USS Patapsco (AT-10) Class

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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.