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Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

Arctic (SP 1158)



Civilian call sign:
Love - Dog - Fox - Quack
Tug:

  • Built in 1913 by the Hall Brothers, Eagle Harbor, WA
  • Acquired by the Navy 4 December 1917
  • Commissioned USS Arctic (SP 1158), 15 January 1918
  • Decommissioned 8 July 1919, struck from the Navy Register and returned to her owner
  • Registered in 1931 to the M. J. Dady Engineering and Contracting Co. of New York, NY as the towboat Arctic
  • Scrapped in 1941.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 197 t.
  • Length 111' 6"
  • Beam 25' 3"
  • Draft 12' 3"
    1931 - 11.6'
  • Speed 10 kts.
  • Complement 28
    1931 - 15
  • Armament one 3"/50 mount and two machine guns
  • Propulsion: One single ended boiler, one 435hp compound steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Arctic 126k In drydock, prior to her World War I Navy service
    U.S. Navy photo NH 66506    		 Naval Historical Center
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: The wooden-hulled steam tug Arctic-built in 1913 at Eagle Harbor, Wash., by Hall Bros. was inspected by the Navy on 17 October 1917 and found to be suitable for naval service. Accordingly, her owner, the Independent Asphalt Paving Co., of Seattle, Wash., delivered the tug to the Navy on 4 December 1917. Fitted out at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash., and designated SP-1158, Arctic was placed in commission there on 15 January 1918, Lt. (jg.) Ernest G. Heinrici, USNRF, in command.

    After escorting SC-302 to San Diego, Arctic towed two coal barges through the Panama Canal and proceeded to Hampton Roads, Va., where she arrived early in May and began preparations for "distant service." Assigned to Division 11, Patrol Force, Arctic departed New London, Conn., on 18 May as one of the escorts for a convoy which included 27 submarine chasers. After shepherding her charges to Bermuda, the tug proceeded on to Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, on escort duty before returning to New London in mid-August 1918. For the remainder of the year 1918, she operated between New London, the Azores, and Bermuda.

    Assigned then to the Fleet Train, Arctic operated with the Atlantic Fleet from February to May 1919, towing targets during gunnery exercises out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transporting ammunition within the waters of the 5th Naval District. After proceeding from that port to Havana, Arctic was decommissioned on 8 July 1919, simultaneously stricken from the Naval Vessel Register, and turned over to the M. J. Dady Engineering and Contracting Co., which had purchased the vessel from her prewar owner.

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