Chowan, 1919
Type / Class: ex USN Tug 75
Dates of Service: 1919 - 1923
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 75 was taken over by the Coast Guard on 14 November 1919 at Norfolk, Virginia, was named Chowan, and was sent to the Coast Guard depot at Curtis Bay, Maryland. She was out of commission by 1 January 1923 and was sold on 22 July 1924.
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).