USS Wateree (ATA-174)
tugboat of the United States Navy
USS Wateree (ATA-174), the third ship named USS Wateree, was a Sotoyomo-class auxiliary fleet tug in the service of the United States Navy during World War II. She later served with the Military Sea Transportation Service and the Peruvian Navy as a diving support ship. In Peruvian naval service she was renamed BAP Unanue (ATA-136).
Construction and commissioning
The ship was laid down on 5 October 1943 at Orange, Texas by the Levingston Shipbuilding Co. as the unnamed rescue tug ATR-101. She was launched on 18 November 1943, redesignated as auxiliary ocean tug ATA-174, and commissioned on 20 July 1944.
World War II service
ATA-174 departed Orange on 4 August and arrived in Norfolk, Virginia on the 11th. Over the next 10 days, she conducted shakedown training in the Chesapeake Bay and then underwent an eight-day, post-shakedown repair period before heading for New York on 2 September. The tug remained at Staten Island for five days and then took departure for the Panama Canal with three open lighters in tow. She made an unscheduled three-day stop in mid-September to evade a hurricane but finally arrived in Cristóbal on 26 September. On the 27th, she transited the canal and reported to the Pacific Fleet for duty.
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This entry incorporates text from “USS Wateree (ATA-174)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.