USS Unadilla (ATA-182)
{{short description|U.S. Navy tug boat}}
{{other ships|USS Unadilla}}
{{No footnotes|date=March 2020}}
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=File:USS Unadilla (ATA-182) underway while towing a target sled.jpg |Ship caption=USS Unadilla (ATA-182) underway while towing a target sled. }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header = |Ship country = United States |Ship flag = {{USN flag|1955}} |Ship name = Unadilla |Ship namesake = |Ship owner = |Ship operator = |Ship registry = |Ship route = |Ship ordered = |Ship awarded = |Ship builder = Levingston Shipbuilding Company, Orange, Texas |Ship original cost = |Ship yard number = |Ship way number = |Ship laid down = 30 June 1944 |Ship launched = 5 August 1944 |Ship sponsor = |Ship christened = |Ship completed = |Ship acquired = |Ship commissioned = 16 October 1944 |Ship decommissioned = 26 November 1946 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header = yes |Ship recommissioned = 3 May 1951 |Ship decommissioned = 22 July 1955 |Ship maiden voyage = |Ship in service = |Ship out of service = |Ship renamed = |Ship reclassified = Auxiliary Fleet Tug (ATA-182),15 May 1944 |Ship refit = |Ship struck = 1 September 1961 |Ship reinstated = |Ship homeport = |Ship identification = *Hull symbol: ATA-182
|Ship motto = |Ship nickname = |Ship honours = |Ship honors = |Ship captured = |Ship fate = Acquired for commercial service by Erato Shipping & Trading Corp. S.A., Panama, 13 April 1976 |Ship notes = |Ship badge = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header = |Header caption = |Ship class = {{sclass|Sotoyomo|auxiliary fleet tug}} |Ship type = |Ship tonnage = |Ship displacement = *{{convert|534|LT|t|abbr=on}} (standard)
|Ship length = {{convert|143|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam = {{convert|33|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship height = |Ship draught = |Ship draft = {{convert|13|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship depth = |Ship hold depth = |Ship decks = |Ship deck clearance = |Ship ramps = |Ship ice class = |Ship power = *2 × GM 12-278A Diesel-electric engines
|Ship propulsion = *1 × Fairbanks Morse Main Reduction gear
|Ship sail plan = |Ship speed = {{convert|12|kn|lk=in}} |Ship range = |Ship endurance = |Ship test depth = |Ship boats = |Ship capacity = |Ship troops = |Ship complement = 45 |Ship crew = |Ship time to activate = |Ship sensors = |Ship EW = |Ship armament = *1 × 3"/50 caliber gun caliber Dual purpose gun
|Ship armour = |Ship armor = |Ship aircraft = |Ship aircraft facilities = |Ship notes = }} |
Although originally projected as steel-hulled, seagoing, rescue tug ATR-109, the third Unadilla was re-classified an auxiliary ocean tug and redesignated ATA-182 on 15 May 1944; laid down on 30 June 1944 at Orange, Texas, by the Levingston Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 5 August 1944; and commissioned on 16 October 1944.
Service history
Following shakedown training out of Norfolk, VA, ATA-182 transited the Panama Canal and then supported fleet operations in the Pacific through the cessation of hostilities with Japan and into 1946. During this period, she operated at Ulithi, Eniwetok, and Leyte, primarily towing floating drydocks. Returning to the west coast late in 1946, ATA-182 was decommissioned on 26 November 1946 at Portland, Oregon, and placed in reserve there.
After being named Unadilla on 16 June 1948J she retained her hull number designation ATA-182. The ship was recommissioned at Astoria, Oregon, on 3 May 1951. She moved south and conducted refresher training out of San Diego, California, into the winter. Proceeding to Seattle, Washington, on 3 January 1952, she arrived there on the 8th and picked up three YFN's for towing to the Hawaiian Islands. Departing on 11 January, Unadilla and her three unwieldy charges labored through heavy seas in a 17-day passage to Pearl Harbor. During the voyage, one YFN broke loose but was soon recovered.
Deploying to the Western Pacific (WestPac), Unadilla proceeded via Guam to Japan and arrived at Sasebo on 17 March. The tug towed targets until late August for fleet units conducting underway training exercises off the southern coast of Honshu. During this deployment, the ocean-going tug was twice employed in Korean waters: on the first occasion, she put into Jeju-do to escort a damaged LST back to Sasebo; and, on the second, Unadilla carried a medical unit to Ulleungdo to combat a typhus epidemic. The medical mission resulted in the ship's receiving the Korean Presidential Unit Citation.
Departing WestPac on 21 August, Unadilla arrived at San Diego on 6 September, via Pearl Harbor. The ship towed targets off the coast of southern California through February 1953; towed YFR-888 from Panama to Long Beach from 3 to 16 March; and deployed to WestPac again in the late summer of that vear. She arrived at Sasebo on 5 September, via Pearl Harbor and Midway.
Unadilla spent her second WestPac deployment much like the first, towing targets for exercising units of the 7th Fleet off the southern coast of Japan from September 1953 to March 1954. Escorting Gypsy (ARSD-i) from Kwajalein to Pearl Harbor while en route to the west coast, the tug arrived at San Diego on 29 April. She conducted local operations from May to August, towing targets for the Fleet Training Group at San Diego. Following a regular yard overhaul and an inspection period, Unadilla resumed these operations in January 1955.
Unadilla subsequently sailed for the Pacific Northwest and arrived at Astoria, Oregon, on 29 April 1955. Placed in reserve on that date, the ocean-going tug prepared for deactivation. Decommissioned and placed in reserve on 22 July, she lay in reserve at Portland until struck from the Navy list on 1 September 1961. Shifted to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) lay-up facility at Olympia, Washington, the erstwhile ocean-going tug was towed to the MARAD facility at Suisun Bay, Calif., in 1971. She was disposed of sometime between 1972 and 1975.
Unadilla received two battle stars for her Korean War service.
References
- {{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/u/unadilla-iii.html}}
- [http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/38/38182.htm NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive USS Unadilla (ATA-182)]
{{Sotoyomo class tug}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unadilla}}