Shenandoah II (YT-36)
1920-1923
A river formed by the junction of its north and south forks in Warren County, Virginia. It flows northeast some 55 miles, crosses the northeastern lip of West Virginia, and empties into the Potomac at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
(YT-36: tonnage 194 (gross); length 108’0”; breadth 24’6”; draft 9’0” (mean); speed 13.5 knots; complement 38)
Frances B. Hackett—a single screw tug laid down in 1909 at Ferrysburg, Mich.—was preliminarily accepted by the Navy on 8 December 1917; and was assigned identification number S. P. 1161. Designated as a minesweeper, Frances B. Hackett was commissioned on 1 April 1918, Lt. (j.g.) Thomas F. Webb, USNRF, in command.
Following service during the Great War conducting towing and local transportation services in the New York area until May 1918, and then guard duty out of Norfolk, Va., until December 1918, she was assigned to Train, Atlantic Fleet, and after decommissioning was placed in service on 13 April 1919 in the Fifth Naval District as a district craft. Redesignated as a harbor tug, YT-36, on 17 July 1920, Frances B. Hackett was ordered to the Washington [D.C.] Navy Yard on 28 October 1920.
Renamed Shenandoah on 20 November 1920, the vessel served as a harbor tug out of Washington, D.C. Renamed Choptank on 15 October 1923, she operated [1944-1945] under the Inspector of Ordnance in Charge, Naval Torpedo Station, Alexandria, Va., during which time [13 April 1944] she was reclassified as a medium harbor tug, YTM-36. Placed out of service on 28 June 1946, Choptank was stricken from the Navy Register on 30 December 1946.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
17 June 2020
