USS Apalachicola (YTB-767)
| Career (USA) |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | 18 January 1963 |
| Builder: | Mobile Ship Repair |
| Laid down: | 1 May 1963 |
| Launched: | 25 October 1963 |
| Acquired: | 9 June 1964 |
| Struck: | 28 October 2002 |
| Fate: | Sold 8 May 2006 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Natick |
| Displacement: | 356 tons |
| Length: | 109 ft (33 m) |
| Beam: | 31 ft (9.4 m) |
| Draft: | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
| Propulsion: | Diesel engine, single screw |
| Speed: | 12 knots |
| Complement: | 12 |
The USS Apalachicola (YTB-767) was a United States Navy harbor tugboat that operated at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Construction was begun in May 1963 by Mobile Ship Repair in at Mobile, Alabama. The Apalachicola was launched on 26 October 1963 and fully completed in April 1964.
The tugboat began service in 1965 in the 13th Naval District. It provided harbor services to Naval and other ships in Puget Sound near Seattle. The tugboat moored during these years at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
During the 1990s the Apalachicola served alongside the Pokagon (YTB-836) and Arcata (YTB-768). The Pokagon was the newest YTB class tugboat in the navy at the time. The three tugs were docked at the easternmost pier of Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, located a few hundred yards west of the Bremerton Seattle Ferry terminal.
In 1992, the Apalachicola moved a crane barge from the shipyard to the Bremerton boardwalk. The barge's crane moved a bronze statue of a ship's propeller and a shipyard worker presenting a model aircraft carrier to a young boy onto the boardwalk. The bronze statue was forged in the shipyard and remains on the Bremerton boardwalk today.
The YTB-767 underwent a main engine overhaul in 1993, during which time (approximately 5 months) she was not active. She is now out of service. During the time of her operation, underway movements of the tugboat required a detail of 7-8 crew members. Whereas the makeup of the crew varied, two required members for all movements was the quartermaster (who controlled the tugboat's movement) and the Chief Engineer (who was responsible for the operating systems of the tugboat). For movements involving a large ship, a harbor pilot joined the crew, and was transferred to the larger ship during the movement.
References
- This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
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