Wahtah (YT-140)
1939-1974
A Native American word meaning "ship."
(YT-140: displacement 300; length 100'9"; beam 27'10"; draft 9'7"; class Woban)
Wahtah (YT-140) was laid down on 28 August 1939 at Portsmouth, Va., by the Norfolk Navy Yard; launched on 14 December 1939; sponsored by Miss Marie Yvonne Thornton; and was placed in service at the Washington [D.C.] Navy Yard in December 1940.
For the remainder of her active career, Wahtah remained attached to the Washington Navy Yard performing local tugging and towing operations, providing waterfront fire protection, and other related services. During her lengthy tour in the waters of the nation's capitol, she was twice reclassified, as newer and more powerful tugs joined the fleet: first to a harbor tug, big, YTB-140, on 15 May 1944, and then to a harbor tug, medium, YTM-140, in February 1962.
Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 October 1974, ex-Wahtah was turned over to the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service for operation commercially, on 1 May 1975. Acquired by the D & L Tugboat Co., of Dover, Del., soon thereafter, she was named Big Boy, and served as such through the end of the Twentieth Century until found abandoned and derelict circa 2002, finally foundering alongside Pier 1, Girard Point, Philadelphia, Pa., on 28 July 2008. Hauled out of the water and placed on a pier, she was scrapped in situ in August 2008.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
30 March 2022
