USS Apalachicola (YTB-767)

The USS Apalachicola (YTB-767) was a United States Navy Natick class large district harbor tug named for Apalachicola, Florida.

Construction and commissioning

Construction was begun in May 1963 by Mobile Ship Repair in at Mobile, Alabama. Apalachicola was launched on 26 October 1963 and fully completed in April 1964.

Operational history

Apalachicola began service in 1965 in the 13th Naval District. She provided harbor services to Naval and other ships in Puget Sound near Seattle. The tugboat moored during these years at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

During the 1990s the Apalachicola served alongside the USS Pokagon (YTB-836) and USS Arcata (YTB-768). Pokagon was the newest YTB class tugboat in the navy at the time. The three tugs were docked at the easternmost pier of Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, located a few hundred yards west of the Bremerton Seattle Ferry terminal.

In 1992, Apalachicola moved a crane barge from the shipyard to the Bremerton boardwalk. The barge's crane moved a bronze statue of a ship's propeller and a shipyard worker presenting a model aircraft carrier to a young boy onto the boardwalk. The bronze statue was forged in the shipyard and remains on the Bremerton boardwalk today.

Apalachicola underwent a main engine overhaul in 1993, during which time (approximately 5 months) she was not active. She is now out of service. During the time of her operation, underway movements of the tugboat required a detail of 7-8 crew members. Whereas the makeup of the crew varied, two required members for all movements was the quartermaster (who controlled the tugboat's movement) and the Chief Engineer (who was responsible for the operating systems of the tugboat). For movements involving a large ship, a harbor pilot joined the crew, and was transferred to the larger ship during the movement.

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.