Waban (Tug)
1898-1919
A Nipmuc Native American, born about 1604 at Musketaquid, Mass., near the present town of Concord. One of the first Massachusetts Indians to profess Christianity, Waban maintained close and friendly relations with the English settlers and, in April 1675, reported to a local magistrate that trouble was brewing amongst the Wampanoags. Within two months, Waban’s predictions came to pass when a Wampanoag named King Philip led his braves in an initially successful war.
Philip’s demise in August 1678 signaled the end of hostilities and the rebellion soon collapsed due to a lack of leadership. Falsely accused of being a conspirator, however, Waban had been imprisoned in October 1675. After a period of captivity, Waban was released the following spring and returned to his settlement of Natick, Mass., where he became a justice of the peace. While the exact date of his death is not known, it is believed that Waban died either in late 1676 or early 1677.
(Tug: displacement 150; length 85'0"; beam 17'6½"; draft 8'0"; speed 13.0 knots; complement 13; armament 1 3-inch breech-loading rifle)
Confidence, an iron-hulled, stern-wheel tug completed in 1880 at Philadelphia by William Cramp & Sons, was acquired by the Navy on 25 June 1898 from M. Revel for use during the Spanish-American War. Renamed Waban, the ship was commissioned on 25 July1898 and assigned to the Sixth Naval District.
Waban served with the Auxiliary Naval Force and was based at the Sixth District headquarters at Port Royal, S.C., during the war with Spain. She was subsequently stationed at the Naval Station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and remained in Cuban waters through 1901. She was then shifted to Pensacola, Florida.
Transferred once more to Caribbean waters, Waban departed Pensacola on 17 October 1911, bound for Cuba, and arrived at Guantánamo Bay on 31 October. She remained there performing local tug and towing duties with the Fleet through the end of the Great War [World War I].
Subsequently decommissioned, Waban was stricken from the Naval Register on 17 July 1919 and sold to Whiteman Bros. of New Orleans, La. She retained the name Waban in mercantile service and operated first at New Orleans and later at Port Arthur, Texas, until 1924.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
23 September 2020
