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USS Patapsco (Tug No. 10) at the Portsmouth, N.H., Navy Yard on 27 July 1909
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Class:        PATAPSCO (AT-10)
Design:        Navy AT-10
Displacement (tons):        521 gross, 755 norm., 917 full load
Dimensions (feet):        157.1' oa, 148.0' pp x 29.0' m x 12.25' mn
Original Armament:        None
Later armaments:        2-3pdr (1913: both);
1-3"/50 AA (1917/18: both);
none (1920: both)
Complement:        34 (1929)
Speed (kts.):        13
Propulsion (HP):        1,160
Machinery:        Vert. triple expansion, 2 screws

Construction:
AT Name Ord. Builder Keel Launch Commiss.
10 PATAPSCO 20 Jul 06 NYd Portsmouth 12 May 07 29 Jun 08 28 Jul 09
11 PATUXENT 20 Jul 06 NYd Norfolk 25 Jul 07 16 May 08 4 May 09

Disposition:
AT Name Decomm. Strike Disposal Fate MA Sale
10 PATAPSCO 16 Jan 25 4 Mar 36 30 Jun 36 Sold --
11 PATUXENT 30 Sep 24 29 Jun 38 16 Mar 39 Sold --

Class Notes:
FY 1905 (Act of 27 Apr 04). The Act of 27 Apr 04 included a special appropriation for the Bureau of Construction and Repair to build two seagoing tugs (Nos. 10 and 11) with all fittings at $175,000 each. This appropriation was not part of the building program contained in the annual "Increase of the Navy" appropriation indicating that Congress saw these tugs as serving the needs of the Bureau and not as fleet units. They followed a series of harbor tugs, Nos. 1-9, authorized in the same manner between 1889 and 1902 (FY 1890-1903), all measuring 92.5' in length except UNADILLA (No. 4, 1895, 110.0 feet) and costing between $32,438 and $80,000 each. It took over two years for the Bureau to assign construction of the new tugs to Navy Yards. The resulting craft were comparable with contemporary commercial large seagoing tugs like those that became USS PISCATAQUA and POTOMAC (see AT 49-50) although they were not as large as those being operated along the coast by the Philadelphia and Reading Transportation Line (see AT 54-56). One unusual feature in their design was the use of twin screws, a characteristic that the Navy did not repeat in its later tugs. The length overall of AT-11 was 156.6'.

Ship Notes:
AT Name Notes
10 PATAPSCO Decomm. at Norfolk 1925. Sold to Boston Iron & Metal Co., Baltimore, Md., for $2,866. To buyer 15 Jul 36, merc. PATAPSCO. Back into USG hands, sold by MC 1 Jun 46 to Hughes Bros. Inc., New York, for $5,104. Merc. PATAPSCO, scrapped in Baltimore 1953 by Patapsco Scrap Co.
11 PATUXENT Loaned 17 Dec 25 to Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Fisheries and renamed ALBATROSS II. Sold to Great Northern Metals Co., Philadelphia.

Page Notes:
AT        1906
Compiled:        02 Mar 2013
© Stephen S. Roberts, 2002-2013