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This week, we have one of the many George Drake designed, Gulfport built 102’2″ tugs for the Navy. In the early 1940’s, Cleveland Diesel began building tugs on spec. for the upcoming war. The design was a simple harbor tug, with 4 state rooms, large crew fo’c’sle, central galley and a single head. Under the hood, the tugs had a Cleveland 12-278 engine driving an 800kW generator, powering a 1000HP propulsion motor. The design was later revised with a slightly different interior arrangement, and the wheelhouse raised up a bit. Quite a number of these tugs were built for the Navy as YT’s, and after the war, the design became one of Gulfport Shipbuildings “stock” designs. At some point TAMS Inc. acquired the design from George Drake, and kept it in the catalog so to speak. A large number of these tugs – essentially all the same, in cookie cutter fashion, were built for the commercial towing industry into the 1960’s.

The tug in the advertisement, is the YT 174 “Allaquippa”, built by Gulfport in 1941. She was struck from the Navy in 1969, and apparently sunk in the mid 1990s.

From “Diesel Electric Vessels Powered by Cleveland Diesel”

http://www.navsource.org/archives/14/08174.htm