Yankton, 1944
WYTM-72
Yankton: A Native American tribe, one of the seven primary divisions of the Dakota.
Builder: Ira S. Bushey & Sons, Brooklyn, New York
Length: 110'
Beam: 26' 5"
Draft: 11' 6"
Displacement: 384 tons (fl)
Cost: $622,677
Launched: 29 April 1943
Commissioned: 26 January 1944
Decommissioned: 28 September 1944
Disposition:
Machinery: 1 x electric motor driven by 2 Elliot Electric Company generators driven by 2 Ingersoll Rand 8-cylinder diesels; single propeller.
Electronics: SO-2 radar (1945)
Complement: 16
Armament: 2 x 20mm/80 (single-mount; 1944)
Class History:
These 110-foot tugs were contracted for on 8 June 1941. Their design was based on an earlier 110-foot Calumet-class design which had entered commissioned service beginning in 1934. The newer design simply incorporated changes needed for operations in Greenland waters as well as better fire-fighting capabilities.
Cutter History:
Yankton was commissioned on 26 January 1944. During the remainder of World War II, she was assigned to the 4th Naval District and was based out of Philadelphia.
After the end the of the war, she returned to her normal peace-time operations where she was used for law enforcement and search and rescue patrols, fire fighting and light icebreaking when needed. She remained at Philadelphia until 1947 when she was transferred to Portland, Maine. On 27 November 1966 she towed the disabled F/V Plymouth from 12 miles south of Grand Manan Island to Boston. In January 1968 she broke ice in the New Bedford, Massachusetts area. From 30 December 1969 until 1 January 1970 she relieved a commercial tug of towing the blazing tanker Dean Reinauer from Portland, Maine and towed her to seaward while fighting the fire.
She was decommissioned on 28 September 1984.
Sources:
Cutter History File. USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ, Washington, D.C.
Robert Scheina. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1982.
Robert Scheina. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft, 1946 - 1990. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990.