Topawa (YTB-419)
1945-1975
(YTB-419: dp. 345 (f.) ; 1. l00'0"; b. 25'0"; dr. 9'7"; s. 12 k.; cpl. 8; cl. Sassaba)
A Papago Indian ceremony or game roughly translated as "It is a bean." Topawa is also an Indian village in Arizona.
Topawa (YTB-419) was laid down at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Md., sometime in the first half of 1944; launched on 14 October 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Frank J. Kuska; completed on 13 March 1945; and delivered to the Navy on 24 March 1945.
Topawa was placed in service with the 1st Fleet in the 12th Naval District. By March 1946, she had moved to the Central Pacific at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Late in May, she moved to Kwajalein in the Marshalls and served there until 23 November when she headed back toward Eniwetok. Topawa reentered Eniwetok on 25 November but remained there only nine days before continuing on to Guam. Officially reassigned to the Marianas command in early 1947, the tug spent the next 19 years performing various towing assignments in and around Apra Harbor. In February 1962, she was reclassified a medium harbor tug and received the new hull designation, YTM-419. In 1966, she was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet. The tug operated with that fleet for the remaining nine years of her career. In September 1975, her name was struck from the Navy list, and she was put up for sale in June 1977.
