The second USS ''Uncas'' (Ocean Tug No. 51/AT-51/YT-110) was a United States Navy

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 ...

in commission from 1898 to 1922.

Construction, acquisition, and commissioning

''Uncas'' was built as the commercial tug SS ''Walter A. Luckenbach'' by

John H. Dialogue and Sons Dialogue & Company was a shipbuilding firm located in the Port of Camden on the Delaware River in New Jersey. It was founded by John H. Dialogue. Born in 1828, Dialogue moved at age 30 to Kaighn’s Point in Camden. In 1862, he and several partn ...

Camden Camden may refer to: People * Camden (surname), a surname of English origin * Camden Joy (born 1964), American writer * Camden Toy (born 1957), American actor Places Australia * Camden, New South Wales * Camden, Rosehill, a heritage res ...

, New Jersey, for the Luckenbach and Company shipping firm of New York City. The U.S. Navy acquired ''Walter A. Luckenbach'' on 2 April 1898 for Spanish–American War service as an ocean-going tug and commissioned her as USS ''Uncas'' on 6 April 1898.

Spanish–American War service, 1898

Assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron, ''Uncas'' operated on blockade duty off

Matanzas Matanzas (Cuban ) is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. Known for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore, it is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas (Spanish ''Bahia de Matanzas''), east ...

on the north coast of Cuba. On 3 May 1898, ''Uncas'', in company with revenue cutter , captured off Havana the Cuba-bound Spanish

sailing vessel A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships ...

''Antonio Suarez''. On 13 July 1898, again in company with ''Hudson'', ''Uncas'' overtook two

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

s. Together, ''Hudson'' and ''Uncas'' captured one sloop—''Bella Yuiz'', a Spanish vessel bound for Havana—and sank the other, taking two

prisoners A prisoner (also known as an inmate or detainee) is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement, captivity, or forcible restraint. The term applies particularly to serving a prison sentence in a prison. ...

Caribbean service, 1898–1915

After the August 1898 conclusion of hostilities, ''Uncas'' underwent repairs at the Philadelphia Navy Yard at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before she sailed south for the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

, via

Port Royal Port Royal is a village located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest city in the Caribbean, functioning as the centre of shipping and co ...

, South Carolina. In the

autumn Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September ( Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Sou ...

of 1899, ''Uncas'' inspected

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

facilities in the Danish West Indies and at Puerto Rico before she served a brief tour towing United States Army

Quartermaster Corps Following is a list of Quartermaster Corps, military units, active and defunct, with logistics duties: * Egyptian Army Quartermaster Corps - see Structure of the Egyptian Army * Hellenic Army Quartermaster Corps (''Σώμα Φροντιστών ...

barges. She then resumed lighthouse inspection and harbor survey duties in the Puerto Rican area and, during this tour, carried a selection board to

Culebra Island Isla Culebra (, ''Snake Island'') is an island, town and municipality of Puerto Rico and geographically part of the Spanish Virgin Islands. It is located approximately east of the Puerto Rican mainland, west of St. Thomas and north of Vieque ...

to seek out a site for a target range. ''Uncas'' then engaged in local operations in Puerto Rican waters. She assisted patrol yacht off a

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

near

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

, Puerto Rico, on 15 March 1901. She subsequently carried U.S. Army passengers and towed targets for U.S. Army Coast Artillery units at San Juan through mid-1901. Sandwiched in between her routine operations, she towed the disabled merchant ship SS ''Longfellow'' from Arecibo, Puerto Rico, to San Juan for repairs on 14 November 1901. Assigned duty as a tender for the North Atlantic Fleet, ''Uncas'' continued her Caribbean-based operations, carrying dispatches, mail, and provisions and serving again on lighthouse inspection duties into 1902. She carried an inspection and

surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

team to look over land on Culebra Island for a possible coaling station site from 26 June 1903 to 28 June 1903 before she headed north for temporary duty at the Norfolk Navy Yard at Portsmouth, Virginia. Returning to the Caribbean soon thereafter, ''Uncas'' operated out of San Juan for the first half of 1904 before she returned to the Norfolk Navy Yard for repairs. She subsequently received assignment to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and operated out of that port on "special" and "general" service with the Fleet until she was assigned to the Norfolk Navy Yard in late 1915.

Service in the United States, 1915–1922

''Uncas'' soon transferred from Norfolk to the Washington Navy Yard at Washington, D.C. While operating there, ''Uncas'', by then designated Ocean Tug No. 51, was inspected and adjudged on 7 June 1916 to be no longer satisfactory for service off the coast. As a result, she conducted only local operations out of Washington through the end of World War I. When the Navy adopted an alphanumeric hull number system for classifying its ships in mid-1920, ''Uncas'' was redesignated as fleet tug AT-51 on 17 July 1920. She was reclassified as a yard tug and redesignated YT-110 on 10 June 1921.

Decommissioning and sale

Decommissioned at Washington on 6 March 1922, ''Uncas'' was struck from the Navy List on 14 March 1922 and put up for sale. Purchased by the Wood Towing Corporation of Norfolk, Virginia, on 25 July 1922. She then entered mercantile service and operated out of the Norfolk area.

References

*
NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive Fleet Tug No. 51 / AT-51 / YT-110 Uncas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uncas (AT-51) Tugs of the United States Navy Ships built by Dialogue & Company 1893 ships Spanish–American War auxiliary ships of the United States World War I auxiliary ships of the United States