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Identification Numbered Vessel Photo Archive

Gorgona (ID 2164)



Call sign:
George - Sail - Vice - Mike
Tug:

  • Built in 1915 by the Staten Island Steam Boat Co., Staten Island, NY
  • Acquired by the Navy 23 July 1917
  • Commissioned 24 July 1917
  • Decommissioned 20 June 1919 and transferred to the Panama Canal Authority
  • Struck from the Navy Register 25 June 1919
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 732 t.
  • Length 125' 6"
  • Beam 30'
  • Draft 15' 6"
  • Speed 12 kts.
  • Complement 30
  • Armament: One 6-pounder and two machine guns
  • Propulsion: One 1,000hp vertical compound steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Gorgona 99k In port, possibly prior to her World War I era Naval service
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 99366    		 Robert Hurst
    Gorgona 78k In port, possibly prior to her World War I Navy service
    U.S. Navy Photo NH 101732    		 Naval Historical Center
    Gorgona 74k Docked at a Panama Canal Zone port, circa June 1919. Ships in the right distance appear to include USS Waters (Destroyer No. 115) and USS Partridge (Minesweeper No. 19)
    U.S. Navy Photo NH 93940
    Gorgona 161k c. September 1942
    Panama Canal
    Seen berthing of USS Tattnall (DD 125)
    National Archives photos 1N-36099 and 19-N-36101    		 Rick Davis and John Chiquoine
    Photos added 19 January 2021
    Gorgona 131k
    Commanding Officers
    01ENS T. Gustav Freudendorf, USN23 July 1917 - 1918
    02LT Joseph W. Bettens, USNRF1918
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships History:

    Gorgona

    One of three sisters, Stheno Eurayle, and Medusa, with snaky hair, who turned the beholder to stone.

    Gorgona was built in 1915 by the Staten Island Steam Boat Co., Staten Island, N.Y.; she was commissioned 23 July 1917 at Portsmouth, VA., Ens. T. Gustav Freudendorf in command.

    After fitting out at Arundel Cove, Md., until 21 October. Gorgona served with the Atlantic Fleet out of Norfolk, towing target rafts for fleet gunnery practice. She remained on this duty until 24 January 1919 when she sailed to Guantanamo, Cuba, where she towed target rafts for Battleship Forces 1 and 2. From there she sailed to New Orleans, towing two barges on her return, and on 5 April she departed Cuba
    for Norfolk.

    Brief duty at New York, on the Potomac River torpedo range. and at Norfolk ended 4 June when Gorgona departed Hoboken, N.J., for the Panama Canal. Arriving at Coco Solo, C.Z., she decommissioned 20 June 1919 and was turned over to the Panama Canal authority.

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