Bouker No. 2 in civilian use prior to her U.S. Navy service. |
|
| Career (United States) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Bouker No. 2 |
| Namesake: | Previous name retained |
| Builder: | A. C. Brown and Sons, Tottenville, Staten Island, New York |
| Completed: | 1904 |
| Acquired: | 14 December 1917 |
| Reclassified: | YT-30, 17 July 1920 |
| Struck: | 25 July 1922 |
| Fate: | Transferred to City of Norfolk, Virginia, August 1921 Returned to U.S. Navy 15 June 1922 Sold 25 July 1922 |
| Notes: | Served as commercial tug SS Robert Rogers and SS Bouker No. 2 1904-1917 Served as Norfolk, Virginia, city fireboat 1921-1922 In commercial service from 1922 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Tug |
| Length: | 95 ft 4 in (29.06 m) between perpendiculars |
| Beam: | 25 ft 8 in (7.82 m) |
| Draft: | 12 ft (3.7 m) aft |
| Propulsion: | Steam engine |
| Speed: | 10 knots |
| Complement: | 14 |
USS Bouker No. 2 (SP-1275), later YT-30, was a tug that served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1921.
Bouker No. 2 was built as the commercial tug SS Robert Rogers in 1904 at Tottenville, Staten Island, New York, by A. C. Brown and Sons. She was owned by the Bouker Towing Company and had been renamed SS Bouker No. 2 by the time the 3rd Naval District inspected her for possible World War I service as a minesweeper. The U.S. Navy acquired her on 14 December 1917 and commissioned her as USS Bouker No. 2 (SP-1275).
Assigned to the 5th Naval District, Bouker No. 2 operated as a district craft, towing in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area until the spring of 1921. When the U.S. Navy instituted an alphanumeric hull number classification system for its ships in mid-1920, she received the hull number YT-30 on 17 July 1920.
Bouker No. 2 was ordered inspected for sale on 23 April 1921, but was withdrawn from the sale list in July 1921. Instead, she was transferred to the City of Norfolk, Virginia, in August 1921 for use as a fireboat.
Less than a year later, the Norfolk city government decided that it could not use Bouker No. 2 "for fire purposes"[1] and returned her to the Navy at the Norfolk Navy Yard at Portsmouth, Virginia, on 15 June 1922.
The Navy sold Bouker No. 2 to the New York Marine Company of New York City on 25 July 1922. Her name was struck from the Navy List simultaneously.