Mohican, 1944
WYT / WYTM-73
Call Sign: N R K I
A Native American tribe originally inhabiting the entire Hudson River Valley in New York. By 1734 war, disease and white settlement had confined them to two villages near Stockbridge, Massachusetts; in the 1820's they emigrated to Wisconsin.
Builder: Ira S. Bushey & Sons, Brooklyn, New York
Length: 110'
Beam: 26' 5"
Draft: 11' 6"
Displacement: 384 tons (fl)
Cost: $622,677
Launched: 16 June 1943
Commissioned: 29 February 1944
Decommissioned: 26 June 1986
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); small arms only (post-war)
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:
The Mohican, a 110-foot harbor tug, was commissioned on 29 February 1944. She was assigned to the 3rd Naval District and was based out of New York city. She remained based out of New York until 1947 and then transferred to Norfolk, Virginia. Her post-war duties were search and rescue and law enforcement.
On 5 February 1957 she assisted the Italian M/V Emanuele V. Parodi following an explosion. ON 26 February 1965 she assisted the German M/V Black Swan, which had a fire aboard while in Hampton Roads. On 16 June 1965 she was designated as the on-scene commander following a collision between the Norwegian M/V Blue Master and the USS Hartley off Cape Henry. On 14 April 1966 she escorted the Israeli M/V Avadet following a fire off Norfolk. On 7 July 1969 she medevaced a crewman from the M/V Texaco Mississippi off Hampton Roads. In August of 1969 she surveyed the James River in cooperation with Civil Defense following flooding. On 29 November 1969 she towed the disabled P/C Carefree from Ship Shoal Inlet to Portsmouth. On 4 July 1970 she helped fight a fire in an oil-storage tank at Sewell's Point, Virginia.
She transferred to Portsmouth, Virginia in 1976. She was decommissioned on 26 June 1986.
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.