USS Esselen (AT-147)

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Steam tug New York, later USS Esselen (AT-147), circa 1942
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Class:        ESSELEN (AT-147)
Design        Tug, 1896
Displacement (tons):        800 light, 558 gross
Dimensions (feet):        170' oa, 158.0' x 29.0' x 15'
Original Armament:        None
Later armaments:        --
Complement        --
Speed (kts.):        11
Propulsion (HP):        1,000
Machinery:        1 screw, 3-cylinder triple expansion

Construction:

AT	Name	Acq.	Builder	Keel	Launch	Commiss.
147	ESSELEN	18 Jun 43	Harlan & Hollingsworth	--	1896	21 Aug 43

Disposition:

AT	Name	Decomm.	Strike	Disposal	Fate	MA Sale
147	ESSELEN	11 Nov 44	27 Nov 44	11 Nov 44	WSA	--

Class Notes:
FY 1943. In 1896-1898 the Harlan & Hollingsworth shipyard at Wilmington, Del, built for the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road Co. the first three of what became a series of 11 large 158-foot (pp) seagoing tugs built between 1896 and 1912. The first three tugs were CATAWISSA (1896), followed by GETTYSBURG and VALLEY FORGE (both 1898). Later tugs in this series included CONESTOGA, MONOCACY, and LYKENS (see AT 54-56). These tugs were used to tow coal barges between Philadelphia (Port Richmond) and points on the East Coast. CATAWISSA spent the first half of her career towing coal barges along the East Coast supplying power plants between Charleston, S.C., and Boston, Mass. By 1942 she was owned by the Arundel Corp. of Baltimore, Maryland and was named NEW YORK. The War Shipping Administration probably offered her to the Navy on 3 Jun 43 and the Navy accepted her on 18 Jun 43. She was decommissioned and returned to WSA in November 1944.

Ship Notes:

AT	Name	Notes
147	ESSELEN	Ex NEW YORK, ex CATAWISSA 1941 (ID-1118, completed Feb 1897). Designated CGR-1902 while in wartime merchant service as NEW YORK. To ATO-147 15 May 44. Merc. NEW YORK 1944, BETH TANK SHIP No.2 1952 (hulk for steam-cleaning tanks of empty oil tankers), TANK MASTER No.1 1963. Scrapped 2008 at Perth Amboy, N.J. at 110 years of age after preservation efforts failed.