USS Arapaho (AT-14)

USS "Arapaho" (AT-14/YT-121) was an "Arapaho"-class fleet tug that performed various tugboat services for the U.S. Navy. She was constructed in Seattle, Washington; however, she spent most of her working career on the U.S. East Coast, primarily at Norfolk, Virginia, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Launched in Seattle, Washington

The name "Arapaho" (sometimes spelled "Arapahoe") was assigned on 9 May 1914 to a tug that had been laid down unnamed on 16 December 1913 at Seattle, Washington, by the Seattle Construction and Drydock Company. Launched on 20 June 1914, "Arapaho" was delivered to the Navy on 2 December 1914. Placed in an "in service" status as befitting a yard craft, Arapaho performed tug and tow duty at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, through 1917. Classified as a fleet tug on 15 December 1915, the ship was commissioned on 8 February 1918 at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Lt. A. R. Hunter, USNRF, in command.

World War I service

Ordered to the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, "Arapaho" departed Mare Island, California, on 25 February 1918 and, after transiting the Panama Canal, reached Norfolk, Virginia, on 6 April 1918. The tug operated with the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, primarily out of Norfolk, Virginia, through the armistice of 11 November 1918. Assigned to the Atlantic Fleet Train, "Arapaho" towed target rafts and barges and performed routine mooring buoy maintenance at Hampton Roads, Virginia, and occasionally ranged with the fleet to Guantanamo and Guayancanabo Bays, Cuba, and Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.

Post-war service

During the fleet movement to Guantanamo in January 1920, "Arapaho" -- in company with the minesweepers "Cormorant (Minesweeper No. 40)", "Quail (Minesweeper No. 15)", "Mallard (Minesweeper No. 44)", and "Lark (Minesweeper No. 21)" -- towed target rafts and barges to Guantanamo for the fleet's use during the annual winter maneuvers there.

Although detached from the Train on 1 January 1920, "Arapaho" was apparently not assigned to the 4th Naval District (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) until 29 February 1920. During the first year of operations out of her new home port and yard, she was classified as "AT-14" during the fleet-wide assignment of alphanumeric hull numbers on 17 July 1920. That autumn, in company with "Leonidas" (AD-7), she laid out a torpedo range between 19 October and 1 November 1920 in the lower Potomac River. Upon completion of this duty, "Arapaho" returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for a resumption of her previous duties.

Decommissioning

"Arapaho" remained assigned to the 4th Naval District until decommissioned at Philadelphia on the afternoon of 6 April 1922. She remained in reserve there -- reclassified, while inactive, as a yard tug "YT-121" on 27 February 1936 -- until struck from the Navy list on 22 December 1936. Two days later, "Arapaho" was ordered to be sold, and she was eventually purchased by A. S. Hughes' Sons, Philadelphia, on 5 May 1937.

See also

* United States Navy
* World War I

References

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* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/47/47014.htm NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive - AT-14 / YT-121 Arapaho]