USS Mohawk (YT-17)

Career (United States)
Name:	USS Mohawk
Namesake:	The Mohawk Native American tribe
Builder:	T. S. Marval and Company, Newburgh, New York
Laid down:	1893
Launched:	1893
Acquired:	23 April 1898
Decommissioned:	1 October 1946
Fate:	sunk as an artificial reef 1970
Notes:	Operated as civilian tug T. P. Fowler 1893-1898
General characteristics
Displacement:	368 tons
Length:	103 ft 10 in (31.65 m)
Beam:	24 ft 0 in (7.32 m)
Draft:	10 ft 9 in (3.28 m)
Speed:	12 kts

For other ships of the same name, see USS Mohawk.

The third USS Mohawk (YT‑17), later renamed USS YT-17 and USS YTL-17, was a tug that served in the United States Navy from 1898 to 1946.

Mohawk was built as the civilian tug T. P. Fowler in 1893 by T. S. Marval and Company, Newburgh, New York. She was acquired by the U.S. Navy from Cornell Steamboat Company on 23 April 1898 for service in the Spanish-American War, commissioned as USS Mohawk, and assigned to the 5th Naval District.

Mohawk operated in and around Norfolk Navy Yard, Norfolk, Virginia, for nearly half a century, making several voyages a year to naval installations throughout the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay area, serving the fleet by towing barges and aiding naval vessels.

Designated YT‑17 in 1920, her name was changed from USS Mohawk to USS YT-17 in 1942. YT‑17 was renamed USS YTL‑17 in 1944 and continued service at Norfolk through the end of World War II.

YTL-17 was turned over to the War Shipping Administration for disposal on 1 October 1946 and sold to W. S. Sanders, Norfolk, Va., in 1948. She was subsequently resold to H. B. Stone of Wilmington, North Carolina. She was declared derelict in 1969 and sunk as an artificial reef off Wrightsville Beach, N.C. in 1970, approximate position of the wreck is 34° 02.000’ N, 077° 52.000’ W.

References

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
• YTL-17 at Navsource.org