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Navajo IV (ATA-211)

1945–1962

The fourth U.S. naval ship named in honor of the tribe of Athapascan Indians displaced by early American pioneers and currently residing on reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. 

IV 

(ATA-211: displacement 830; length 143'; beam 33'; draft 13'; speed 13 knots; class ATA-121

The fourth Navajo, an auxiliary ocean tug originally classified ATR-138, was reclassified ATA-211 on 13 April 1944 and laid down on 20 January 1945 by Gulfport Boiler & Welding Works, Port Arthur, Texas; launched on 3 March 1945; and commissioned at Port Arthur on 3 May 1945, Lt. (j.g.) James McKnight in command. 

Following fitting out and shakedown off Galveston, Texas, ATA-211 reported to Naval Supply Depot, Gulfport, Miss., on 5 June 1945, and thence steamed via the Panama Canal to San Diego, Calif., where she was to join Service Squadron 2, Pacific. 

ATA-211 took AFL-23 and harbor tug YT-742 in tow to Pearl Harbor, T.H., in July and remained there to perform ready tug duty and relief towing services with the Waipie Salvage Dock, in the ocean operations off Pearl Harbor. In October, she cleared Pearl Harbor with fuel oil barge YO-12 and garbage lighter YG-28 in tow, and headed for Yokosuka, Japan, where she arrived the 24th. Departing Yokosuka in early November, she returned to Pearl Harbor and, joined by fleet ocean tug ATF-157 and non-self-propelled auxiliary drydock ARD-5, steamed to San Diego. She departed this base on 27 December to serve as a retriever tug for ATF-157

After escorting ATF-157 through the Panama Canal, ATA-211 cleared Coco Solo in the Canap Zone on 5 February 1946, and touched at Key West, Fla., before arriving at Naval Station, Algiers, La., on the 11th. She remained in the 8th Naval District for most of the remainder of her naval career, providing towing service to ports such as Mobile, Ala., Galveston, Pensacola, Fla., and Charleston, S.C., and assisting in off-shore salvage operations. 

ATA-211 was named Navajo on 15 July 1948. She continued operations off the Gulf states and Bermuda into 1962. Decommissioning on 10 April 1962, she was stricken from the Navy List on 1 May 1962, and the following year sold to Twenty Grand Marine Service, Inc., Morgan City, La. 

Updated by Mark L. Evans
1 July 2019

Published: Mon Jul 01 15:49:03 EDT 2019