Nahoke (YTB-536)
1945-1985
A Navajo word meaning "the land in distinction to water."
(YTB-536: displacement 237; length 100'0"; beam 25'0"; draft 11'6"; speed 12 knots; complement 8; class Hisada)
Nahoke (YTB-536) was laid down by the Consolidated Shipbuilding Corp., Morris Heights, N.Y., on 4 December 1944; launched on 27 March 1945; delivered to the Navy and placed in service on 11 August 1945. Lt. (j.g.) F. A. Parks, USNR, was her officer-in-charge for the quarter ending on 31 October 1945.
Assigned to the Fifteenth Naval District, Nahoke operated in the Panama Canal Zone until transferred to the Fifth Naval District, headquartered at Norfolk, Virginia, in the spring of 1961. Redesignated as a medium harbor tug, YTM-536, in February 1962, Nahoke has continued, into 1970, to provide vital tug services to naval vessels and commands in the Chesapeake Bay area.
Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 30 September 1985, Nahoke was donated to the city of Chester, Pennsylvania, later that same year. Resold to private ownership circa March 1992, the tug changed hands again when sold to Harbor Tug of Norfolk, being renamed Ariel circa July 1999. She later resumed her name Nahoke, but was ultimately believed broken-up circa 2003.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
16 May 2022
