USS Seminole, a 1500-ton Navajo class ocean-going tug, was built at Staten Island, New York. She was commissioned in March 1940 and transferred to the Pacific after her east coast shakedown cruise. During the next two years, as tensions in the Far East gradually grew and exploded into war, Seminole performed towing and salvage operations in the west coast and Hawaii areas. Among the ships she assisted were the Army Transport President Taylor, Navy patrol craft YP-108 and USS Vireo (AT-144).
In mid-August 1942, Seminole was sent to the south Pacific for escort and tug work in connection with U.S. forces' expansion there and the emerging campaign to hold the recently-captured Guadalcanal air base against Japanese counter-attacks. She was employed at Fiji and Tongatabu until mid-October, when she arrived in the combat area. On 25 October 1942, while disembarking personnel, equipment and gasoline off Guadalcanal, Seminole and the patrol craft YP-284 sighted three Japanese destroyers. Though they attempted to escape to the eastward, both small Navy ships were soon attacked, hit and sunk. One member of Seminole's crew was lost with her.
USS Seminole's wreck was located and examined by civilian divers during the middle-1990s. Resting in relatively shallow water off the northern shore of Guadalcanal, she lay on her starboard side partially buried in bottom mud. The ship was in reasonably good condition and could be readily recognized for what she was. As with all sunken U.S. Navy ships, Seminole and her contents remain the property of the United States Government.
This page features our only views of USS Seminole (AT-65).
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 7 December 2001