Wampatuck YT-337

Wampatuck

(YT-337: dp. 473; 1. 141'2"; b. 29'9"; dph. 17'6";
a. 2 .50-car. mg.)

Sea Ranger—a wooden-hulled, single-screw, steam harbor tug built at Oakland, Calif., by W. F. Stone and Son and completed in May 1921—was acquired by the Navy under a bareboat charter from the Foss Launch and Tug Co. of San Francisco on 28 October 1942 and renamed Wampatuck (YT-337). Placed in service at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 22 December 1942, the ship served as a harbor tug and performed tow services at the vital Pacific Fleet base through the end of hostilities with Japan. During her tour of duty at Pearl Harbor she was reclassified as a big harbor tug on 15 May 1944 and simultaneously redesignated YTB-337.

Subsequently shifting to the west coast, Wampatuck was placed out of service at San Francisco on 6 May 1946. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 21 May, and she soon resumed using her former name, Sea Ranger. Transferred to the Maritime Commission at Mare Island, Calif., on 16 August 1946, the tug was subsequently assigned to the National Defense Reserve Fleet and laid up at Suisun Bay, Calif., on 31 March 1948. The ship remained there until her name disappeared from the merchant shipping registers in 1955.