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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

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  • Ship History
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  • World War II 1939-1945
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Watseka (YT-387)

1944-1972

Possibly a variant spelling of Watsaghika, a former village of the Iruwaitsu Shasta Native American tribe of northern California, at the extreme west end of Scott Valley.

(YT-387: length 100'0"; beam 25'0"; draft 10'0")

Watseka (YT-387) was purchased in 1943 from Ira S. Bushey & Sons, Brooklyn, N.Y., and assigned initially to the Eighth Naval District, New Orleans, La., to perform tug and tow service and pilot assistance. On 15 May 1944, her designation was changed to a big harbor tug, YTB-387, and she was placed in service at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., on 1 August 1944.

Transferred to the Pacific in the autumn of 1944, the tug proceeded from San Diego, Calif., to Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii (24 November-4 December 1944), then from Pearl to Kwajalein (31 December 1944-16 January 1945). Proceeding on to the Marianas Islands, she operated at Saipan for the remainder of hostilities in the Pacific.

Placed in reserve, out of service, and berthed with the Columbia River, Oregon, Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet from March 1946, Watseka was reclassified in February 1962 as a medium harbor tug as larger and more powerful vessels of yard craft entered the fleet. After being stricken from the Naval Vessel Register, she was subsequently sold on 1 July 1972.

The sturdy little vessel whose beginnings lay on the eastern seaboard, however, continued in service as a tug through the end of the Twentieth Century in the Pacific Northwest. First she operated as Deborah W. (Marine Leasing Corp., Seattle, Wash.), then as Beaver (Simmons Tugboat Co. of Seattle), then Seahorse, Silver Bay IX (Silver Bay Logging Co., Inc., of Juneau, Alaska, and then Glen Cove (Star Marine Inc., of Bainbridge Island, Wash.), taking that name into the Twenty-First Century.

Updated, Robert J. Cressman

22 September 2020

Published: Tue Sep 22 15:38:36 EDT 2020