USS Bouker No. 2 (SP-1275)

USS Bouker No. 2 (SP-1275), later YT-30, was a tugboat built in 1904 that served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1921. Prior to and after her naval service, she operated as a commercial tugboat in and around New York.

Bouker No. 2 in civilian use prior to her U.S. Navy service.
History
United States
Name: USS Bouker No. 2 (SP-1275)
Namesake: Previous name retained
Builder: A. C. Brown & Sons (Tottenville, Staten Island, New York)
Launched: 26 March 1904
Christened: Robert Rogers
Completed: 23 June 1904
Acquired: (US Navy): 14 December 1917
Renamed:
Reclassified: YT-30, 17 July 1920
Stricken: 25 July 1922
Identification: Official No. 200944
Fate: Foundered at Brooklyn, New York, 17 February 1926
General characteristics
Type: Tugboat
Tonnage: GRT 179; NRT 122
Length: 95 ft 4 in (29.06 m)
Beam: 25 ft 8 in (7.82 m)
Draft: 12 ft (3.7 m) aft
Depth of hold: 11 ft 4 in (3.45 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine
Speed: 10 knots
Complement: 14
Crew: 9 (merchant service)

Construction and design

Originally named Robert Rogers, the tug was built in 1904 by A. C. Brown & Sons of Tottenville, Staten Island,[1] for the Rogers Towing Company of New York City.[2] She was slated for launch on Saturday 26 March 1904 at 3 pm, but became stuck on the ways halfway down and had to be towed into the water "with some little trouble" by tugboats.[3][4] The vessel was completed on 23 June.[2]

Robert Rogers was wooden-hulled and was fitted with four watertight bulkheads. She had a length of 95 feet 4 inches (29.06 m), beam of 25 feet 8 inches (7.82 m), hold depth of 11 feet 4 inches (3.45 m) and draft of 12 feet (3.7 m) aft.[1][5] Her registered tonnages were 179 gross and 122 net.[5] In merchant service she had a crew of nine;[5] this was increased to 14 in later naval service.[1]

Robert Rogers was fitted with a second-hand engine taken from another, smaller Rogers Company tugboat, Maria Hoffman, as this engine had proven "too powerful" for the latter vessel.[3] Hoffman's engine was fitted to Robert Rogers by Schantz & Eckert of Perth Amboy, after which the same company installed a new engine in Maria Hoffman.[3][lower-alpha 1] Robert Rogers' original service speed is not known, but in later naval service, the tug's speed was recorded as 10 knots (12 mph; 19 km/h).[1]

Service history

After completion, Robert Rogers went to work with the Rogers Towing Company in and around the waters of New York. On 29 June 1906, the tug went to the assistance of a small sloop or catboat which had capsized in a squall between Sandy Hook and Swinburne Island in Lower New York Bay.[9][10] One man, who had clung to the capsized vessel, was rescued, but his companions could not be found after a search and were presumed drowned.[9][10] All three men had been members of the lifesaving corps.[10]

By 1907, Robert Rogers had been acquired by the Bouker Towing Company and renamed Bouker No. 2, but remained homeported in New York City.[11] The tug's principal occupation with the new company was the towing of scows to Lower New York Bay for waste dumping. The tug appears to have usually towed two scows at a time when engaged in this service, and was capable of completing two such voyages per day in good weather.

On 15 November 1909, Bouker No. 2 collided with and capsized the launch Otto II near the West Bank Light. The occupant of the launch was found clinging to the bottom of the vessel by the captain of another vessel, and returned to shore by Bouker No. 2.

She was still in this service when the 3rd Naval District inspected her for possible World War I service as a minesweeper. The U.S. Navy acquired her on 14 December 1917 and commissioned her as USS Bouker No. 2 (SP-1275).[1]

Assigned to the 5th Naval District, Bouker No. 2 operated as a district craft, towing in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area until the spring of 1921. When the U.S. Navy instituted an alphanumeric hull number classification system for its ships in mid-1920, she received the hull number YT-30 on 17 July 1920.[1]

Bouker No. 2 was ordered inspected for sale on 23 April 1921, but was withdrawn from the sale list in July 1921. Instead, she was transferred to the City of Norfolk, Virginia, in August 1921 for use as a fireboat.[1] Less than a year later, the Norfolk city government decided that it could not use Bouker No. 2 "for fire purposes"[1] and returned her to the Navy at the Norfolk Navy Yard at Portsmouth, Virginia, on 15 June 1922.[1]

The Navy sold Bouker No. 2 to the New York Marine Company of Delaware on 25 July 1922, her name being struck from the Navy List simultaneously.[1] Renamed New York Marine Co. No. 6, she continued in service with the company until foundering at Brooklyn, New York, on 17 February 1926.[12]

Footnotes
  1. [6] The source erroneously states that Maria Hoffman was built by A. C. Brown & Sons; in fact she was built by Denis McCarthy of Brooklyn.[7][8]

References
  1. Cressman, Robert J. (27 January 2018). "Bouker No. 2 (Id. No. 1275)". Naval History and Heritage Command. United States Navy.
  2. "Under Her Own Steam" (PDF). Perth Amboy Evening News. 24 June 1904.
  3. "To Launch Tug" (PDF). Perth Amboy Evening News. 26 March 1904.
  4. "Tugboat Became Fast When Half Way Down" (PDF). Perth Amboy Evening News. 28 March 1904.
  5. Merchant Vessels of the United States. Washington, D. C.: Bureau of Navigation. 1906. p. 293.
  6. "Two Tugs in Collision" (PDF). Perth Amboy Evening News. 22 April 1905.
  7. "Busy Boat Builders" (PDF). The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 26 April 1890.
  8. Merchant Vessels of the United States. Washington, D. C.: Bureau of Navigation. 1907. p. 251.
  9. "Two Drown in Lower Bay" (PDF). The New York Times. 2 July 1906.
  10. "Life-Savers Drown" (PDF). The Evening Star. Washington, D.C. 2 July 1906. p. 1.
  11. Merchant Vessels of the United States. Washington, D. C.: Bureau of Navigation. 1907. p. 174.
  12. Merchant Vessels of the United States. Washington, D. C.: Bureau of Navigation. 1926. p. 853.
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