Chippewa, 1919
Type / Class: ex USN Tug 60
Dates of Service: 1919 - 1935
Disposition: Sold
Displacement: 215 tons
Length: 88'
Beam: 20'
Draft: 8' 9"
Machinery / Propulsion: Steam engine
Complement: 10
Armament: 2 x 1-pounders
History:
These tugs were built for the Navy as part of the shipbuilding effort undertaken during World War I but they were completed after the end of hostilities. Many were pressed into service with the Coast Guard to augment quickly the relatively small Coast Guard fleet when the service assumed the task of preventing the smuggling of alcohol by sea after the passage of the Volstead Act on 28 October 1919.
Ex-navy Tug 60, originally built at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was taken over by the Coast Guard on 29 November 1919, named Chippewa, and served on the Great Lakes. She was based at Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan. She was taken out of service and sold on 25 July 1935.
Sources:
Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
U.S. Coast Guard. Record of Movements: Vessels of the United States Coast Guard: 1790 - December 31, 1933. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934; 1989 (reprint).