Apache I (Tug)
An American Indian tribe that inhabited the southwestern portion of the United States.
I
J. D. Jones, a tug built in 1889 at Tottenville, N.Y., by A.C. Brown, was purchased by the Navy from the Merritt & Chapman Wrecking Co. on 24 May 1898; renamed Apache; and commissioned on 11 June 1898, Lt. Edwin Geer in command.
During the Spanish-American War, Apache was assigned to the Norfolk Navy Yard. On 26 July, however, the tug departed Hampton Roads for Key West, Fla. She arrived at her destination on 4 August and served there for about two weeks. Between the 17th and the 22d, the ship made the voyage back to Hampton Roads. Service there and at Norfolk occupied her time until 24 September 1898 at which time she was decommissioned. In 1900, Apache was moved north to New York where she was refitted for service at the ordnance magazine at lona Island on the western side of the Hudson River about five miles south of West Point. For the next 20 years, the tug divided her time between the New York Navy Yard and the lona Island facility. On 11 April 1918, she was renamed Aspinet. By 1920, the ship was operating at Charleston, S.C., as a district craft. On 17 July 1920, when the Navy adopted the alphanumeric system of hull designations she became YF-176. The freight lighter continued to serve at Charleston until sold on 29 September 1925.
