Mahoning, 1939
WYT / WYTM-91
A branch of the Delaware Indian tribe first found near what today is Youngstown, Ohio.
Builder: Gulfport Works, Port Arthur, Texas
Length: 110'
Beam: 26' 5"
Draft: 12'
Displacement: 328-tons
Cost: $309,000
Commissioned: 7 August 1939
Decommissioned: 1 October 1984
Disposition:
Machinery: 1 Westinghouse electric motor connected to 2 Westinghouse generators driven by 2 General Motors 8-567A 8-cylinder diesel engines; 1,000 SHP; single propeller
Performance & Endurance:
Max: 13.0 knots
Cruising: 10.0 knots; 3,500 mile range (1945); 8.0 knots; 2,000 mile range (1961)
Complement: 16 (1945); 20 (1961)
Armament: Small arms only (when launched);
Electronics: SO-8 radar (1945); SPN-11 (1961)
History:
The second cutter to bear the name Mahoning was one of four 110-foot tugs built for the Coast Guard in the late-1930s. They were a follow-on to the 110-foot Calumet-class tugs and were capable of breaking ice up to three feet thick. They were officially referred to in the Coast Guard Description of Cutters document as a "Harbor Cutter." The Mahoning was built by the Gulfport Works in Port Arthur, Texas. They received the contract to build the tug on 29 August 1938 and her keel was laid on 15 October 1938. She was launched on 22 July 1939 and commissioned on 7 August 1939 and then sailed for New York, which remained her home port for her entire Coast Guard career. During World War II she was assigned to the 3rd Naval District.
Her primary duties were harbor patrols for enforcing port security and antipollution regulations, fire fighting, search and rescue and icebreaking on the Hudson River when needed. She also transported U.S. Customs inspectors to and from passenger liners off entrance to New York harbor. In addition, after 1980, she conducted law enforcement patrols off the New York, New Jersey, and southern New England coastline, as a participant in the Coast Guard's efforts to stem the flow of illegal narcotics. In July 1976 she was an escort for Queen Elizabeth II's yacht HMY Britannia upon the latter's visit to New York. She also served as an escort vessel during the Tall Ships Parade in New York harbor for OPSAIL on 4 July 1976. During that year she was awarded a Coast Guard Unit Commendation for helping fight a fire and resulting 2.5 million gallon oil spill after an oil terminal exploded near Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn. She was awarded another unit commendation for extinguishing an intense fire aboard the tug Christine E in 1979. The burning tug was connected to a recently emptied naptha barge whose imminent explosion threatened the nearby community of Tarrytown, New York. She received another award for her service during a three-month tugboat operators' strike in 1979 when, in addition to greatly increased port security missions, she helped avert a citywide health emergency by towing city garbage barges from various Manhattan and Brooklyn sites to the Staten Island landfill at Fresh Kills. She also helped conduct a two-week underwater search in Long Island Sound for the sunken yacht Karen E., and fought the fire aboard the tanker Poling Bros. No. 9 which exploded and then sank in the East River near Brooklyn.
She was decommissioned on 1 October 1984. Her final commanding officer was CWO3 Craig A. Reynolds, USCG. The Mahoning earned the following decorations during her distinguished career with the Coast Guard: four Coast Guard Unit Commendations; the Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation; two National Defense Service medals; the World War II Victory Medal; the American Campaign Medal; and the American Defense Service Medal.
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.