was laid down on 15 November 1944 at

Orange, Texas Orange is a city and the county seat of Orange County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 19,324. It is the easternmost city in Texas, located on the Sabine River at the border with Louisiana, and is from Hous ...

, by the Levingston Shipbuilding Co. She was launched on 14 December 1944 and commissioned on 26 February 1945. The ship was named after Tatnuck, an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

village near

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

. Following shakedown training in March, ''Tatnuck'' was briefly assigned to the Atlantic Fleet before being transferred to the Pacific Fleet, with her home base at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

. In the fall of 1945, the ocean tug served with the occupation forces in the Far East. On 26 January 1946, she departed the lagoon at

Eniwetok Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with i ...

Atoll, reached Pearl Harbor on 19 February, and remained there until 30 April when she set sail for

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

. ''Tatnuck'' arrived in

Bremerton, Washington Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington. The population was 37,729 at the 2010 census and an estimated 41,405 in 2019, making it the largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremer ...

, on 3 January 1947. For the remainder of her Navy career, ''Tatnuck'' operated in 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 ...

. Her range of operations generally extended from the ports of southern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

north along the coast of North America and west to the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a chain of 14 large v ...

. However, during four of her last five years of service - 1966, 1968, 1969, and 1970 - she made voyages to Balboa, the Pacific terminus of the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

. Her primary duties included ocean towing, target towing, and salvage work. On occasion, she also assisted scientists from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

's Applied Physics Laboratory in their research work for the Navy. After more than 26 years of service, Tatnuck was decommissioned at Bremerton, Washington, on 1 July 1971 and placed in the

Pacific Reserve Fleet The United States Navy maintains a number of its ships as part of a reserve fleet, often called the "Mothball Fleet". While the details of the maintenance activity have changed several times, the basics are constant: keep the ships afloat and ...

. In June 1979, she was sold and subsequently disposed of. As of 2018, she is reported to be operating commercially under the name ''Tamaraw''.

References

*
NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive USS Tatnuck (ATA-195)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tatnuck 1944 ships Ships built in Orange, Texas Sotoyomo-class tugs