Utina (ATF-163)
1946-1977
Named for Olata Quae Utina (circa 1565), a leading chief of the now-extinct Timucua Native American tribe who occupied the territory along the middle reaches of the St. John’s River in Florida near the site of present-day St. Augustine.
(ATF-163: displacement 1,589 (trial); length 205'0"; beam 38'6"; draft 15'4" (limiting); speed 16.5 knots (trial); complement 85; armament 1 3-inch, 2 40-millimeter, 4 20-millimeter; class Abnaki)
Utina (ATF-163) was laid down on 6 June 1945 at Charleston, S.C., by the Charleston Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.; launched on 31 August 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Jonathan Yerkes; and commissioned at the Naval Base, Charleston, on 30 January 1946, Lt. Amande J. Vetro in command.
Since commissioning, the major portion of Utina’s long Navy career was spent in the western Atlantic and in the West Indies. She carried out a variety of towing missions, helping damaged ships into port, towing decommissioned ships to berthing areas, towing targets for gunnery exercises, and the like. Throughout her active career, Utina was closely associated with the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Right after commissioning, she conducted her shakedown training out of that port, and when she completed it, Guantanamo Bay became her home port for over five years.
In 1951, she was reassigned to Norfolk, Va., but continued to deploy each year to the base in Cuba for several weeks of operations, frequently in conjunction with the annual Springboard exercises held in the West Indies. She was at Guantanamo Bay in February of 1964 when Cuban Premier Fidel Castro cut off the base’s water supply. When the United States government decided to respond by permanently severing the water link to illustrate the base’s self-sufficiency, Utina played an important role by bringing in Guantanamo Bay’s first potable water before two large tankers could be activated for the purpose.
Throughout her quarter of a century of service with the Navy, Utina altered her routine of operations along the eastern seaboard and in the West Indies only twice. In May of 1965, she embarked upon her only deployment to the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Her missions, however, remained the same though the emphasis shifted to target towing for Sixth Fleet surface gunnery exercises. She returned to Norfolk in early October 1965 and resumed Second Fleet services once more.
Her second departure from her primary zone of operations came in June of 1967 when she steamed to Iceland to assist the cable repairing ship Aeolus (ARC-3) in a special project. The tug returned to Norfolk on 13 July 1967 and resumed east coast-West Indies operations for the remaining four years of her career. On 3 September 1971, Utina was decommissioned at Norfolk, and she was transferred, on a loan basis, to the Venezuelan Navy.
Utina was renamed, placed in commission as Felipe Larrazabal (R.12) and served in the Venezuelan Navy. In December of 1977 she was returned to the U.S. Navy, retransferred to Venezuela on a sale basis, and her name was stricken from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register—all simultaneously. Given the pendant number R-21 circa 1978, Felipe Larrazabal served in the Navy of Venezuela until taken out of service and stricken in September 1990.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
3 February 2021
