USS ''Active'' was a

tug A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

constructed in 1888 at

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

by the

Union Iron Works Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. ...

. The tug, first steel tug built on the West Coast, was launched 4 August 1888. She was acquired by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

from John D. Spreckels Brothers Co. on 18 April 1898 "for auxiliary purposes incident to a state of war." Converted for naval service at her builder's yard, she was commissioned at the

Mare Island Navy Yard The Mare Island Naval Shipyard (MINSY) was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates th ...

on 6 July 1898. She was the third US Navy ship to be named ''Active''.

Construction

The tug was the first steel tug built on the U.S. West Coast with only the captain's stateroom and pilot house not steel. Those were teak finished with cherry and ash paneling. Length was ,Navy uses length overall with commercial length often

length between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...

or registered length. beam with hold depth of . Draft forward was and aft was . Five watertight bulkheads divided the vessel into compartments. A boiler long by circumference provided steam to a compound engine driving a propeller in diameter for a speed of . Coal consumption was 10 tons per 24 hours with bunker capacity of 65 tons.

Service history

1898-1929

''Active'' was shifted to the

Bremerton Navy Yard Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, officially Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF), is a United States Navy shipyard covering 179 acres (0.7 km2) on Puget Sound at Bremerton, Washington in uninterrupted ...

at Bremerton, Wash., in August 1898 and served there as a harbor tug until she returned to Mare Island in 1899 to commence a long tour of duty. On 18 April 1906, an

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

nearly demolished the city of San Francisco, and fires raged in its aftermath. Since the city fire department was nearly helpless, the Navy lent a hand. ''Active'' marines and immediately lay alongside Pier 8, playing out several hose lines to fight the nearest part of the blaze. For the remainder of the week, the crews of ''Active'', the torpedo boat destroyer ''

Perry Perry, also known as pear cider, is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally the perry pear. It has been common for centuries in England, particularly in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. It is also made ...

'', and the fire tug ''Lexlie'' fought fires and policed and patrolled the districts in which they labored. ''Active'' later assisted in saving the Pacific Mail dock and that general section of the San Francisco waterfront. On 21 April, ''Active'' steamed to Mare Island to bring back relief firefighters from the crews of the cruisers ''

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

'' and '' Marblehead''. Transferred to the Naval Training Station at San Francisco on 10 May 1915, she returned to Mare Island in 1918. She was renamed ''Lively'' on 11 April 1918; on 17 July 1920, she received the hull number YT-14. In 1926 the tug sank at her moorings alongside a dock at Mare Island. A board of inspection and survey deemed ''Lively''—raised after the accident—unfit for service and she was decommissioned on 16 August 1926. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 28 August 1929. She was sold to the Puget Sound Tug and Barge Co., of Seattle, on 11 February 1930 and resumed commercial service. She was renamed ''Active'' around 1937–1938.

1942-1945

Reacquired by the Navy under a

bareboat charter A bareboat charter or demise charter is an arrangement for the chartering or hiring of a ship or boat, whereby no crew or provisions are included as part of the agreement; instead, the people who rent the vessel from the owner are responsible f ...

Seattle, Wash. Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, on 2 March 1942, the tug was designated as the unnamed YT-323. Converted for naval work by the Lake Washington Shipyards, Houghton, Wash., YT-323 was placed in service on 30 April 1942 and assigned to the

13th Naval District The naval district was a U.S. Navy military and administrative command ashore. Apart from Naval District Washington, the Districts were disestablished and renamed Navy Regions about 1999, and are now under Commander, Naval Installations Command ...

to provide towing services at

Kodiak Kodiak may refer to: Places *Kodiak, Alaska, a city located on Kodiak island * Kodiak, Missouri, an unincorporated community *Kodiak Archipelago, in southern Alaska *Kodiak Island, the largest island of the Kodiak archipelago ** Kodiak Launch Com ...

, Alaska. She was later reclassified as a medium harbor tug, YTM-323, on 11 May 1944, and was placed out of service on 6 August 1945.

Decommissioning and disposal

Struck from the Navy list on 1 September 1945, the tug was returned to the Puget Sound Tug and Barge Co., which operated her as ''Active'' until 1963, when she was scrapped.

Footnotes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Active (1888) Tugs of the United States Navy Ships built in San Francisco 1888 ships