair. She continued her duty with ServRon 10 through the end of the war, returned to the
United States in September, and began nine months of duty in the 11th Naval District at San Diego. She was
reassigned to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet's Texas Group in March 1946 and actually reported to Orange, Texas,
in July. On 27 February 1947, the tug was placed out of service there and berthed with the Texas Group, Atlantic
Reserve Fleet. ATA-202 was named Wampanoag on 16 July 1948.
Wampanoag remained in reserve until 25 February 1959 at which time she was loaned to the Coast Guard. The
Coast Guard placed her in commission as the cutter Comanche on that date although it was not until a little over 10
years later, on 1 June 1969, that the Navy permanently transferred her to the Coast Guard, at which time her
name was struck from the Navy list.
She was first home-ported at Morro Bay, California, where she was assigned to law enforcement and search and
rescue patrols as well as the re-supply of remote light stations and lightships. In 1961 she transferred to Sausalito,
California. From 1962 to 1967 she was stationed at San Francisco, California.
On the morning of 23 March 1963, the 523-foot converted tanker SS Cottonwood Creek radioed "Disabled and fire in
engine room off Mile Rock. Request Coast Guard assistance" The Comanche responded and towed the disabled
vessel to a safe anchorage. The Comanche, along with other Coast Guard units, responded to a distress call from the
Japanese freighter Kokoku Maru on 4 June 1963 after the freighter collided with another vessel off the Farallon
Islands. The Comanche reported that the Kokoku Maru was struck on the starboard side just aft of the bridge, leaving
approximately a 30-foot wide by 40-foot high gash in the side of the freighter. The engine room, boiler room and No. 3
hold flooded. One seaman was killed and the other 43 crewmen abandoned their ship and were rescued by the
Comanche. Commercial tugs towed the freighter to Richmond harbor. On 4 August 1965 she stood by the disabled
fishing vessel Mark Christopher near Half Moon Bay, California, while awaiting a tug. On 26 September 1966 she
helped fight a fire on a barge in San Francisco harbor.
From 1967 to 1969 she stationed at Corpus Christi, Texas. On 7 January 1968 she towed the disabled fishing vessel
Mermaid from 70 miles southeast of Port Aransas, Texas, to that port. On 9 October 1968 she rescued three from the
motor vessel Elsie 15 miles south-southeast. She returned to the west coast and was stationed at Eureka, California
in 1969 where she remained based out of for the remainder of her Coast Guard career. In 1978 she issued "the first
notice of violation" ever given to a foreign fishing vessel in the California, Oregon, and Washington trawl fisheries.
She was decommissioned on 30 January 1980 and her crew cross-decked to the CGC Clover.
ATR130
Sotoyomo Class Auxiliary Fleet Tug
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Authorized as Rescue Ocean Tug (ATR-130)
Laid down, 10 September 1944 at Gulfport Shipbuilding, Corp., Gulfport, MS.
Commissioned, USS ATA-203, 1 January 1945, LT. J. E. Fuld, Jr., USNR, in command
During World War II ATA-203 was assigned to the Pacific Theater
38
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Decommissioned, 20 October 1946
Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Texas Group, Orange, TX.
Named USS Navigator (ATA-203), 16 July 1948
Custody transferred to the Maritime Administration,16 July 1948, for lay up in the National Defense Reserve
Fleet, Mobile, AL.
Final Disposition, disposed of as a target or by test
Specifications :
Speed 12.5 kts.
Navigator
One who charts the course for a ship or plane; an explorer. The first Navigator retained her former name, the second
was named for the term.
ATA–203, originally designated ATR–130, was laid down by the Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur,
Texas, 10 September 1944; launched 26 October 1944; and commissioned 1 January 1945, Lt. J. E. Fuld, Jr., USNR,
in command.
Following shakedown, ATA–203 departed Texas for Coco Solo, thence with 2 YTBs in tow, she headed for Pearl
Harbor, arriving 9 March. Exchanging the YTBs for pontoon barges, the auxiliary tug steamed westward, 16 March,
and on 22 May cast off her charges in Nakagusuku Wan, Okinawa. She performed towing jobs in the Okinawa area,
then on 11 June, headed south to Leyte. From there towing assignments took her to the New Hebrides, New Guinea,
and finally back to Okinawa where she reported for duty to ComMinPac, 30 August.
On 8 September, she got underway for the Japanese home islands, reporting to ComMinDiv 7, off Kyushu, 11
September. Until 29 December she conducted hydrographic surveys off Sasebo, Omura, and Nagasaki, acted as a
mine destruction vessel and assisted storm damaged ships. Then detached from all duties in Mine Force, Pacific, she
took up towing services for the occupation forces.
On 14 March 1946, ATA–203 headed home, reporting to ComServLant 22 June. Assigned to the 16th (Reserve)
Fleet, she decommissioned 20 October 1946 arid was berthed at Orange, Texas. Named Navigator, 16 July 1948, she
was transferred to the Maritime Administration in August 1960 and was laid up at Mobile, Alabama, as a unit of the
National Defense Reserve Fleet. She remains there into 1970.
ATA-203 moored at Naval Reserve Base, New Orleans, 30 June 1946 (photo Richard W. Friedrich)
39
ATR131
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Laid down, 25 September 1944, at Gulfport Shipbuilding, Corp., Port Arthur, TX.
Commissioned, USS ATA-204, 18 January 1945
Decommissioned, 28 November 1947, at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, WA.
Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Columbia River Group, Astoria, OR.
Ractivated, 17 April 1952, at Astoria
Recommissioned, USS Wandank (ATA-204), 3 May 1952, at Pearl Harbor
1966 stationed at Guam
Decommissioned, 1 July 1971, at Guam
Simultaneously turned over to the Department of the Interior for service in the Trust Territories
Returned to US Naval custody, 22 May 1973
Subsequently returned to the Interior Department for serves in the Trust Territories
Wandank received three battle stars for her Vietnam War service
Specifications :
Length 143'
Beam 34'
Draft 15'
Speed 13 kts.
Wandank
The second Wandank (ATA-204)—originally projected as ATR—131, a steel-hulled rescue tug—was laid down as
ATA-204 on 25 September 1944 at Port Arthur, Tex., by the Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works; launched on
9 November 1944; and commissioned on 18 January 1945, Lt. (jg.) Vernon L. Ryan, USNR, in command.
Following her shakedown in the Caribbean, ATA-204 got underway on 23 February for the Panama Canal, en
route to the Pacific. The auxiliary ocean tug operated with the Pacific Fleet through the end of hostilities, performing
services at locales ranging from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to the Marshall Islands. After hostilities ended, she returned
to San Francisco, Calif., late in August 1945 and soon shifted to the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash. She
operated in the 13th Naval District until she was decommissioned on 26 November 1947 and placed in reserve.
The onset of the Korean War gave the vessel a new lease on life, however, triggering the expansion of the United
States Navy to maintain a posture of global readiness. ATA-204 was reactivated on 17 April 1952 at Astoria,
Oreg., for assignment to the 14th Naval District. Recommissioned at Pearl Harbor on 3 May 1952, Lt. William A.
Walden in command, the auxiliary ocean tug received the name Wandank and retained her ATA-204 designation.
For the next three years, Wandank operated out of Pearl Harbor, providing tug and tow services for the Pacific
Fleet, and occasionally deployed to Samoa and other Pacific isles with tows. On 9 September 1955, the tug was
transferred to the Marianas. There, she towed barges of supplies, stood ready to assist in search and rescue (SAR)
operations, provided target services for gunnery and torpedo exercises, and conducted local surveillance missions out
of Guam into the 1960's.
40
During this deployment, the ocean tug supported scientific operations in addition to her more routine duties. In
January 1960, for example, Wandank served as communication relay and support ship for the bathyscaphe Trieste
in Project "Nekton." She towed the underwater craft some 260 miles from Guam to the vicinity of the Challenger
Deep, where, on 23 January, Trieste descended to 37,000 feet. Four years later, in November 1964, Wandank
conducted a survey of the Solomon Islands in a joint project sponsored by the University of Hawaii's Institute of
Geophysics and the Office of Naval Research. During the course of this operation, she measured the earth's
gravity in the area.
On occasion, Wandank's operations nonetheless assumed a dangerous character during tropical tempests. During
one of these storms, which occurred late in 1963, Wandank was trapped between two typhoons while en route
to her annual buoy maintenance duty at Chichi Jima in the Bonins. In the heavy seas, her tow line parted,
leaving YCV-18 adrift. During the ensuing recovery operations, the tug's first lieutenant, J. B. Clark, was knocked
overboard by a heavy wave and swept from sight.
Wandank (ATA-204) underway, date and place unknown. (US Navy photo)
In July 1966, Wandank rendezvoused with Japanese merchantman Yeiji Maru, which had been experiencing engine
trouble, and escorted the distressed ship to Guam. Later that year, she towed SS Old Westbury to a safe
haven, relieving Sunnadin (ATA-197) which had run low on fuel on 11 November.
The year 1967 passed with much the same routine; and, in 1968, the ship participated in her first operations in
connection with the Vietnam War. She towed a gasoline barge, YOG-131, from Guam to Danang, South Vietnam,
from 3 to 15 January. After returning from Vietnamese waters, she performed island survey duties in the Western
Carolinas and subsequently helped to search for floating drydpck AFDM-6 which had broken loose from her
civilian tow vessel. Wandank next participated in special operations into the summer before making a second voyage
to Vietnamese waters, towing APL-30 to Vung Tau, Vietnam, from 16 August to 1 September.
Wandank commenced the year 1969 with more island surveillance missions in the central Carolines, sending a
landing party ashore from her crew to ascertain the needs of the islanders who lived under the care and protection
of the Trust Territories. She conducted a training mission to Yokosuka, Japan, in February and March before
returning to a schedule of surveillance operations in the northern Marianas. She trained for possible participation in
Project "Apollo" in April before she towed three barges from Sattahip, Thailand, to Vung Tau, from 13 April to 8
May.
Upon returning to the vicinity of the Marianas and Carolines soon thereafter, she conducted local operations through
the end of the year. Wandank interrupted this duty only long enough to tow LCU-1483 to Ponape Island and LCU-H97
to Majuro, from 25 November to 4 December. During her final full year of naval service, 1970, the ship conducted
local operations out of her home port of Apra Harbor, Guam.
41
She got underway from Guam on 20 January 1971 for Hong Kong and then escorted three Asheville-cl&ss patrol
gunboats to Subic Bay and Camranh Bay, serving as a communication back-up vessel. She later escorted two
gunboats from Camranh Bay to Hong Kong before returning to island surveillance duties.
Decommissioned at Guam on 1 July 1971, Wandank was simultaneously turned over to the Department of the
Interior for service in the Trust Territories, her old habitat. Returned to the Navy on 22 May 1973, Wandank was
adjudged unfit for further service and accordingly struck from the Navy list on 1 August 1973. Subsequently
returned to the Interior Department, she serves in the Trust Territories on island surveillance and local towing
duties.
Wandank was awarded three battle stars for her Vietnam War service.
ATR132
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Laid down, 12 October 1944, at Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, TX.
Commissioned, USS ATR-132, 30 January 1945
Redesigned Auxiliary Fleet Tug ATA-205, in 1945
Decommissioned in 1945
Named Sciota (ATA-205), 16 June 1948
Transferred to the Maritime Administration for custody, Navy ownership retained
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Armament one single 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount two twin 40mm AA gun mounts
ATA-205 moored pierside at Portland, OR., July 1946 (photo Stan Svec)
42
Sciota
A village in western Illinois.
ATR-132 was laid down on 12 October 1944 at the Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, Tex.; launched
on 26 November 1944; and commissioned on 30 January 1945.
In 1945, ATR-132 was redesignated as Ocean tug, auxiliary, ATA-205. She was placed in reserve, out of commission,
and assigned to the United States Pacific Reserve Fleet and berthed on the Columbia River in January 1947. ATA205 was named Sciota on 16 July 1948. In November 1960, Sciota was transferred to the Maritime Administration for
custody, but the Navy retained ownership. Sciota's name was struck from the Navy list on 1 September 1962.
ATR133
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Laid down, 26 October 1944 at Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, TX.
Commissioned, USS ATA-206, 10 February 1945, LTjg. N. G. Neault in command
Decommissioned, 4 October 1946, at San Diego, CA.
Named Pinola (ATA-206), 16 June 1948
Recommissioned, 10 January 1949
Decommissioned, 6 April 1956
Transferred under the Military Assistance Program to South Korea, 2 February 1962, renamed Do Bong
(ATA-3) (later 32)
Final disposition, fate unknown
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
ex-Pinola (ATA-206) in South Korean service as ROKS Do Bong (ATA-3) moored pierside, date and place unknown.
(US Navy photo)
43
Pinola
An Indian term meaning cotton and a Spanish word for parched corn.
Pinola (ATA–206) was laid down by the Gulfport Shipbuilding Corp., Port Arthur, Tex. 26 October 1944; launched 14
December 1944; and commissioned as A TA–206 10 February 1945, Lt. (jg) N. G. Neault in command.
ATA–206 completed shakedown 10 March 1945, then steamed to Gulfport, Miss. to pick up YF–754 for towing to San
Diego. Thence she proceeded to Hawaii and departed Pearl Harbor 11 May towing AED–21 to Guam. She sailed from
Apra Harbor 5 July to operate from Chimu Wan Harbor, Okinawa, where she arrived with a dump scow and another
barge in tow the 15th. Towing and salvage operations in the vicinity of Buckner Bay kept her busy for the remainder of
the war. On 22 July she salvaged an Army dredge off a coral reef in Buckner Bay and later refloated a gasoline tanker
aground on a coral reef in Chimu Wan Harbor.
She sailed for Subic Bay in the Philippines 30 January 1946, and picked up a lend-lease dredge for towing to
Melbourne, Australia. On 20 February, while being towed, that dredge sank of an unknown cause and the tug returned
to San Pedro Bay in Leyte Gulf. Here she took YD–121 in tow for a long voyage past the Marianas and Marshall
Islands to Pearl Harbor.
She returned to San Diego and decommissioned 4 October 1946. She was named Pinola 16 June 1948.
Pinola recommissioned 10 January 1949 and was assigned to Service Squadron 1, U.S. Pacific Fleet, to serve
primarily towing target sleds for surface gunnery exercises for the Fleet Training Group based at San Diego, Calif.
This service was interrupted by a cruise to Sasebo, Japan for operations in Service Squadron 3, 2 August 1954–27
March 1955. Pinola decommissioned 6 April 1956 and was transferred to the Republic of Korea 2 February 1962
under the Military Assistance Program, and serves into 1970 as Do Bong (ATA–3).
ATR134
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Laid down (date unknown) at Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, TX.
Commissioned, USS ATA-207, 1 March 1945
Decommissioned, 19 September 1947, at Orange, TX.
Renamed Geronimo (ATA-207), 1 January 1948
Transferred on loan to the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Department of: the Interior,
in 1963
Struck from the Naval Register 1 March 1962
1966 transferred on loan base to US Fish and Wildlife Service, name unchanged Geronimo
Returned to Naval custody and transferred to Taiwan in 1968 under the Security Assistance Program,
renamed ROCS Chiu Lien (AGS-563) as survey vessel
Final disposition, fate unknown
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Geronimo
Geronimo, the great Chief of a Chiricahua band of Apache Indians, was born about 1829 in the Territory of
Arizona. A champion of his people and fighter against restrictions placed upon them, he escaped from custody time
and time again to lead bands of Apaches in retaliatory actions until he finally agreed to surrender to General
Nelson A. Miles in 1886. Geronimo was later settled in Alabama with a number of his tribe, finally transferring to
Fort Sill in present Oklahoma. He died in 1909 .
44
The second Geronimo (ATA-207) an auxiliary ocean tug, was built by the Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works of Port
Arthur, Tex., and originally designated ATR-134-Launched 4 January 1945 as ATA-207, she commissioned 1 March
1945, Lt. Joseph K. Hawkins in command. Her name was assigned 16 July 1948.
ex Geronimo (ATA-207) in Taiwanese service as ROCS Chiu Lien (AGS-563), underway, date and place unknown.
(US Navy photo)
ATA-207 completed shakedown training off Galveston, Tex., and then reported to Tampa, Fla., to pick up a barracks
ship to be towed to the Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal with her tow 15 April, and arrived Leyte, P.I., via
Pearl Harbor, 25 June 1945. She departed for Guadalcanal 2 July to serve as harbor and rescue tug at Lunga Point
Naval Base. On 21 July she departed Lunga Point for Leyte with cargo lighters in tow, arriving just after the
surrender of Japan.
After the close of the Pacific war, ATA-207 was active throughout the islands towing and performing rescue work.
She carried sections of a dock to Bniwetok, Marshall Islands, in October, and served as a general harbor and towing
tug at Noumea, New Caledonia. Later, she performed as a cargo tug, carrying RAAF equipment to Brisbane, where
she arrived 29 April 1946. ATA-207 then steamed to Pearl Harbor, arriving 13 June to assist SS John Miller from a
reef at the entrance to the harbor. On her way back to California, the ship discovered disabled USAT Peter M.
Anderson and brought her safely to San Pedro.
ATA-207 soon departed for Charleston, S.C., via the Panama Canal, and from there moved to her new base, New
Orleans, arriving in September 1946. She spent nearly a year in numerous towing voyages in the Gulf region
before decommissioning 19 September 1947 at Orange, Tex.
Assigned to the Reserve Fleet, Geronimo was taken to Chelsea, Mass., 20 September 1962 to be fitted out as an
oceanographic and marine biological research ship. On loan from the Navy, she serves the Biological Laboratory,
Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Department of the Interior.
ATR135
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Redesignated Auxiliary Fleet Tug (ATA-208), 15 May 1944
Laid down, 27 November 1944, at Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, TX.
Commissioned, USS ATA-208, 19 March 1945
Named, USS Sagamore (ATA-208), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned and transferred, (loaned) under terms of the Mutual Defense Program to the Dominican
Republic, 1 February 1972, renamed Canoabo (RM-18)
Returned to US Naval custody and struck from the Naval Register, 15 September 1979
Final Disposition, sold for scrapping by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS), 12 January
1994
Specifications:
Displacement 534 t.(lt), 860 t.(fl)
Length 143' x Beam 33' 10" x Draft 15'
45
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Sagamore
An Indian term for a lesser chief or tribal chief among certain North American Indians.
The third Sagamore, originally designated ATR-185 was laid down as ATA-208 on 27 November 1944 by the Gulfport
Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur Tex., Launched on 17 January 1945, and commissioned on 19 March 1945, Lt.
S. D. Northrop in command
Following shakedown off the Texas coast, ATA-208 departed Galveston on 18 April for Hawaii and general towing
duty in the Pacific. Arriving at Pearl Harbor on 2 June, she operated as a unit of Service Squadron (ServRon) 2 for the
remainder of the year on towing assignments that took her east to California and west to Okinawa. With the new year,
1946, ATA-208 was reassigned to the Atlantic Fleet. On 2 February, she arrived at Norfolk and reported to the
Commandant of the 5th Naval District for operational and administrative control. Named Sagamore on 16 July 1948,
she continued general towing duty, ranging the Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Primarily engaged in coastal operations, Sagamore towed Cod (SS-224) from New London to Cleveland, via the St.
Lawrence Seaway in 1959 assisted in the consolidation of the reserve fleets in 1960, and towed APL-41 from
Mayport, Fla., to Holy Loch, Scotland in 1961. In May 1964, she participated in mine recovery operations off the
Carolinas; then, during the summer, supported Operation "Sealab I" which proved that man could survive under the
sea for extended periods. From 18 June to 13 August, she towed YFBN-12, the "mother ship" of the project in the
Bermuda area.
Sagamore (ATA-208), underway, date and place unknown. (US Navy photo)
Often called upon for target towing and torpedo recovery operations in addition to her primary mission of towing at sea
and her secondary mission of emergency rescue and salvage, Sagamore continued to serve the Atlantic Fleet until
February 1972. She was transferred to the Dominican Republic, under lease, on 1 February and commissioned in the
Dominican Navy on the 16th as Canoabo .
ATR136
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Laid down, 16 December 1944, at Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, TX.
Commissioned USS ATA-209 2 April 1945
46
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Renamed USS Umpqua (ATA-209), 16 July 1948
Decommissioned, struck from the Naval Register and transferred, cash sale, under the Security Assistance
Program to Colombia, 1 July 1971, renamed Bahia Honda (RM-74)
February 1975 lost
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Armament one single 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount two twin 40mm AA gun mounts
Umpqua
Although originally designated ATR-186, Umpqua was laid down as ATA-209 on 16 December 1944 at Port Arthur,
Tex., by Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works; launched on 2 February 1946, and commissioned on 2 April 1945, Lt.
Paul L. Cortney, USNR, in command.
Following shakedown in the Gulf of Mexico, ATA-209 reported on the last day of April to Service Force Atlantic. On 19
May, the auxiliary ocean tug departed New Orleans towing YF-756. She steamed via the Panama Canal and San
Diego to Hawaii, arriving at Pearl Harbor early in July.
She operated on towing assignments between the Hawaiian Islands and the Marshalls until October when she set her
course via San Francisco and the Panama Canal for Charleston. Arriving on 27 November, she reported to the
Commandant, 6th Naval District, for duty; and, in April 1946, she was permanently assigned to that command. On 16
July 1948, she was named Umpqua
Her primary job was that of towing ships, barges, and gunnery targets. She also participated in rescue and recovery
operations. Her routine duties were performed mostly along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and in the Caribbean, and
they occasionally took the tug as far north as Nova Scotia. In the 1950's, she took part in calibration of radio
navigation systems; and, in the 1960's, she assisted in oceanographic operations towing MONOB I, the Bureau of
Ships' mobile sound lab, to study sites in the Caribbean. In 1966, she varied her duties with the retrieval of a Titan III
rocket booster in support of NASA tests. On two occasions, she towed old liberty ship hulls loaded with unserviceable
ammunition to a disposal area in the Atlantic where the ammunition was detonated, and the hulls were sunk.
In July 1967 Umpqua was transferred to the Service Force, Atlantic Fleet, and was assigned to Service Squadron 8.
Umpqua continued her towing duties, assisting disabled and damaged naval vessels. Occasionally, she participated
in torpedo recovery and mine planting in conjunction with exercises of various Atlantic Fleet units. In May and June of
1970, she towed Darby and Tweedy -formerly DE-218 and <DE-632< b>, respectively-to sea for use as targets for
destruction.
In 1971, as her career with the United States Navy drew to a close, Umpqua took part in Operation "Springboard" one
last time and made one of her longest tows when she pulled ammunition ship Great Sitkin (AE-17) 120 miles to
Puerto Rico after the ship had gone dead in the water at sea. In June 1 Umpqua began training a Colombian Navy
crew in preparation for the transfer of the tug. On 1 July, she was decommissioned, her name was struck from the
Navy list, and she was turned over to the government of Colombia under the Military Assistance Program.
47
Umpqua (ATA-209) underway, date and place unknown (photo Larry D. Countryman)
ATR137
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Laid down (date unknown) as ATR-137 by Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, TX., under a
Maritime Commission contract
Reclassified ATA-210, 15 May 1944
Commissioned, USS ATA-210, 18 April 1945, Lt(jg). R. W. Standart, USNR, in command
Named, USS Catawba (ATA-210), 16 January 1948
Sold, 1 October 1975, to Argentina under the Security Assistance Program and renamed ARA Commodore
Somellera (A10)
Final Disposition, sunk in 1998
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Catawba
A river in North Carolina.
48
The third Catawba (ATA-210) was laid down as ATR-137, reclassified ATA-210 on 15 May 1944, and launched 15
February 1945 by Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, Tex., under a Maritime Commission contract;
acquired by the Navy 18 April 1945; and commissioned the same day, Lieutenant (junior grade) R. W. Standart,
USNR, in command.
Catawba (ATA-210 underway, date and place unknown (photo Don Becke)
Catawba cleared Galveston, Tex., 16 May 1945 on towing duty bound for San Diego, where she arrived 19 June.
She sailed on to San Francisco to pick up another tow, which she brought into Pearl Harbor 10 July. Proceeding to
the Marshalls, Catawba was at sea between Kwajalein and Guam with two tows when the war ended. A brief voyage
to the Philippines preceded her return to the east coast.
From 1946 through 1962, Catawba has been based at Norfolk, Va., Jacksonville, Fla., and Charleston, S.C., for the
miscellany of towing duties which makes her and her sister tugs an essential although little-heralded part of the U.S.
Navy. Disabled ships are brought to safety, or taken from one port to another for repairs; targets are towed in
gunnery exercises; large fleet units are aided in docking and undocking. Although operating primarily off the southern
coast, Catawba has frequently cruised to more northern ports to deliver ships to overhauling yards. In the summer of
1959, she joined the task force conducting Operation "Inland Sea," the first penetration of the Great Lakes by
American naval forces passing through the Saint Lawrence Seaway. For the larger ships of the force, it was
often a close fit, and the services of Catawba and other tugs were essential.
ATR138
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Redesignated Auxiliary Fleet Tug ATA-211, 13 April 1944
Laid down, 20 January 1945 at Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, TX. (yn256)
Commissioned, USS ATA-211, 3 May 1945, LTjg. James McKnight in command
Named Navajo (ATA-211), 15 July 1948
Decommissioned, 10 April 1962
Struck from the Naval Register, 1 May 1962
Final disposition, sold in 1963 to Twenty Grand Marine Service, Inc., Morgan City, LA.,
1976 scrapped
49
Specifications :
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Navajo
Tribe of Athapascan Indians displaced by early American pioneers and currently residing on reservations in Arizona,
New Mexico and Utah.
The third Navajo, an auxiliary ocean tug originally designated ATR–138, was redesignated ATA–211 on 13 April 1944
and laid down 20 January 1945 by Gulfport Boiler & Welding Works, Port Arthur, Texas; launched 3 March 1945; and
commissioned at Port Arthur 3 May 1945, Lt. (jg.) James McKnight in command.
Following fitting out and shakedown off Galveston, ATA–211 reported to the Naval Supply Depot, Gulfport, Mississippi
5 June, and thence steamed via the Panama Canal to San Diego, where she was to join ServRon 2, Pacific.
ATA–211 towed AFL–23 and YT–742 to Pearl Harbor in July and remained there to perform ready tug duty and relief
towing services with the Waipie Salvage Dock, in the Ocean operations off Pearl Harbor. In October, she cleared
Pearl Harbor with YO–12 and YG–28 in tow, and headed for Yokosuka, Japan, where she arrived the 24th. Departing
Yokosuka in early November, she returned Pearl Harbor and, joined by ATF–157 and ARD–5, steamed to San Diego.
She departed this base 27 December to serve as retriever tug for ATF–157.
After escorting ATF–157 through the Panama Canal, ATA–211 cleared Coco Solo 5 February 1946 and touched at
Key West before arriving the U.S. Naval Station, Algiers, Louisiana, 11 February. She remained in the 8th Naval
District for most of the remainder of her Naval career, providing towing service to ports such as Mobile, Galveston,
Pensacola, and Charleston, and assisting in off-shore salvage operations.
ATA–211 was named Navajo 15 July 1948. She continued operations off the Gulf states and Bermuda into 1962.
Decommissioning 10 April 1962, she was stricken from the Navy List 1 May 1962 and was subsequently sold to
Twenty Grand Marine Service, Inc., Morgan City, Louisiana, in 1963.
ATA-211 moored pierside, date and location unknown (photo George Black)
ATR139
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Laid down, 3 February 1945 at Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, TX.
Commissioned, USS ATA-212, 21 May 1945
Decommissioned, 20 December 1946, at Astoria, OR.
Named Algoma (ATA-212), 16 July 1948
Transferred to the Maritime Administration
Towed to her berth in the National Defense Fleet, Suisun Bay, Benecia, CA. in 1971
Commercial History
Acquired for commercial service by Erato Shipping & Trading Corp. S.A., Panama, (John S.Latsis,
Piraeus) 13 April 1976, renamed Deka Ennea
Owner name change to Maritime & Commercial Co. Argonaftis S.A., Panama, 1977
Owner name change to Transpacific Shipping & Trading S.A., Honduras, 1988, renamed Farreda S.
Specifications:
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 45
Algoma
Originally projected as ATR-139, the vessel was redesignated ATA-212 on 15 May 1944 her keel laid down on 3
February 1945, at Port Arthur, Tex., by the Gulfport Boiler & Welding Works: launched on 20 March 1945; and
commissioned on 21 May 1945
From June 1945 through March 1946, ATA-212 served as a towing vessel at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She sailed for the
United States on 18 March, reached San Diego, Calif., on 31 March, and operated in the San Diego area until 13 May.
On that day, the tug sailed for Astoria, Oreg. Upon her arrival on the 17th she began preparations for inactivation. On
20 December 1946, the ship was decommissioned and berthed in the Columbia River.
She remained inactive for almost 30 years, although several administrative changes affected her She was named
Algorma on 16 July 1948 and was so known for the next 14 years. On 1 September 1962 her name was struck from
the Navy list, and she was placed in the custody of the Maritime Administration. Berthed at Astoria. Oreg , until the
spring of 1971, the tug was then towed from Astoria to the berthing facility at Suisun Bay, Calif. She remained there
until sold to Mr. John S. Latsis in April of 1976.
ATR140
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Authorized as Rescue Ocean Tug ATR-140
Laid down, 16 February 1945, at Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, TX.
Launched, 9 April 1945
Commissioned USS ATA-213, 1 June 1945
Named, USS Keywadin (ATA-213), 16 January 1948
Decommissioned, 30 June 1970
Struck from the Naval Register, 1 June 1980
Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at the NISMF, Portsmouth, VA.
Towed to NAB Little Creek for use as a fire fighting and salvage training hulk
Final Disposition, sunk as a target, 3 June 2001 nearby Norfolk
Specifications :
Length 143' x Beam 34' x Draft 13' 2"
51
Speed 13 kts.
Keywadin (ATA-213) moored at Boston Naval Shipyard, Boston, MA. 1960 (photo Richard Leonhardt)
Keywadin
An Indian word meaning "North Wind."
ATA-213 was authorized ATR-140; reclassified ATA-213 on 15 May 1944; launched 9 April 1945 by the Gulfport Boiler
& Welding Works, Port Arthur, Tex.; and commissioned 1 June 1945, Lt. Vincent A. Galterio, USNR, in command.
After shakedown in the Gulf of Mexico, ATA-213 cleared New Orleans 4 July 1945, towing a barracks ship and
floating derricks to the Marshall Islands. The tug arrived Majuro 24 September, and after several towing
assignments, returned Pearl Harbor 17 October where she operated until sailing for the East Coast 28 June 1946.
Following towing assignments enroute, the tug arrived Boston 28 September to serve in the 1st Naval District. ATA213 was named Keywadin 16 January 1948, and from that time through 1964 she performed various towing duties
along the Atlantic coast. She operated out of Boston engaging in essential although unheralded assignments of the
U.S. Navy. She towed disabled ships to port for repairs; towed targets in gunnery exercises; and delivered mail.
Although operating primarily in the 1st and 4th Naval Districts, Keywadin frequently cruised south to Charleston,
S.C., and Mayport, Fla., towing barges and ships for overhaul. During October 3964 the tug commenced torpedo
recovery services for patrol aircraft, continuing this duty for the next 2 months. Keywadin continues to serve in the 1st
Naval District through 1967.
52

United States ATR Class Rescue Ocean Tugs 2nd

Transcription

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