USS Alarka (YTB-229)

For ships named USS Alaska, see USS Alaska.

USS Alarka center and tug USS ATA-209 maneuver floating drydock USS YFD-6 through the Culebra Cut in the Panama Canal, ca. May-June 1945.
Career (United States)
Name:	USS Alarka
Namesake:	Alarka, a purported Native American word of unknown meaning
Builder:	Greenport Basin and Construction Company, Greenport, New York
Laid down:	31 August 1944
Launched:	20 January 1945
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Horace W. Watts
Acquired:	5 April 1945
Commissioned:	6 April 1945
Decommissioned:	Late 1946
Struck:	28 January 1947
Fate:	Sold 23 December 1946
General characteristics
Class and type:	Cahto-class large harbor tug
Displacement:	400 tons
Length:	110 ft 0 in (33.53 m)
Beam:	27 ft 0 in (8.23 m)
Draft:	11 ft 4 in (3.45 m)
Speed:	12 knots
Complement:	20
Armament:	2 x .50-caliber (12.7-millimeter) machine guns

USS Alarka (YTB-229), was a United States Navy tug in commission from 1945 to 1946.

Alarka was laid down on 31 August 1944 by the Greenport Basin and Construction Company at Greenport, Long Island, New York, and was launched on 20 January 1945, sponsored by Mrs. Horace W. Watts, the head of the William and Watts firm which performed electrical work under subcontract during the construction of Alarka. Delivered to the U.S. Navy on 5 April 1945, Alarka was commissioned on 6 April 1945.

Early in May 1945, Alarka departed New York City and proceeded, via the Panama Canal and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii to the western Pacific Ocean. She arrived in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, late in August or early in September 1945. She served there and later at Sasebo, Japan, where she was placed out of service sometime late in 1946.

On 23 December 1946, Alarka was sold to the Chinese Supply Commission. Her name was struck from the Navy List on 28 January 1947.

References

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive YTB-229 Alarka