USS Algonquin (tug)

Last updated

USS Algonquin
USS Algonquin (1898-1946).jpg
USS Algonquin (1898–1946) At the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, circa April 1898. Note 6mm Colt Machinegun and 13-star boat flag aft, and horse cart on pier
History
US flag 48 stars.svg United States
Name
  • El Toro (1891–1898)
  • Algonquin (1898)
  • Accomac (1898–1918)
  • Nottoway (1918–1942)
  • YT-18 (1942–1944)
  • YTL-18 (1944–1946)
NamesakeA native American people that inhabited the Ottawa River valley
Builder Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia
Launched1891
Acquiredby purchase, 26 March 1898
Commissioned2 April 1898, as USS Algonquin
Out of service3 April 1946
ReclassifiedYT-18, 17 July 1920
Stricken17 April 1946
FateSold, 15 October 1946
General characteristics
Type Tugboat
Tonnage130.16  GRT [1]
Displacement187 long tons (190 t) [2]
Length90 ft (27 m) [1]
Beam19 ft (5.8 m) [1]
Draft9 ft (2.7 m) [2]
Depth10 ft 9 in (3.28 m) [1]
PropulsionQuadruple expansion steam engine
Speed10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement12
Armament1 × 6-pounder (2.7 kg) gun

USS Algonquin, completed as El Toro in 1891 for the Southern Pacific Railroad's Morgan Line, was a small harbor tug commissioned by the United States Navy 2 April 1898. Renamed Accomac, after Accomac, Virginia, June 1898, renamed Nottoway in 1918 and, after the Navy adopted alphanumeric hull numbers on 17 July 1920, classified as YT-18, a district tug. On 5 October 1942 the name was cancelled and the tug was simply YT-18 until 1944 when classification was changed to YTL-18, a little harbor tug. [2] Over the years as a Navy tug, from 1898 to 1946, the tug served from Cuba to Boston.

Contents

Construction

The steam tug El Toro was built at Newport News, Virginia by Newport News Shipbuilding for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company owned Morgan Line with delivery 20 May 1891. [3] [note 1] The tug was designed by naval architect Horace See with a quadruple expansion steam engine, then an unusual feature. [4] El Toro was built principally as a fire boat with towing capability to tow the Morgan Line ships arriving or departing New York between the passenger terminal at North River Pier 37 and the cargo terminal at Pier 25. [1] El Toro was the second ship, hull number 2, constructed by the then small shipyard, and its success led to building the line's cargo and passenger ships El Sud (hull #3), El Norte (#4), and El Rio (#5) and El Cid (#6) as its next four ships. [3] [5]

The See designed quadruple expansion steam engine had cylinders of 9.75 in (24.8 cm), 13.5 in (34 cm), 18.75 in (47.6 cm) and 26 in (66 cm) with 22 in (56 cm) stroke connected to two opposed cranks each driven by two cylinders arranged in tandem and driving a 7 ft (2.1 m) propeller. Steam at 180 pounds (82 kg) pressure was provided by a two furnace steel return tube type boiler 9.5 ft (2.9 m) in diameter by 10.5 ft (3.2 m) in length. Two Worthington fire and bilge pumps provided water for fire fighting or bilge pumping. [1]

A summary of the previous year written in 1895 gives a picture of the tug's duties: [4]

El Toro was the flagship of the New York Naval Reserve and in 1891 the new tug is noted as taking the commander to the exercise while flying the new flag of the Naval Reserve. [6]

Due to the impending war with Spain El Toro was purchased by the Navy on 26 March 1898 and commissioned on 2 April 1898 with the name USS Algonquin, Ensign Walter S. Crosley in command. [2]

Ensign Crosley described his reporting to the New York Navy Yard on 1 April 1898 with orders to report as a watch standing officer aboard USS Mayflower and, upon being redirected to "fit out and command" Algonquin to be ready for sea immediately only to find the old Morgan tug as an "April Fool's joke." [7] Crosley found there was no crew and that fitting out meant acquiring nearly everything from hawsers to stores, which he had to load aboard himself from a commandeered horse cart. [8] With six men sent from USS Vermont on 2 April the tug was put into commission at two p.m. with final crew, including a sixty-one-year-old that had not been to sea in twenty-five years reporting to assist the captain in getting to Key West, Florida, still assembling on the evening of 3 April. [9]

Algonquin departed the Navy Yard on the afternoon of 4 April for Key West, Florida with a quickly assembled crew, only two of which had been in the Navy and only four had been to sea, in company with the tug Nezinscot commanded by Lieutenant York Noble. [10] Nezinscot turned back while still in Buttermilk Channel with Algonquin continuing alone, reaching Scotland Lightship at about eight in the evening, until suffering weather damage to a hatch cover and having to seek shelter behind the Delaware Breakwater for pumping out. [11] After a delay of nearly a day the tug got underway for Port Royal, South Carolina where Nezinscot caught up and, on meeting more poor weather on the way south, took the smaller and slower Algonquin in tow until breaking down and then being towed by Algonquin until reaching the fleet at Key West on 13 April. [2] [12]

Once with the fleet the tug made regular trips to Cuba towing captured vessels to Key West and making logistics runs that included dispatches and even laundry, the loss of which in an involved the tug almost sinking when seas swept over the ship taking boxes and the laundry from lashings on top of the deck house. The tug had left Key West overloaded and nearly sank off Cuba, being taken in tow by USS Iowa with all hands aboard the tug bailing as the pumps would not work. [12] After arrival at Key West the fleet's commander-in-chief declared Algonquin unfit for such service whereupon Ensign Crosley was offered and took command of USS Leyden. [13]

On 15 June 1898, Algonquin was renamed Accomac. [note 3] The vessel served at Key West through end of the year. In January 1899, she was reassigned to the Cuban occupation forces and was based at Havana, Cuba. [2] Between late 1900 and December 1911, the small ship successively served as a yard tug at Port Royal, South Carolina, Key West, and Pensacola, Florida. On 14 February 1907 she sank the steamer Florence Witherbee in a collision off the Palafox Street Wharf, Pensacola, Florida. [14] On 4 December 1911, Accomac arrived at the Boston Navy Yard where she spent the remainder of her active career. She was renamed Nottoway on 1 August 1918. [2]

On 17 July 1920 the Navy adopted the alphanumeric system of hull designations with Nottoway being designated YT-18. On 5 October 1942, her name was cancelled, and she became simply YT-18. On 15 May 1944, the tug was redesignated a small harbor tug, YTL-18. She served at Boston as a yard tug through the end of World War II. [2]

YTL-18 was placed out of service at Boston on 3 April 1946, and her name was struck from the Navy List on 17 April 1946. On 15 October 1946, she was sold to Mr. Arthur M. Hall, of Boston, Massachusetts, presumably for scrapping. [2]

Awards

Footnotes

  1. ↑ A second El Toro was built and delivered to the line March 1907 by Harlan & Hollingsworth, Wilmington, Delaware. A third was launched 10 March 1924 by New Jersey Dry Dock & Transportation Company. Both companies later became parts of the Bethlehem Steel Company shipbuilding component.
  2. ↑ Erie Basin is located in Brooklyn's Red Hook area.
  3. ↑ A Revenue Cutter Service ship Algonquin was ordered into Naval service 24 March 1898 – 17 August 1898 and thus the tug's rename was probably the result to avoid confusion.

Related Research Articles

USS <i>Dixie</i> (1893) Tender of the United States Navy

The first USS Dixie was a United States Navy auxiliary cruiser and later a destroyer tender. The Dixie was the first ship of the United States Navy to have this name.

USS Accomac may refer to the following ships operated by the United States Navy:

USS Algonquin may refer to the following ships operated by the United States Navy:

USS <i>Reina Mercedes</i>

USS Reina Mercedes (IX-25) was an unprotected cruiser of the Spanish Navy which was captured in Cuba in 1898 by the U.S. Navy during the Spanish–American War. She was refurbished and used by the U.S. Navy as a non-self-propelled receiving ship at Newport, Rhode Island, and subsequently as a detention vessel and barracks ship for the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, until 1957.

USS <i>Topeka</i> (PG-35) Gunboat of the United States Navy

USS Topeka (PG-35) was a gunboat of the United States Navy.

USS <i>Sandoval</i> (1895) Gunboat of the United States Navy

USS Sandoval was an Alvarado-class gunboat acquired by the United States Navy from the Spanish as a prize-of-war. Duties assigned her by the Navy included patrolling coastal and river waterways, and, later, acting as a "practice ship" for the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland and for the New York Naval Militia as well.

USS <i>Leyden</i> (1865) Tugboat of the United States Navy

The first USS Leyden was a screw steamer that operated as a tug in the U.S. Navy from 1866 to 1903 and saw combat service in the Spanish–American War in 1898.

USS <i>Powhatan</i> (1898) American steam tug

The third USS Powhatan was a steam tug that served in the United States Navy from 1898 to 1928, was renamed USS Cayuga in 1917, and was later designated YT-12.

The third Mohawk (YT‑17), later renamed YT-17 and YTL-17, was a tug that served in the United States Navy from 1898 to 1946.

USS <i>Wando</i> (AT-17) Tugboat of the United States Navy

The second USS Wando, later YT-17, later YT-123, later YTB-123, was a United States Navy tug in commission from 1917 to 1946.

USS <i>Uncas</i> (AT-51) Tugboat of the United States Navy

The second USS Uncas was a United States Navy tug in commission from 1898 to 1922.

USS Sotoyomo (ATR-43/ATA-121) was a rescue tug of the United States Navy that served during World War II and the early 1950s, and was sold to Mexico in 1963.

USS <i>Choctaw</i> (1898) Tugboat of the United States Navy

The second USS Choctaw was a yard tug in the United States Navy from the Spanish–American War to World War II. She was renamed USS Wicomico in 1918.

USS <i>Fortune</i> (1865) Tugboat of the United States Navy

USS Fortune was a steam-powered tugboat that served in the United States Navy intermittently from 1871 to 1922. Built in 1865, she was the first ship so named. Fortune was classified as YT-11 on 17 July 1920. Through her lengthy career, she served as a harbor tug, fireboat, cargo transport, training ship, and submarine tender, among other duties.

USS <i>Active</i> (1888) Tugboat of the United States Navy

USS Active was a tug constructed in 1888 at San Francisco by the Union Iron Works. The tug, first steel tug built on the West Coast, was launched 4 August 1888. She was acquired by the United States Navy from John D. Spreckels Brothers Co. on 18 April 1898 "for auxiliary purposes incident to a state of war." Converted for naval service at her builder's yard, she was commissioned at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 6 July 1898. She was the third US Navy ship to be named Active.

Modoc was a steam tug, built in 1890 as the commercial tug Enterprise, in service with the United States Navy from 1898 to 1947. The tug had been assigned the hull number YT‑16 in 1920. When the name Modoc was cancelled 5 October 1942 the tug became the unnamed YT‑16 until reclassified in 1944 to become YTL-16. The tug served for 49 years and in both World War I and World War II before being transferred to the Maritime Commission in early 1947 for disposal.

USS <i>Peoria</i> (1898) Gunboat of the United States Navy

The Peoria, a converted steel gunboat, was built as the pilot boat Philadelphia by Neafie and Levy ship and engine building company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in March 1896 for the Pennsylvania and Delaware Pilots' Association. The Philadelphia was purchased by the US Navy on 23 May 1898 from the Philadelphia Pilots' Association, and was renamed Peoria. She was commissioned on 15 May 1898.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Type V ship</span> MARCOM tugboat class

The Type V ship is a United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) designation for World War II tugboats. Type V was used in World War II, Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Type V ships were used to move ships and barges. Type V tugboats were made of either steel or wood hulls. There were four types of tugboats ordered for World War II. The largest type V design was the sea worthy 186-foot (57 m) long steel hull, V4-M-A1. The V4-M-A1 design was used by a number of manufacturers; a total of 49 were built. A smaller steel hull tugboat was the 94-foot (29 m) V2-ME-A1; 26 were built. The largest wooden hull was the 148-foot (45 m) V3-S-AH2, of which 14 were built. The smaller wooden hull was the 58-foot (18 m) V2-M-AL1, which 35 were built. Most V2-M-AL1 tugboats were sent to the United Kingdom for the war efforts under the lend-lease act. The Type V tugs served across the globe during World War II including: Pacific War, European theatre, and in the United States. SS Farallon, and other Type V tugs, were used to help built Normandy ports, including Mulberry harbour, on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and made nine round trips to Normandy to deliver Phoenix breakwaters.

Everett-Pacific Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company was established in 1942 to build ships needed for World War II. Yard construction began on 1 March 1942. As part of the Emergency Shipbuilding Program the US Navy provided some of the capital to start Everett-Pacific Shipbuilding at Port Gardner Bay in Everett, Washington. Everett-Pacific was sold in 1945 to the Pacific Car and Foundry, who was already a major manufacturer of railcars and trucks. Pacific Car and Foundry was building barges for the US Navy during World War II at plants in Renton, Seattle and Tacoma in the state of Washington. The lease for the shipyard in Everett, Washington ended in 1949 and the yard closed. Pacific Car and Foundry in 1972 changed its name to Paccar Inc. to reflect its major products. The Everett-Pacific shipyard site later became part of Western Gear, a heavy machinery manufacturer. in 1987 the shipyard became part of Naval Station Everett. Everett-Pacific Shipbuilding was started by William Pigott Jr. a Seattle businessmen and his brother Paul Pigott (1900-1961). William Pigott Jr. was born in 26 Aug. 1895 in Pueblo, CO and died on 8 July 1947 in San Francisco, CA.

USS <i>Wompatuck</i> Tugboat of the United States Navy

USS Wompatuck (YT-27) was an armed tug in commission in the United States Navy from 1898 to 1931. Early in her naval career, she saw combat in the Spanish–American War and the Philippine–American War. After she was decommissioned, she was selected for conversion into the fuel oil barge YO-64, but she was lost in the early days of World War II in the Pacific before the conversion could be completed.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Howell 1896, p. 85.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Cressman 2013.
  3. 1 2 Colton 2014.
  4. 1 2 Richards 1895, p. 246.
  5. ↑ Beale 1907, p. 56.
  6. ↑ Illustrated American (8 August 1891), p. 547.
  7. ↑ Crosley 1899, p. 65.
  8. ↑ Crosley 1899, pp. 65–66.
  9. ↑ Crosley 1899, pp. 66–67.
  10. ↑ Crosley 1899, p. 67.
  11. ↑ Crosley 1899, pp. 67–68.
  12. 1 2 Crosley 1899, p. 68.
  13. ↑ Crosley 1899, p. 69.
  14. ↑ "Annual report of the Supervising Inspector-general Steamboat-inspection Service, Year ending June 30, 1908". Harvard University. Retrieved 28 September 2019.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.