Iwana II (YT-272)
1943-1974
II
(YT-272: displacement 244; length 100'0"; beam 26'0"; draft 10'0"; speed 11.0 knots; complement 12; armament 2.50 caliber machine guns)
The second Iwana (YT-272) was laid down on 24 August 1942 at Brooklyn, N.Y., by Ira S. Bushey & Sons, Inc.; launched on 23 December 1942, two days before the U.S. experienced its second Christmas of the war with the Axis powers; and placed in service at Bayonne, N.J., on 28 March 1943, Ens. John L. Skelley, D-V(G), USNR, officer in charge.
Lt. Edward B. Vandusen, E-V(S), USNR, attached to the navigation division of the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., came on board on the day Iwana was placed in service [28 March 1943] to compensate the new harbor tug’s compass, and was thus engaged for the entire day. From Bayonne, Iwana proceeded to Fort Lafayette, N.Y., to take on ammunition, then on the 30th set course for New London, Connecticut, arriving there the same day. As Iwana’s chronicler put it, however, the ship “still had no work to do, and the next day went to Boston.”
On 1 April 1943, CBM H. S. Watsen relieved Ens. Skelley as Iwana’s officer in charge, and on 9 April, she set course for Portland, Maine, arriving later the same day. There, her scribe recounts, “the ship was to have permanent duty, under the Commandant, First Naval District.” On 10 April, the day after her arrival, Iwana “had [her] first duty, and from that date on the duties consisted of towing lighters, target barges, docking ships, carrying supplies to the larger ships in Casco Bay, and also to the small islands where the water was deep enough for the Iwana as well as putting larger ships into their berths.” She also helped other ships compensate their compasses “in and around the bay” in proximity to the Casco Bay—Portland area. CBM G. R. Baker relieved CBM Watsen as officer in charge on 16 August, and by this time, the ship, working 14 to 16 hours a day, had received a seven hand working party from the “receiving unit at Grand Trunk Pier…”
On 23 September 1943, Iwana got underway for Boston to pick up the non-self-propelled gate vessel YNg-19 to bring her to Portland. As sometimes happened, however, nature intervened, and a heavy fog compelled Iwana to put in to Gloucester, Mass., harbor. The next day, the tug resumed her trip, picked up YNg-19, and brought her back to Casco Bay.
During the years 1943 through 1945, Iwana continued her operations in the waters of Casco Bay, handling supplies and serving as a tugboat, and during that time she was reclassified as a harbor tug (big) YTB-272 on 15 May 1944. During the period June-August 1945, her chronicler wrote, Iwana “stayed secured to the Navy Supply pier due to lack of work. And then she went back on a regular working routine.”
Overhauls and upkeep punctuated that “regular working routine,” sometimes affected by the weather of that region. On 29 January 1946, Iwana got underway for Boston, to receive an overhaul at the Boston Naval Shipyard. Soon after the big tug cleared Portland Bay, however, she encountered heavy seas. In the rough weather, her crew found the watertight doors in the forward compartment broken; the vessel began to ship water. The crew broke out the “handy-billies,” portable pumps, but the gasoline engine burned out and the heavy seas halted further efforts to de-water the ship.
The escort vessel William T. Powell (DE-213), however, that had been operating in Casco Bay, came to Iwana’s rescue, firing lines over to bring her alongside to transfer pumps. Even their equipment, however, proved useless, so the William T. Powell’s people told the tug sailors to abandon ship and brought them on board, declaring the YTB a derelict at 0800. When the storm subsided, William T. Powell put a salvage party on board at 2100 and found the tug still afloat and took her in tow, proceeding to Portsmouth, N.H., where the forward hold was pumped out and gear surveyed. On 1 February, Iwana proceeded on to Boston for her overhaul, arriving there later that same day.
From 1946 into 1967, Iwana continued operating in the First Naval District at Boston, during which period she was again reclassified, as a harbor tug (medium), YTM-272, in February 1962. Taken out of service, then stricken from the Naval Vessel Register, the tug was disposed-of, by Navy Sale, on 1 April 1974.
Purchased soon thereafter by the Pioneer Towing Co., of Kenmore, Wash., she was renamed George R., then, subsequently, as Polar Crusader. The Dunlap Towing Co. of La Conner, Wash., acquired the vessel in 1977, renaming her Skagit Chief. Retired and sold into recreational use, the former U.S. Navy tug is a liveaboard at St. Helens, Oregon, and has been known as Tuggy Time since 2020.
Robert J. Cressman
14 July 2022
