Dreadnaught, a 450 gross ton tug, was built in 1917 by the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, California, for the Rolph Navigation and Coal Company of San Francisco. She purchased by the Navy in that year and placed in commission at the end of January 1918 as USS Dreadnaught (ID # 1951). During February-April 1918 she towed coal barges from San Francisco to Norfolk, Virginia, then began towing and escort service between the East Coast, Bermuda and the Azores. In November 1918, soon after the end of the First World War's fighting, she went to Brest, France. After serving in French waters for nearly four months, Dreadnaught again steamed to the Azores, from which she performed towing duties and escorted submarine chasers during their long voyages back to the Western Hemisphere.
Dreadnaught returned to the United States in early September 1919. Following an overhaul, she was sent back to San Francisco Bay, California, arriving in March 1920. The tug had a long subsequent career in that vicinity, while assigned to the Twelfth Naval District. She was designated YT-34 in mid-1920 and, in October 1940, was reclassified as an anti-submarine barrier gate craft with the designation YNG-21. She was stricken from the list of Naval vessels in September 1944 and reportedly destroyed.
This page features the only view we have concerning the tug Dreadnaught of 1917, which was USS Dreadnaught (ID # 1951, later YT-34 and YNG-21) in 1918-1944.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 31 January 2006