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Think of the US Coast Guard and tugs and the knowledgeable think
of three sets of tugs. The first set is comprised of the many ex-Navy
tugs of various classes that the Coast Guard used after World War
II as medium-endurance cutters. Perhaps the most-famous of these
tugs was the USCGC TAMAROA of “Perfect Storm” double-rescue
fame. (Refresh your memory here by re-reading Sebastian Junger’s
wonderful ”The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against
the Sea.”) Before it became so famous, it had a highly honored
career as the Navy fleet tug USS ZUNI during World War II.
All of these ex-Navy tugs have been retired except the USCGC Alex
Haley medium-endurance cutter, a former USN Edenton class salvage
tug built in the United Kingdom in 1967 and transferred to USCG
in 1997 and converted to operate in Alaskan waters as a patrol and
rescue ship.
The second set of tugs that comes to mind are the famed 110-foot
icebreaking tugs, each powered by two diesels turning generators
to create power for one electric drive motor for 1,000 hp. Three
classes of these WYTMs (Coast Guard Yard Tug, Medium) were built
between 1934 and 1944: four pre-war CALUMETs, four ARUNDELs in 1939,
and nine MANITOUs of 1943-1944. All are now retired but many remain
in commercial service..
Now the Coast Guard has two classes of specially built icebreaking
tugs. Fifteen sturdy 65-foot icebreaking tugs were built between
1961 and 1967 and four decades later were still giving service although
several had already been retired. These 400-hp single-screw tugs,
classified as WYTLs (Coast Guard Yard Tug, Light) and named after
nautical hardware such as bitt, pendant, shackle, etc, come in four
classes basically distinguishable by the length of their superstructures.
There were six tugs in the A class (CAPSTAN, etc), three in class
B (BRIDLE, etc), three in class C (HAWSER, etc) and three in the
D class (BITT, etc). On the earlier tugs, the stack is half-immersed
in the rear of the deckhouse whereas the D class has the deckhouse
extended aft so the stack is sited atop the superstructure. All
of these tugs in service were re-engined between 1993 and 1996.
Nine newer 140-foot icebreaking tugs, were built between 1979 and
1988 to replace the 110-footers. These WYTMs were originally designated
as WYTBs (Coast Guard Yard Tug, Big). To eliminate confusion during
radio transmissions, they are not based anywhere near the bays they
are named after. (For example, the BRISTOL BAY is based at Detroit,
far from Bristol Bay, Alaska.) Most of this class work on the Great
Lakes and Hudson River and can become very busy during ice seasons.
With the aid of their weight and diesel-electric propulsion (from
two Fairbanks Morse diesels, each of 1,250 hp) and an air-lubrication
(bubbler) system for the hull, they can break ice up to twenty inches
thick.
(On the Lakes, broken ice tends to pile up in places and the stacks
may reach down the bottom so much of the really heavy icebreaking
is shared between Canadian icebreakers such as the SAMUEL RISLEY
and the US Coast Guard’s newbuild powerful icebreaker/buoytender
USCGC MACKINAW, a truly multi-purpose, all-year-round vessel indeed!
Both icebreakers have azimuthing drives and these can be pivoted
slightly outward so as to drive the broken ice aside, leaving a
wide ice-free channel. This cannot be said of icebreakers that just
break the ice.
The Coast Guard has operated a miscellany of other tugs from time
to time. One example was the MESSENGER, an unused Army tug taken
over by the Coast Guard in 1946 that went on to serve as yard tug
at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, MD for 49 years.
A brief but surprisingly complete overview of the Coast Guard’s
several classes of tugs in service from its formation in 1915 onward
is available at:
http://www.cg-tugs.org/history_of_cg_tugs.htm
The predecessor Revenue Cutter Service owned a variety of vessels
including tugs. Photos of some RCS vessels are listed at:
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-us-cs/uscg-sh/cg-name.htm
Of particular interest may be the tug HUDSON, whose Spanish War
record warrants further exploration by the viewer.
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