 Pocomoke during or before 1918. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name: | USS Pocomoke |
| Namesake: | Pocomoke City, Maryland (previous name retained) |
| Completed: | 1902 |
| Acquired: | 8 June 1917 |
| Commissioned: | 29 June 1917 |
| Reclassified: | From section patrol craft (SP-265) to district harbor tug (YT-43) 17 July 1920 |
| Fate: | Sold 2 May 1922 |
| Notes: | Operated as civilian tug Pocomoke 1902-1917 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Minesweeper and tug |
| Displacement: | 139 tons |
| Length: | 115 ft (35 m) |
| Beam: | 18 ft 5 in (5.61 m) |
| Draft: | 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam engine, one shaft |
| Speed: | 9 knots |
| Armament: | 2 × 1-pounder guns |
The second USS Pocomoke (SP-265), later YT-43, was a United States Navy minesweeper and tug commissioned in 1917 and sold in 1922.
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most capable navy in the world and it has been estimated that in terms of tonnage of its active battle fleet alone, it is larger than the next 13 navies combined, which includes 11 U.S. allies or partner nations. with the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, and two new carriers under construction. With 319,421 personnel on active duty and 99,616 in the Ready Reserve, the Navy is the third largest of the service branches. It has 282 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of March 2018, making it the second-largest air force in the world, after the United States Air Force.
A tugboat is a type of vessel that maneuvers other vessels by pushing or pulling them either by direct contact or by means of a tow line. Tugs typically move vessels that either are restricted in their ability to maneuver on their own, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal, or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, log rafts, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for their size and strongly built, and some are ocean-going. Some tugboats serve as icebreakers or salvage boats. Early tugboats had steam engines, but today most have diesel engines. Many tugboats have firefighting monitors, allowing them to assist in firefighting, especially in harbors.
Pocomoke was built as a civilian tug of the same name in 1902 at Pocomoke City, Maryland. The U.S. Navy purchased her from her owner, the Menhaden Products Company of Newport, Rhode Island, on 8 June 1917 for World War I service as a minesweeper. She was commissioned on 29 June 1917 as USS Pocomoke (SP-265).
In general, a civilian is "a person who is not a member of the military or of a police or firefighting force". The definition distinguishes from persons whose duties involves risking their lives to protect the public at large from hazardous situations such as terrorism, riots, conflagrations, or wars. It also does not include "criminals" in the category, as authorities and the media wants to distinguish between those who are law-abiding and those who are not.
Pocomoke City, dubbed "the friendliest town on the Eastern Shore", is a city in Worcester County, Maryland, United States. Although renamed in a burst of civic enthusiasm in 1878, the city is regularly referred to by its inhabitants simply as Pocomoke. The population was 4,184 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. Pocomoke City is a center for commerce on the lower shore, home to an industrial park currently playing host to defense contractors, aerospace engineering, and plastics fabrication. Pocomoke City is located near the Wallops Island Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia.
Maryland is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east. The state's largest city is Baltimore, and its capital is Annapolis. Among its occasional nicknames are Old Line State, the Free State, and the Chesapeake Bay State. It is named after the English queen Henrietta Maria, known in England as Queen Mary.
During 1918 Pocomoke was assigned to the 2nd Naval District in southern New England. She operated off the United States West Coast and Mexico in 1919. On 17 July 1920 was classified as a district harbor tug and redesignated YT–43.
New England is a geographical and cultural region composed of six states of the northeastern United States: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north, respectively. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Boston is New England's largest city as well as the capital of Massachusetts. The largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston with nearly a third of the entire region's population, which also includes Worcester, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island.
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost 2,000,000 square kilometres (770,000 sq mi), the nation is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the 13th largest independent state in the world. With an estimated population of over 120 million people, the country is the eleventh most populous state and the most populous Spanish-speaking state in the world, while being the second most populous nation in Latin America after Brazil. Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and Mexico City, a special federal entity that is also the capital city and its most populous city. Other metropolises in the state include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana and León.
A harbor or harbour is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term harbor is often used interchangeably with port, which is a man-made facility built for loading and unloading vessels and dropping off and picking up passengers. Ports usually include one or more harbors. Alexandria Port in Egypt is an example of a port with two harbors.
Pocomoke was sold at San Francisco, California, on 2 May 1922.
California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.
Pocomoke should not be confused with USS Pocomoke (SP-571), a patrol vessel also in commission during World War I.
The first USS Pocomoke (SP-571), later USS SP-571, was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1918.
