USS Relief (ID-2170)

Relief in commercial use prior to her U.S. Navy service
History
United States
Name:	USS Relief
Namesake:	Aid given in time of need
Builder:	Harlan and Hollingsworth, Wilmington, Delaware
Completed:	1907
Acquired:	8 August 1918
Commissioned:	19 August 1918
Fate:	Sold 14 May 1919; in commercial service until 1955
Notes:	Operated commercially 1907-1918 and 1919-1955
General characteristics
Type:	Salvage tug
Tonnage:	828 gross tons
Displacement:	1,386 tons
Length:	200 ft 0 in (60.96 m)
Beam:	30 ft 3 in (9.22 m)
Draft:	15 ft 5 in (4.70 m)
Depth of hold:	20 ft 7 in (6.27 m)
Speed:	14.5 knots
Complement:	58
Armament:	none

The fourth USS Relief (ID-2170) was a salvage tug that served in the United States Navy from 1918 to 1919.

Relief was a steel-hulled wrecking tug built during 1907 by Harlan and Hollingsworth at Wilmington, Delaware.

The U.S. Navy acquired her on 8 August 1918 from the Merritt and Chapman Derrick and Wrecking Company of New York, New York for World War I service. The Navy gave her Id. No. 2170 and commissioned her on 19 August 1918. Relief operated as a salvage and wrecking tug in the New York area while assigned to the 3rd Naval District into 1919. She collided with the patrol vessel USS Williams (SP-498) on 27 September 1918; Williams suffered slight damage.^[1]

Relief was sold to her former owner on 14 May 1919, and remained in commercial service between the two world wars. During World War II, Relief, although remaining civilian-owned and -operated, supported the U.S. Navy under the direction of its Bureau of Ships beginning on 14 January 1942. Relief subsequently returned to mercantile service until placed out of service in 1955.

Notes

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

• Department of the Navy: Naval Historical Center: Online Library of Selected Images: Civilian Ships: Relief (American Salvage Ship, 1907). Served as USS Relief (ID # 2170) in 1918-1919