Nipmuc ATF-157

Nipmuc
(ATF-157: dp. 1,330; 1. 205'; b. 38'6"; dr. 16'9"; s. 16 k.; cpl. 85; a. 1 3"; cl. Abnaki)

Nipmue (ATF-157) was laid down at the Charleston Shipbuilding and Dry Doek Co., Charleston, S.C., 2 December 1944; sponsored by Mrs. James O. Freeman; and commissioned 8 July 1945, Lt. Robert G. Hoffman in command.

Following shakedown, Ni pmue towed SS Jacona, a generator vessel from the East Coast to Pearl Harbor. Underway for return to the East Coast in November, she delivered ARW5 at New London, 25 February 1946. From 1946 to 1967 Nipmuc, based first at Norfolk and then at Newport, operate] Drimarily along the east coast and in the Caribbean. She has, however, also gone into Aretie waters, to improve facilities at Thule, and provided transatlantic towing services. Her towing assignments ranged in size from battleship Wiseonsin to district craft and targets; and, in 1955, included towing ARD-16, carrying Constellation, from Boston to Baltimore. She also performed myriad recovery and salvage missions, which in 1965 and 1966 took her to Cape Kennedy, Fla., to participate in capsule recovery for Gemini GT-3 and Gemini

On 7 September 1967, Nipmue departed Newport for her first extended overseas deployment, joining the 6th Fleet on the 19th. In the Mediterranean for five months, her primary mission was towing targets. In September 1968, she again crossed the Atlantic, this time to the United Kindgom, where, for a short time, she provided service for Atlantic Fleet units at the Firth of Clyde, Greenock, and Belfast.

On her return to Newport, she underwent regular overhaul
and then resumed her service to the tleet. Despite a lack of fanfare, Nipmuc's accomplishments as a unit of Service Force, Atlantic Fleet contribute sign)fieantly to the strength and preparedness of the Navy.