CATAWBA ATA-210

Catawba

A river in North Carolina.

Catawba, a screw steamer, was launched 13 April 1864 by Alexander Swift and Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. The vessel was accepted by the Navy in June 1865 and placed in ordinary until early in 1868 when she was sold.

II

The second Catawba (YT~32), ex-Howard Greene (renamed 20 July 1920), served as a district tug at Washington from 1918 to 1922, nt Norfolk from 1922 to 1933, and at Charleston from 1933 through 1946. On 26 December 1946, Catawba was transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal.

Catawba (AT-68) was renamed Arapaho (q,v.) of August 1941, prior to her launching.

III
(ATA-210: dp. 835 (f.); 1. 143'; b. 34'; dr. 15'; s. 13 k.;
cpl. 45; a. 1 3")

The third Catawba (ATA-210) was laid down as ATR-137, reclassified ATA 210 on 15 May 1944, and launched 15 February 1946 by Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Port Arthur, Tex., under a Maritime Commission contract; acquired by the Navy 18 April 1945; and commissioned the same day, Lieutenant (junior grade) R. W. Standart, USNR, in command.

Catawba cleared Galveston, Tex., 16 May 1945 on towing duty bound for San Diego, where she arrived 19 June. She sailed on to San Francisco to pick up another tow, which she brought into Pearl Harbor 10 July. Proceeding to the Marshalls, Catawba was at sea between Kwajalein and Guam with two tows when the war ended. A brief voyage to the Philippines preceded her return to the east coast.

From 1946 through 1962, Catawba has been based at Norfolk, VA., Jacksonville Fla., and Charleston, S.C., for the miscellany of towing duties which makes her and her sister tugs an essential although little-heralded part of the U.S. Navy. Disabled ships are brought to safety, or taken from one port to another for repairs; targets are towed in gunnery exercises; large fleet units are aides in docking and undocking. Although operating primarily off the southern coast, Catawba has frequently cruised to more northern ports to deliver ships to overhauling yards. In the summer of 1959' she joined the task force conducting Operation "Inland Sea," the first penetration of the Great Lakes by American naval forces passing through the Saint Lawrence Seaway. For the larger ships of the force, it was often a close fit, and the services of Catawba and other tugs were essential.