Chilean tug Yelcho (AGS-64)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Name: | USS Tekesta |
| Namesake: | Tekesta |
| Builder: | Commercial Iron Works, Portland, Oregon |
| Laid down: | 7 September 1942 |
| Launched: | 20 March 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 16 August 1943 |
| Decommissioned: | 14 April 1950 |
| Reclassified: | ATF-93, 16 May 1944 |
| Struck: | 25 June 1992 |
| Honors and awards: |
4 battle stars (World War II) |
| Fate: | Transferred (leased) to Chile, May 1960 |
| History | |
 Chile
|
|
| Name: | Yelcho (AGS-64) |
| Acquired: | May 1960 |
| Decommissioned: | 16 August 1996 |
| Fate: | Sunk as a target 5 July 1999 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Navajo-class fleet tug |
| Displacement: |
|
| Length: | 205 ft (62 m) |
| Beam: | 38 ft 6 in (11.73 m) |
| Draft: | 15 ft 4 in (4.67 m) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph) |
| Complement: | 85 |
| Armament: |
|
USS Tekesta (AT-93) was Navajo-class fleet tug built during World War II for the United States Navy. Shortly after being built, it was crewed by trained Navy personnel and sent into the Pacific Ocean to provide tug service to damaged ships in battle areas. For successfully performing this dangerous work, she was awarded four battle stars by the war's end.
She was laid down at Portland, Oregon, on 7 September 1942 by the Commercial Iron Works; launched on 20 March 1943; sponsored by Mrs. P. S. Treiber; and commissioned on 16 August 1943, Lt. John O. Strickland in command.
The ocean tug operated on the west coast until mid-December and departed from San Francisco, California, on the 15th, bound for Hawaii. She reached Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve 1943 and towed targets in Hawaiian waters until 20 January 1944. On that date, she joined Task Force (TF) 52, the Southern Attack Force of the Joint Expeditionary Force then preparing for Operation Flintlock, the assault on the Marshall Islands.
Tekesta reached Kwajalein Atoll on 1 February and remained in the Marshalls-Gilberts area for the next two months, retracting beached and broached landing craft, laying marker buoys, assisting fueling operations, and performing other salvage and towing operations necessary in the aftermath of the occupation of the Marshall Islands. During this tour of duty, the tug visited Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands and Nanumea in the Ellice Islands as well as Kwajalein, Eniwetok, and Majuro in the Marshalls.
...
Wikipedia