Kickapoo, 1921
WAGL-56; ex-Baldridge
A Native American people formerly inhabiting southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, with small present-day populations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and northern Mexico.
Builder: Bethlehem Steel, Elizabethport, New Jersey
Commissioned: 1919 (commercial); 21 January 1922 (USCG)
Decommissioned: 24 August 1945
Disposition: Sold
Length: 157' 4"
Beam: 35'
Draft: 12'
Displacement: 840 tons
Propulsion: Triple-expansion steam engines; 2 Scotch-type boilers; 1,000 SHP; single propeller
Performance:
Max: 11.5 knots
Economic: 7.8 knots; 3,170 mile range
Deck Gear:
Complement: 38
Armament: 2 x 1-pounders
Electronics: SO-8 radar (1945)
History:
Kickapoo was the tug Baldridge that was transferred from the Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corps on 31 October 1921 under Executive Order No. 3564. Her name was changed from Baldridge to Kickapoo on 9 November 1921. She was assigned to duty at Cape May, New Jersey. On 2 January 1925 she reported that she had rescued the entire crew and all passengers, 227 in all, of the American steamer Mohawk at Brandywine Shoals, Delaware, and landed all of them safely at Lewes, Delaware. The Mohawk was a total loss.
In 1926 Kickapoo was modified for light ice-breaking and her hull was widened by 8-1/2 feet. She was transferred to Rockland, Maine, where she served as an ice-breaker. She also saw service at Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. During World War II she was classified as a buoy tender and given the hull number and designation WAGL-56. She was assigned to Buzzards Bay where she continued to serve as an ice-breaker and also carried out general aids to navigation duties.
She was decommissioned on 24 August 1945 and was sold on 7 July 1945.
Sources:
Cutter History File. USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ, Washington, D.C.
Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
Robert Scheina. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1982.
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).