1919: The Commissioning of a Fleet Tug into the U.S. Navy

October 20, 1919

USS Mahopac, originally designated as Fleet Tug No. 29, was commissioned into the U.S. Navy under the command of Lieutenant (junior grade) Harry J. Carey. Mahopac was one of the Navy’s Bagaduce class of steel tugboats. These vessels were designed to carry out major towing assignments at navy yards and also to serve as minesweepers.

Mahopac, which had been built at Navy Yard Puget Sound (now known as Puget Sound Naval Shipyard) at Bremerton, Washington, was officially designated Fleet Tug (AT-29) about nine months after her commissioning. Mahopac retained this designation until being reclassified as Fleet Old Tug (ATO-29) on May 15, 1944. After nearly 27 years of service, this tug was decommissioned on September 12, 1946, and struck from the Naval Vessel Register (NVR) the following month. In 1947, the U.S. Maritime Commission sold Mahopac to Puget Sound Tug & Barge Company.

This tug has been one of three U.S. Navy vessels named after the town of Lake Mahopac in New York. The first of these vessels was a Canonicus-class monitor that served in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. The third and most recent vessel bearing that name was a Sotoyomo-class auxiliary fleet tug that was commissioned in 1945 and stricken from the NVR in 1976.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

For more information on USS Mahopac (Fleet Tug No. 29/AT-29/ATO-29), please check out https://www.navsource.net/archives/09/47/47029.htm